As we enter draft week, we’re officially into the last couple picks of the first round on our board. At No. 30 on our list is William Håkansson, a bruising 6-foot-4.5 defenseman that played minutes in the Swedish Hockey League this past season.
A lot like yesterday’s profile, Juho Piiparinen, Håkansson plays a simple and effective game on the blueline. There is not much offense to come by with either of the players, but there is so much to like in the other areas of their games that you can reasonably project both to be steady, No. 4-6 type players. Håkansson is just incredibly dependable, and you really know what you are getting out of Håkansson when he steps on the ice. There’s potentially more room for offensive upside than with Piiparinen too, so let’s get into what makes Håkansson an intriguing option in the late first round or early second round.
Pre-draft rankings
Ranked #58 by Elite Prospects
Ranked #24 by Sportsnet (Jason Bukala)
Ranked #31 by The Athletic (Scott Wheeler)
Ranked #44 by TSN (Craig Button)
Statistics
What’s there to like?
This past season, Håkansson had essentially an even-split of time between the SHL with Luleå HF and the lower tier HockeyAllsvenskan with Almtuna IS. In both leagues, Håkansson’s game remained largely steady and consistent. He did not produce much of any offense (6 points in 38 cumulative games), but Håkansson was never relied upon to be an offensive defenseman for his teams.
The good news for Håkansson’s offensive upside? There’s lots of tools already in his game that a modern NHL defenseman needs to score some points. Håkansson is never going to score a ton of points in the NHL, but there’s enough in his toolkit to score 20-30 points in a season. He’s a plus skater, excels on the breakout, does just enough to get his shot through traffic with regularity, and can execute the point-to-point passes extremely well. Håkansson is not going to ever be a defenseman that can regularly make individual moves past guys in the offensive zone, or consistently beat goalies with his shot, but he should be able to gather some points by virtue of his puck-moving, smooth-skating, relatively mistake-free game. If you’re really high on Håkansson, you might be able to dream of him making stretch passes like the one below with more regularity.
Or, that Håkansson will regularly use his skating ability to join the rush at opportune times and facilitate just a bit more offense (No. 23 in the next clip). He’s not doing these things very often right now, but the flashes make you believe that there could be something more with Håkansson.
Håkansson derives much of his value from his excellent work in the defensive zone and in defending the rush. Regularly, Håkansson is where the incoming offensive play comes to die. He’s so good at maintaining controlled gaps on players rushing into the offensive zone, disrupting plays with his stick and cutting off passes, and overall just using his positioning to kill plays. A lot like Piiparinen in this regard, he defends in the way that good modern NHL defenders excel at. Positioning is the name of the game, and Håkansson rarely gets caught out of position and flat footed in the defensive zone. And if he does get caught out a bit? Håkansson uses his plus skating ability to track guys down more often than not, which really helps in the occasional times he loses control of the play in front of him a bit.
What’s not to like?
Håkansson excels with positioning, but there are certainly times where he can be a bit caught with aggressive reads. He recovers a lot of the time, but as the competition gets better as Håkansson develops, he’s going to run into trouble with those mistakes. Will Scouch also noted Håkansson’s tendency to rim the puck around the boards a bit carelessly in the second half of this past season, which is definitely something that Håkansson is going to need to improve at. That can’t be his default move under pressure all the time, especially at the rate he was doing it towards the end of the season with Almtuna. In addition, Håkansson could also use a bit more physicality in his game. For a nearly 6-foot-5 defender, he’s not the most physical of players. If he can add some snarl to his already solid defensive game, you can easily see Håkansson being such a pain to play against.
We talked a lot in Piiparinen’s profile about his dearth of offensive skills and output, and it’s a pretty similar situation with Håkansson. There’s more in Håkansson’s toolkit than in Piiparinen’s, but you’re still talking about a defenseman with not much offensive upside. If you’re looking for a defenseman that might give you a bit more on the offensive side of the puck, players like Håkansson are probably not going to be your choice in this draft.
How would he fit in the Flyers’ system?
Behind Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek, Håkansson would immediately be one of the Flyers best defensive prospects. Considering the style of game that he plays, he might be the most easy to project to the NHL level outside of Bonk. It would be an understandable selection for the Flyers organization in this regard, for sure.
Håkansson is in many ways a defenseman that could fit really well into any playing style and system. He’s probably at best a No. 4 defenseman in the NHL who needs to be placed alongside a more offensively-dynamic defenseman in order to have an impact. It’s easy to imagine Håkansson being the reliable puck-moving defenseman that largely stays back while his defensive partner goes to work on the rush. That’ll play anywhere, including in Philadelphia.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
Yes. No. 21 feels like the absolute earliest a player like Håkansson can or should go in this draft. We would still be quite surprised if the Flyers or a team before the 25-30 range took Håkansson, but there’s definitely a chance if a team is especially high on his projection. No. 53 feels a bit far for Håkansson to drop though, as he feels like a player that is going to go early second round at the latest.
What scouts are saying
“Håkansson drops a bit from the top 10 as other names have really come along nicely in the time since December. His World Junior performance was rock solid as he usually is, showing poise, calmness, range and strong defensive abilities. His loan to Almtuna in HockeyAllsvenskan challenged him with more ice time and playing the right side of the ice, and he was clearly a bit uncomfortable in the role, struggling to settle the puck along the boards at times, panic passing to nobody out of the defensive zone, and getting turned around on the rush too often, but to me that just means you keep him on his strong side and call it a day, probably. He’s a player that brings more offensive potential to the game than you might think, with some good slot passing ideas that popped up once in a while off deceptive skill and fluid footwork on the blueline. He’s a dependable passer, an impactful defender, a confident puck carrier, and while he’s more advanced in age than others in this range, I think there’s a solid bottom four defenseman who might be able to do a solid job killing penalties and largely go unnoticed in a good way at the NHL level.”
-Will Scouch, scouching.ca
“Hakansson is one of the most easily defined prospects in this class. He combines his size and reach to kill plays defensively, but doesn’t move the needle much offensively. He complements a more active, transitional defenceman and matches up defensively versus top-six forwards.”
-Jason Bukala, Sportsnet
“This was the steadiest I’ve seen Håkansson at this tournament, with his best game coming at the most important moment so far. He was strong on retrievals, mostly beating pucks around the wall, but he hit his targets more often than not. Håkansson consistently dropped back on loose pucks, arrived with good speed, scanned, and moved it quickly to a teammate for the exit. There was some short-range passing and excellent rush defence mixed in as well, using his strength and heavy bottom hand to win battles. This was a performance worthy of a second-round selection for Håkansson, clearly outlining an archetype that could translate to the NHL.”
-Whittaker Heart, Elite Prospects Game Report December 30th
Next into the poll is right winger Liam Ruck, the first of the Ruck brothers to enter into our Draft Board.
“Ruck is a dangerous scoring winger. He’s a very slick and intelligent player who creates a lot with the puck. His pure athletic tools don’t jump out: he’s not that big, and he’s a below-average skater. He does work hard, though, and gets to the hard areas to generate offense, earning his coach’s trust consistently. Ruck has a path to the league due to his great stick and brain.”
-Corey Pronman, The Athletic
