Top 25 under 25: #14 Linus Arnesson

• Acquired: Drafted 2nd round (60th overall) in 2013
• Position: D
• Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden
• Vitals: 6'2" / 192 lbs
• Current team: Djurgårdens IF (SHL)

What we said last year:

By now it's no secret that Arnesson is a defense-first kind of blue-liner, and that his puck moving skills are seen as a bit of a weakness. His point totals listed above, as well as a 0-0-0 at the 2013 World Juniors, are evidence of that.

This is still true, to an extent. Linus was a decent part of the Swedish WJC silver medal team again, though he had 2 assists instead of 0. He played all of last year in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. He had a good reason, though - his team had been relegated. With Arnesson's help, they had a 3rd place finish in the regular season. This earned them a spot in the 2014 Kvalserien. What's the Kvalserien, you say? The two worst teams from the SHL, the top three teams in the HockeyAllsvenskan, and the winner of a miniature play-in tournament among the 4th-7th teams in HockeyAllsvenskan, compete for 2 spots in the SHL. Every team played each other twice, and Arnesson's Djurgårdens IF managed to just barely squeaked into the top level, tying the 3rd place team at 17 points, but with one more win.

This year

Linus Arnesson is one of two defensemen attending rookie camp on a non-tryout contract. If he does well, he should at least go to training camp briefly. I'm guessing that, if he doesn't make the Boston Bruins, he'll go back to Sweden this year. I don't think he'll make the Boston Bruins this year, but if he can continue to impress we'll see him in Black and Gold soon enough.

Stats:

Social Media Minute

Linus is on twitter and Instagram. Here's his picture of his "Fuck Cancer" bracelet:

What do you guys think? Too high? Too low? Just right?