A Swede Signing

Mikael Wikstrand, Ottawa's seventh-round pick in the 2012 Draft, has signed his three-year entry-level deal with the Ottawa Senators.

Courtesy the team's press release:

A native of Karlstad, Sweden, Wikstrand split the 2013-14 campaign between Mora of Sweden’s Allsvenskan league and Frölunda of the Swedish Hockey League (formally the Elitserien). In 19 contests with Frölunda, the SHL rookie registered 11 points (four goals, seven assists) and four penalty minutes. He recorded two points (one goal, one assist) in appearing in each of Frölunda’s seven games in an eventual post-season SHL quarter-final series elimination by Linkopings.

Prior to making his SHL debut with Frölunda, Wikstrand registered 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) to rank third among Mora (Allsvenskan) defencemen (tying for sixth among all players in scoring) while recording 14 penalty minutes and earning a plus/minus rating of plus-five.

Wikstrand helped his native Sweden earn a silver medal at the 2013 IIHF World Junior (U20) Hockey Championship in Ufa, Russia, registering four points (four assists) while appearing in each of his team’s six games.

Because I have no discernible idea how good/bad of a prospect Wikstrand is (can you even be a 'bad' prospect as a seventh-round pick?), I defer to Swedish hockey expert SteffeG:

You won't see Wikstrand for some length of time -- he's likely going to play next year with Frolunda, and after that, who knows.

But, never a bad thing to have project puck-moving defensemen in the system. Lord knows Ottawa needs all of the help they can get on the back-end these days.

Anyone looking for tape on the kid can check out this compilation put together at the U20's:

Thanks for reading!