Swede trying to earn spot on Capitals roster The time for waiting is over for Capitals forward Mattias Sjogren. He participated in rookie development camp in July, went back home to Sweden to train for four weeks and showed up at Kettler Iceplex early to prepare for training camp.
Now, the 23-year-old Swede is ready to test himself against veteran NHL players and see if he can crack Washington’s final 23-man roster this season. A tough, two-way presence, Sjogren’s skating is still a work-in-progress, and he will have to adjust to the smaller North American rink. But he will be a factor in training camp.
“I hope I can compete well with all these guys. It’s going to be a lot of good players,” Sjogren said. “I hope I can play the same way before I came here, which is be strong with the puck and make good plays. Maybe develop my plays with the puck, too, because tighter rink, smaller rink you have to make quicker decisions. I’m trying to develop those things.”
Realistically, Sjogren is likely fighting wingers like Jay Beagle, Christian Hanson, Matthieu Perreault, D.J. King and maybe even Chris Bourque. Like Sjogren, some of those players are versatile enough to play center, too. Hard to see Washington keeping Sjogren on the roster as a depth forward. It’s often better to have young, developing players get consistent ice time — whether that’s at AHL Hershey or back home in the Swedish Elite League for one more year.
“You know that [Sjogren is] smart, he’s big, he’s strong. He doesn’t get pushed off the puck,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Today, we had a little 15-minute scrimmage out there and I noticed a lot of determination in that 15-minute scrimmage. He really showed me a lot. I wasn’t expecting a lot from guys because it’s the end of practice. But he showed me a lot out there.”
Sjogren will get a jump on the main training camp, which begins Saturday, when he and the other Washington rookies take part in the annual scrimmage with the Philadelphia Flyers’ top prospects. That event returns to Philadelphia this season at Wells Fargo Center and gives Sjogren a chance to test himself against opposing players for once instead of teammates in intrasquad games. The rookie contest is at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Sjogren says he can already see a difference from July’s development camp, when he had been off skates for a while and wasn’t in ideal condition. He returned home to Sweden, trained for a month with former club Rogel Angleholm alongside current Flyers defenseman Andreas Lilja and feels ready for what awaits him Saturday. But he won’t put any extra pressure on himself or act as if he has something to prove.
“No, you don’t do that,” Sjogren said. “You work your [behind] off every day to make the team and see what happens.”
