Top of the lottery prospects: Leo Carlsson’s season ends

Hockey seasons around the world have been coming to an end in April and that also applied to 2023 NHL Draft prospect Leo Carlsson.

Carlsson’s impressive SHL season wrapped up on Tuesday when Orebro lost 1-0 to Skelleftea in Game 6 of their series. He ended the postseason with 9 points (1 G, 8 A) in 13 games following a regular season that was one of the better performances by any draft-eligible skater from the SHL:

In a reply to the tweet above, Robinson detailed some other players who were more productive in the SHL than Carlsson was this season, and it’s pretty good company:

The first two players Robinson mentioned came up again when discussing Carlsson’s postseason performance:

The Sedin name is often met with disdain on this part of the internet but if Carlsson ended up in Chicago and produced at a similar rate as either one of the Sedins, that’d be a damn fine NHL career.

Carlsson picked up the secondary assist on the goal, but his pass was the primary reason it even happened:

This wasn’t a goal but it’s still indicative of what Carlsson brings to the ice:

In this clip, watch Carlsson gain zone entry by dancing through a few defenders and then offer up a prime example of taking a hit to make a play:

Keep in mind that this is an 18-year-old playing in a league with fully grown adult men.

That lone postseason goal Carlsson scored is riiiiiiiiiiight here:

Carlsson certainly looks like someone who’s going to be an excellent NHL hockey player, definitely not in the same class as Connor Bedard but intriguing enough to warrant some level of debate for any of the picks beyond that – even if NCAA prospect Adam Fantilli seems like the runaway favorite for No. 2 over Carlsson and Matvei Michkov.

But that’s a debate we can save for the morning of May 9, after the draft lottery on May 8.