Melvin Fernström was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in a borrowed suit.
The young Swedish winger made the trip to Las Vegas for the draft with his family but his clothes, let alone his hockey equipment, didn’t make it with him thanks to some flight difficulties.
“We got stuck in Munich,” said Fernström to Hockey Sverige’s Uffe Bodin (with a little help from Google Translate). “There was something wrong with the flights and the weather and so our luggage also got stuck once we got here. So we came here without luggage and just went out shopping with the family. I had to borrow the agent's suit so it was just a matter of making the best of the situation.”
Having to borrow a suit for the draft was a mild obstacle in comparison to what it will take for Fernström to make his way to the NHL.
In the history of the NHL Entry Draft, just 28.2% of third-round picks go on to play even 100 games in the NHL. Just 13.4% of third-round picks manage to score 100 career points in the NHL. That's just the odds of finding a bonafide NHL player — the odds of finding a star in the third round are even more slim.
Since the Canucks didn’t have a first or second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, they had limited odds of finding a top-tier prospect. Their best bet at bucking the odds was to take some big swings on players who might still have first or second-round upside but, for various reasons, slid out of the first two rounds.
The Canucks are hoping that Fernström, drafted 93rd overall in the third round, has that kind of upside.
“He’s the kind of kid that has a good brain”
Despite not getting picked until the third round, there were some in the scouting world who were much higher on Fernström. Craig Button had Fernström as a second-round talent in his draft ranking, placing him 58th overall, while his TSN colleague Bob McKenzie even noted that Fernström received “first-round consideration” from at least one of the ten NHL scouts he interviewed for his ranking.
Obviously, the Canucks are also high on the Swedish winger, with scouting director Todd Harvey noting that they had all of the players they picked ranked much higher than where they got them in the draft.
“We like the way he plays a good two-way game,” said Harvey. “He goes to the spots to score goals. He's the kind of kid that has a good brain and you can see it with how he gets to the dirty areas and is very detailed with his approach in the offensive zone.”
Fernström’s offensive skill immediately leaps off the ice when you watch him. At the Canucks’ summer development camp, Fernström seemed a step above pretty much everyone else on the ice. At times, he seemed like a former Major Junior player who showed up at a beer league team and spent all his time on the ice setting up everyone else for goals.
That skill was also on display all season long in the top Swedish junior league, the J20 Nationell, where he became one of the highest-scoring under-19 players in the league’s history.
Dominance in junior, limited opportunities in SHL
Fernström put up 31 goals and 63 points in 45 games in the J20 Nationell, which led the league in goals and was second among first-time draft-eligible players in points. In fact, his 63 points are the third most ever among first-time draft-eligible prospects in the J20 Nationell or its previous incarnation, the J20 SuperElit.
You can take it further: among players of any age, Fernström's 63-point season is the eighth-best season in the under-20 league's history, despite being 17 for the majority of the season.
That domination, however, comes with a caveat.
Top Swedish prospects — especially forwards — typically don’t spend the entire season in the J20 Nationell in their draft years. Instead, they’re more likely to find a spot on the roster of their parent team in one of Sweden’s men’s leagues, either the top-tier SHL or the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.
Case in point, the first-time draft-eligible prospect who outscored Fernström by one point this past season — his teammate, Liam Danielsson, who put up 64 points in 60 games — didn't play a single game in the SHL or HockeyAllsvenskan and didn't get drafted at all.
Fernström was in the lineup for just six regular season games in the SHL, then three more games in the SHL playoffs, playing for the Örebro HK team that fellow Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki led in scoring with 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games. In those nine games, Fernström didn't tally a single point.
Compare that to Lekkerimäki, who played 26 games in the SHL in his draft year, or even Nils Höglander, who spent his entire draft year in the SHL. The number of games Fernström spent in the J20 Nationell is closer to someone like Linus Karlsson — a prospect who has earned a handful of NHL games and has some potential, but might never break through to become a full-time NHLer.
That said, Fernström out-scored Karlsson in his draft year by a decent amount and there are reasons to believe he has a more promising future.
While Fernström's numbers in the SHL are underwhelming, it's worth noting that he didn't get much of an opportunity. He may have been on the Örebro roster for six games but he only stepped on the ice for four of them. In his first four games in Örebro’s lineup in January, he played zero minutes in two of them, 1:33 in another, and 2:39 in the fourth.
This isn’t unusual in Sweden, where lineups consist of 20 skaters rather than 18 as in the NHL. Junior players dipping their toes in the SHL will sometimes sit on the bench for an entire game as the 13th forward or seventh defenceman.
It was only ahead of the playoffs that Fernström started to get regular ice time. Örebro, needing more offensive firepower, called up Fernström from the minors and played him 5:48 in one game, then gave him a regular shift on the fourth line in the next, with 11:06 in ice time.
In the playoffs, Fernström again played a regular shift and even got time on the power play — at least, he did until he got a five-minute major and a match penalty in Game 3 against Luleå in a controversial decision after he got tangled up in the corner and threw his man to the ice.
Incidentally, Fernström has been called “soft” by some scouts.
All that is to say, it’s tough to put much stock in how he played in the SHL, as he barely got an opportunity to play at all. It was a tumultuous season in Örebro, with the head coach getting fired midseason — keeping Fernström in the J20 Nationell might have been more about keeping him clear from the chaos than anything specifically about him as a player.
