Montreal Canadiens prospect Mattias Norlinder has been asked to suit for for Sweden in the Karjala Cup.
The Montreal Canadiens have a handful of prospects to keep an eye on in the coming months as teams prepare for the World Juniors.
However, a former World Junior player from last season in Sweden, is set to take part in another hockey tournament.
Mattias Norlinder played for Sweden and helped them win a bronze medal in Czech Republic. Next month he is set to play for Sweden again, this time at the Karjala Cup.
The Karjala Cup is the first leg of the European Hockey Tour. The EHT is a series of tournaments held between Sweden, Finland, Russia and Czech Republic featuring pro players who are suiting up in Europe. It is a men’s tournament, though Russia appears to be sending its World Junior team to the Karjala Cup and Sweden is taking a handful of Junior aged players.
However, Finland and Sweden are playing each other in a separate tournament for Under-20 players, so they aren’t following Russia’s lead for the Karjala Cup.
The tournament starts on November 5, with Sweden facing Czech Republic. The Swedes will the face Russia on November 7 and finish off the four day tournament on November 8 against Finland.
Norlinder, Nils Lundkvist and Jonatan Berggren are the youngest players on Sweden’s roster at age 20. Also on Sweden’s roster is former Habs prospect and current teammate of Norlinder with Frolunda of the SHL, Max Friberg.
Norlinder has played 11 games with Frolunda this season and has one goal and one assist. The tournament will be a good test for the Habs third round pick in 2019 against some deep teams from around Europe.
These four countries play a tournament in each country, and the team with the most points in the standings combined from the four events are crowned the European Hockey Tour champions.