Sep 21, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (28) against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nationwide Arena. The Penguins won 1-0 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Oliver Bjorkstrand had two goals and an assist in the 6-4 Columbus win over Buffalo on Friday night (Oct.2). Breakout candidate William Karlsson added a goal and two assists, as reported by si.com/nhl via the associated press.
Taken in the 3rd round of the 2013 NHL draft, Blue Jackets scouting hit an absolute home run with Oliver Bjorkstrand. The hockey world knows he’s one of the Blue Jackets top prospects, but I don’t think people realize just how good this kid is.
Oliver’s Hockey Bloodlines & Roots
Lets start at the beginning by talking about his hockey blood lines. His father, Todd Bjorkstrand was an American born player from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Todd played 4 years of NCAA hockey at the University of Maine from 1980-84. He actually captained the team in 1983-84, where he accumulated 52 points in 34 games during his last year of college hockey.
After spending four seasons bouncing around from the ACHL to eventually the IHL during the mid to late 80s, Todd decided to take his talents overseas to play in Denmark’s top league.
Now obviously it’s not the Swedish Elite or SM-Liiga or any of those European leagues littered with ex-nhl prospects and talent. It’s still quality European hockey though.
Perhaps more impressive is his 627 goals over that 550 game span. By the way, the next highest scorer had 950 points over 525 games. That’s 249 extra points with only 25 extra games played.
Just to gauge how dominant Oliver Bjorkstrand’s father was. During Todd’s 14 seasons in Denmark, in only two of those seasons did he manage to score less goals than games played. He scored (from lowest to highest) 32,35, 35, 38, 38, 42, 43, 44, 46, 50, 52, 53, 55, 64. Todd even made an appearance for Team USA at the Spengler Cup in 1988-89.
Once retired, Todd took over the role of head coach for the team he spent 14 seasons playing with. He went on to coach Herning to league champion 4 of the next 6 years. After 12 years coaching Herning, and a couple of World Junior appearances coaching his son Oliver, Todd made the move to the Austrian league where he’s been coaching the Graz 99ers for the past two seasons.
Next: Oliver: The Early Years before North America
The Early Years for Oliver Bjorkstrand (Pre-NA style exposure)
Oliver Bjorkstrand was born in Herning, Denmark while his father played in the Danish top league, and actually has dual-American citizenship. However, its clear he wanted to represent his native Denmark in international play even though the Danes have had their struggles with relegation and poor performances at the World Junior Championships.
Sep 21, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (28) against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nationwide Arena. The Penguins won 1-0 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Oliver is a slightly bigger framed player than his father was, Todd 5’10, whereas Oliver stacks up around 6’0. In the 170-175 lbs. range, Oliver still has some room to bulk up. In comparison, to other 6’0 forward in the NHL, the average weight tends to range.
Guys like Vladimir Tarasenko are 6’0 215-220lbs range. The average guy comes in around the 200 lbs range. Steven Stamkos is 6’0 190lbs range, while guys like Patrick Kane come in around 5’11 175lbs.
But you can’t use Oliver’s size against him when you’ve got guys like Teuvo Teravainen stacking up at 5’11 170lbs or Johnny Gaudreau who played at 5’9 150lbs last season. In the modern-day NHL, if you’ve got the skills, you can play.
Oliver Bjorkstrand began his junior career when he was 15 years old playing for Herning of the U17 league in Denmark.
2009-10 As a 14/15-year-old, Oliver tallied 16 pts in 10 games for Herning’s U17 squad. While it is not uncommon to see 15-year-old players in the U17 league, you don’t see as many produce the way Oliver did in his short stint.
Little did Oliver Bjorkstrand know, this would be the beginning of a roller-coaster ride of success and call-ups that would pave the path for his hockey career.
2010-11 At 15/16 years old, he made some noise in the U17 league after producing 54 pts in just 19 games with Herning. This prompted a call-up the same season to Herning’s U20 squad where he managed to accumulate 19 points over an 11 game period to finish the season.
He followed that up with 8 pts in 6 games with the Herning U20 squad. That same season, Oliver Bjorkstrand won every scoring award across the board in the U17 league, even with his brief call-up towards the end to the U20 league. Oliver actually had a 1 game call-up in the playoffs for Herning’s team of the Denmark2 league (just a couple tiers short of the top Danish league).
