The speedy Swede Fabian Lysell finds his way with the Giants ahead of the world’s youth

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It will be fascinating to see what Fabian Lysell is capable of in the upcoming junior hockey world championships, considering the thunderous roll he ended up with with the Vancouver Giants.

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It will also be fascinating if the light-footed right wing can win it back again with Vancouver when he returns to his lineup in early January.

Lysell, who was a first-round pick, The No. 21 overall, in last summer’s NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins, scored seven goals and 14 points in his last eight games with Vancouver before leaving for Team Sweden preparations this week. The World Youth Championship runs from December 26 to January 5 in Edmonton and Red Deer, and Lysell joins the Swedish team with Giants goalkeeper Jesper Vikman.

Lysell is this bunch of offensive talents. Your skating is your signature. There were flashes of all those skills early on with Vancouver, but it seems the 18-year-old found his lane with the Giants and started producing much more consistently.

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The stats back that up: Lysell scored four goals and 14 points in his first 15 games with the Giants.

“I don’t think it was anything special in particular,” the 5-foot-10, 172-pound Lysell said earlier this week before leaving for his junior world duties. “They were different pieces that came together.

“He was adjusting. It was meeting the team and the staff. There were many things. “

It was all very logical, according to Giants associate coach Keith McCambridge. There has been a period of breakdown with all of this, he says, and that has included figuring out what works and what doesn’t for Lysell on the smaller tracks of North America.

“He recognizes the lack of space that he has and is capable of making plays in smaller areas,” McCambridge said.

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“On top of that, he’s starting to mature, as you see in all the young prospects. You see the developmental side of his game taking shape on and off the ice. He still has a long way to go, but we like the direction he’s taking right now.

“He is an elite skater. He’s got NHL speed and NHL speed. “

There have been other adjustments. Lysell is from Gothenburg, Sweden, admitting that it is “difficult to be so far from home”. That’s a common theme for him with members of the Bruins’ hockey operations department who check Lysell on a regular basis.

“We talk every week. It’s mostly about life around hockey, ”said Lysell, who is in his first year with the Giants. “They have great developmental guys who help me with those things.”

NEXT GAME

Saturday

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Vancouver Giants vs. Prince George Cougars

7 pm, Langley Event Center. Web: watch.chl.ca

Lysell, like Vikman, is set to miss eight Giants games while in the Junior World Cup. Justin Sourdif, who has been Lysell’s line mate for much of that recent stretch with Vancouver, is also out with the Canadian team. Giants coach Michael Dyck is also an assistant coach on that team.

All are expected to return for a January 7 visit to the Kelowna Rockets.

Vancouver will obviously miss Lysell’s goal hit while he’s out. It also affects the team’s conduct, according to Vancouver defender Tanner Brown.

“He is such a confident player. The game almost seems straightforward to him. And I think his confidence seeps through our lineup and that helps us, ”Brown said. “You wouldn’t think these were his first 25 games in the league. You’d think he’s been here for two or three years. “

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The Giants selected Lysell with the 30th overall pick in the 2020 CHL Import Draft. He opted to stay in Sweden last year rather than come to Vancouver, but the Giants played an import below the season high of two. central to retain your rights.

Boston signed him to his three-year entry-level contract in August and then assigned him to Vancouver after that. He is one of three Giants to sign entry-level deals, along with Sourdif (Florida Panthers) and forward Zack Ostapchuk (Ottawa Senators).

The Giants team’s record for points by an imported player in a season belongs to Marek Tvrdon, the Slovakian left winger who scored 74 of them, including 31 goals, in 60 games in 2011-12.

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