Is it worth noting that Fernström had a 60.47% corsi in his “six” regular season games? Probably not, because then you have to mention his 38.89% corsi in his three playoff games. It’s such a small sample, not just in games but in ice time, that there’s not much you can take from it.
That said, it seems noteworthy that Fernström's ice time increased when the games mattered most for Örebro in the playoffs, with his head coach, Niklas Eriksson, noting, "He came in as a junior and played great games for us."
Fernström even played ahead of veteran forward — and former Swedish national team member — Mathias Bromé in the playoffs, as Eriksson chose to scratch his former star player in favour of the 18-year-old Fernström.
Leading Sweden in international play
There's also Fernström’s performance in international competition to consider. He was one of Sweden’s best players at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, finishing second on the team in scoring, then led Sweden in scoring at the World Under-18 Championship, putting up 8 points in 7 games en route to a bronze medal.
Even Fernström’s production in international competition comes with a caveat. As is clear from the above video of Hlinka Gretzky and U18 highlights, where Fernström is number 12, many of his points came on secondary assists where the eventual goalscorer did much of the heavy lifting.
Still, there’s no denying Fernström’s skill. Offensively, he can do it all, with a knack for finding teammates with his playmaking and a quick release shot that can beat a goaltender cleanly whether he’s set or not.
Fernström’s most important offensive weapon, however, isn’t his hands, vision, or shot. It’s his brain. He’s constantly finding soft areas of the ice to get open for his teammate’s passes or timing his movement to the net to clean up a rebound.
“There is no doubt that he will need to continue gaining strength and adding power to be an offensive catalyst at higher levels,” reads one scouting report from Neutral Zone, “but there is a lot to like about his ability to read defence’s in-zone coverage and find the quiet area.”
“Fernström reads the play away from the puck, anticipates where the next pass will come, and he gets there just as his puck-carrying teammates turn to execute the play,” says Elite Prospects. “His shot may not be the most powerful, but he gets it off from the right positions and angles to score.”
It’s an ability that is necessary because Fernström has some flaws in his game that led to him sliding down to the third round for the Canucks to draft him.
Fernström's flaws seem fixable
Fernström isn’t the fastest or most explosive skater. He’s not going to drive past a defender or burst up the ice for a breakaway to score goals. Instead, he relies on reads and timing, creating and converting on scoring chances by slowing the game down rather than speeding it up.
That’s what’s so intriguing about Fernström as a prospect. Consider the Sedins and what they required in a linemate: it wasn’t someone who could match their skill but someone who could think the game at their level. More than anything, they loved playing with smart players.
The potential is there for Fernström to develop into a complementary top-six winger thanks to his hockey IQ and finishing ability, especially if he can make adjustments to his skating. He has the hockey mind to know where to go for an elite playmaker to find him with the puck.
The other frequent criticism of Fernström is his play away from the puck. That's not uncommon for a scoring winger like Fernström but the pieces are there for him to put together a strong defensive game. He’s smart and sneaky on the backcheck, executing quick stick lifts to steal the puck. He’s willing to engage physically but needs to add strength and improve his body positioning in order to win more puck battles.
The same intelligence that drives Fernström’s offensive game also shows up defensively, though less consistently. He has the ability to make great reads and anticipate the play. At his best, Fernström is ready and waiting to pick off passes in the defensive zone, making it look like a terrible turnover but instead is just a result of him being in the right place at the right time.
For Fernström, his flaws seem fixable. There are steps he can take in his skating and there are inklings of a much better defensive player as well. If those physical elements of his game can improve, it will make the mental aspect of his game that much more impactful.
Some mid-round picks, if they address the flaws in their game, could become a serviceable player in the NHL. If Fernström fixes his flaws, he could become a top-six winger. That’s what makes him such an interesting pick for the Canucks in a draft where they didn’t have first or second-round picks.
"I appreciate the upside swing on this, in that they look at a player who has a lot of skill," said Elite Prospect's Cam Robinson. "You can't teach creativity and hockey IQ offensively. They're hoping that maybe with some maturity, he can add a little more strength and get a little more speed and be able to fight into those harder areas."
Fernström aims to stand out in the SHL
The next steps for Fernström are clear: he wants to stick in the SHL full-time next season with Örebro, with whom he just signed a two-year contract. Örebro will be losing their top scorer in Lekkerimäki as he comes over to B.C. to play for the Canucks either in Vancouver or Abbotsford. In Örebro, Fernström will need to further develop his skating and defensive game, not just so he can be relied upon to play in the SHL but so he can get closer to being an impactful player in the NHL.
"I expect that he'll see a lot more time in the SHL next season and then we'll have a better indication of what kind of player he's going to be long-term," said Robinson.
Fernström's cerebral game means that he could thrive while playing alongside smarter, more talented players, but he'll need to prove that the can play a stronger two-way game and add more pace to his game. But the fact that his SHL coach gave him more minutes in the playoffs than he did during the regular season suggests that he's on his way.
Beyond making the SHL on a more permanent basis, Fernström has another goal as he returns to Sweden: set an example for his younger sister, Filippa, who calls Melvin a “huge inspiration.”
Filippa is one of the top junior players in women’s hockey in Sweden, racking up 14 goals and 24 points in just 11 games in the under-20 Damjunior league at the age of 14. Maybe that can be an inspiration for Melvin as well: he might have to work that much harder to be the best hockey player in the family.
