Senators prospect Mikael Wikstrand might have a leg-up on the competition in terms of the depth chart when training camp comes around, beginning with rookie camp next week.
The 21 year old defenseman has already played relatively meaningful hockey in the Champions Hockey League, which is Hockey's version of the European Club Championships, over the last couple of weeks.
Wikstand has played 3 games so far for Farjestad Karlstad in the group stage of the tournament and has registered an assist in helping his team to a win and two ties (apparently ties do still exist in pro hockey). His club can clinch a spot in the round of 32 with a point in today's game against Dynamo Pardubice.
However, even if his club team advances, Wikstrand won't be there, as the Senators loaned the defenseman to the team just for the group stage and he will be in Ottawa with the other rookie hopefuls next week, hopefully better for the experience of participating in the Champions league and at full speed.
Wikstrand and the Sens have disagreed for most of the summer where he would play, as he wanted to remain with his hometown team for the coming season. The Senators "loaned" him back for this tournament but they seem to have made it pretty clear they want the next stage of his development to occur in North America.
He is surely targeted for Binghamton for his first year and with the current contract situations on the Senators it would take a super effort in camp to unseat an incumbent. He should come in with a bit of a head start and make a solid impression and could be near top of mind when the time comes for a call-up, making the depth on the blue line even better, with Claesson and Wideman also in the mix.
I understand why he would want to play at home instead of riding the AHL buses, but he has to come over at some time and it might be too much to expect to make the jump right from Sweden to the NHL without any AHL time, so in my mind the sooner, the better.