Mattias Hävelid

January 2022 – Hävelid had a fantastic start to the season at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup where he scored two goals and seven assists in only five games to lead all defencemen in scoring for the tournament. He also notched four points in eight games at last year’s U18 Worlds as an underager. In J20 competition this season, he has seven goals and seven assists in 22 games, and in the SHL, he has played 12 games without registering a point. He has the second-highest plus-minus total among draft-eligible defenders in J20 Nationell. Overall, he has had a solid season to this point.

Hävelid is an offensive-minded defender with great mobility. His skating is smooth with good edgework and fast feet. He moves the puck well on breakouts as he is able to utilize that mobility on puck retrievals and uses his good passing ability to generate zone exits. He is an aggressive player and when he has possession, he likes to rely on his puck skills and skating. Hävelid constantly plays on the edge and likes to join the rush to support attacks. He also likes to carry the puck in transition and when he is in the offensive zone, he is confident with the puck and can make plays on the blue line. He plays with pace but also sometimes makes mistakes due to a lack of patience. However, that doesn’t happen very often. Hävelid is relatively small which might get him into trouble in some battles, but he definitely isn’t afraid of the dirty areas. He can man the point on the powerplay as he can move the puck well, has solid vision, and a decent one-timer from the point. I wouldn’t say that Hävelid is a bad defensive player but there is obvious room for improvement. He uses his stick well and compensates for his lack of size with good mobility and a high compete level. However, in the defensive zone, he sometimes loses his mark and is slow to read and react to the play. Overall, Hävelid looks like an interesting prospect and at this point of the season, looks like he could provide value as a second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Eetu Siltanen