2011-12 At 16/17 years old, Oliver Bjorkstrand Began the season with Denmark’s Division II Herning IK. After tallying 3 pts in 5 games, he was called up to top Danish league to play for the Herning Blue Fox (the same team his father played of his career for). Oliver managed to produce 26 points in 36 games a year before his NHL draft eligibility.
During their playoff run, he had some struggles only managing 3 points over 10 games. However, Herning did go on to become Danish Champions that season. It led to a Danish Cup Championship, where Oliver Bjorkstrand captured the Danish Cup Final MVP award. He also won the Danish League Rookie of the Year award that same season.
He got his first taste at International play in 2011-12 where he represented Denmark for both the U18 and U20 teams. He assistant captained the U18 team and was close to being a point per game player. With the U20 he only managed 2 points in 6 games.
It’s worth noting Denmark has had its struggles at the international U20 junior level. We’re talking a lot of qualifying tournaments and relegation for poor performances. The U18 team has been far more competitive.
Other notable players taken ahead of Oliver Bjorkstrand were Nikita Zadorov at 9, and Mirco Mueller 11th. Notable taken after Oliver were Nikolay Goldobin at 36, and Nikita Kucherov 43rd overall.
If you remember, this was the Portland team led by Seth Jones on the blue-line (who was selected 4th overall in 2013 draft) and up front was led by Brendan Leipsic (120pts reg. season), Nic Petan (120 pts reg. season), and Ty Rattie (110 pts reg. season). Oliver was merely part of the supporting cast.
Sep 21, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (28) misses a shot on goal in the shootout against the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry (35) at Nationwide Arena. The Penguins won 1-0 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Some guys are either late bloomers, or in Oliver’s case likely had little exposure to scouts until arriving as a rookie in his draft eligible season where he was forced into a more secondary role.
Oliver had his first taste of pro-style hockey when he played alongside his older brother Patrick Bjorkstrand representing Denmark at the World Championships last spring.
Denmark had its struggles, and Oliver only played 3 of 7 games not putting any points. But the exposure to playing with men would have been a valuable experience heading into a very important offseason.
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But let’s just call a spade a spade. Oliver Bjorkstrand had little to no hope of making this Blue Jackets team heading into training camp for the 2015-16 season.
It has little to do with his talent, and more to do with the job Blue Jackets scouts have done over recent years. Columbus is among one of the deepest prospect pools of any team in the NHL. It would have taken a heroic performance in preseason to stick with the team.
You’ve still got guys like Matt Calvert, Gregory Campbell, Rene Bourque, Kerby Rychel, and William Karlsson to worry about. Not to mention other skilled prospects like Sonny Milano vying for a spot as well. It’s pretty easy to look at a 6’0 170lbs kid and say, “yea, you could use a little time to build some muscle and extra strength”.
But sometimes the skill outweighs all other factors. All you need to know is whether or not he can produce at the NHL level. And I think the answer to that question is, “Yes, Absolutely”.
I can see the Blue Jackets logic though. Sure you could keep him at the NHL level, playing 12-13 mins/night in a third line role. Or you can send him down to Lake Erie and give him first-line minutes and let him develop. But does that make it the correct decision?
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When you’re widely considered as one of those bubble type playoff teams that lacks true elite talent (other than Ryan Johansen) up-front. I don’t know that you can afford to bury that type of talent in the minors.
Make no mistake, Oliver Bjorkstrand does have the potential for elite talent.
There’s only one way to let that shine through, which is throwing him into a top six role. Give him the minutes from the start, and watch this kid blossom into an eventual top-line winger, maybe even alongside Johansen and Saad.
By now, we know how prolific a scorer his father Todd was in Denmark, and apparently that knack for finding the back of the net was passed on to Oliver.
All you have to do is watch him play or even just YouTube some of his highlights (like the one I have in Slide 1). You can see the skill is there, and we know the passion and desire is there just through his family and personal history.
If Columbus won’t give him the shot he deserves, he’s just going to have to do what he’s done throughout his entire hockey career. That’s to make some noise and force the hand of those above him. And that’s exactly what he will do down in Lake Erie this season.
