You may be wondering who the hell this Fabian Brunnstrom guy is if you haven’t heard of him already. Well Brunnstrom is the next big prospect to come out of Sweden. What makes him so different however, is the fact that he is turning 23 tomorrow, and has been overlooked in the draft and is now considered to be an Unrestricted Free Agent. So basically any team in the NHL is free to sign him.
Now many may also be wondering if this Fabian dude is that good. This season, while played with Farjestad of the Swedish Elite League, he has tallied 33 points in 42 games. Now that might not seem like a lot to North Americans, but if I am not mistaken, the SEL doesn’t give out 2 assists on goals, rather they only give out 1. (This is hard for me to confirm, seeing as I have yet to master reading Swedish.) Here is a link to his profile on Elite Prospects.
So since there are roughly 20 teams that are interested in this guy, its easy to say that he has talent. A few teams have already went overseas in an attempt to wine and dine him. Including the Flyers and Canucks. But since he is a free agent, what’s stopping teams to sign him right now, much like Selanne and Cujo. Well the difference with Brunnstrom is that if he were to sign right now, the team would have to put him through waivers in order to complete the signing, allowing any team to claim him off. No one is willing to take that chance, so come the end of the season, the Brunnstrom sweepstakes are going to be a hotter topic than whether Selanne and Neidermayer are actually going to stay retired.
**For the latest on the Brunnstrom sweepstakes, read this.**
