Fab Fabian Brunnstrom: From Dark Horse to Stud

That player was Alexander Ovechkin.

Evgeni Malkin managed a point a game in his last season with Magnitogorsk Mettalurg, but his previous 2 seasons saw him best himself at 12 goals.

Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuks statistics were so unimpressive that they were picked 7th and 6th round respectively by the Detroit Red Wings, Daniel Alfredsson was chosen 133rd overall by the Ottawa Senators in 1994, Dominik Hasek was a 10th round pick by Chicago in the 1983 draft, and he wasn't even given a chance to play regularly in the NHL until Buffalo traded Stephane Beauregard and a 4th round pick for him in 1992.

How much buzz was there around Brunnstrom this past year? Enough that 20 NHL teams contacted his agent JP Barry to express their interest in his services. In fact, there is so much interest that Brunnstrom himself has the luxury of choosing his team, and has told his agent, the teams he would most prefer to play for are Vancouver, Detroit and Toronto.

Not bad for a kid who wasn't drafted. 

But where does fate come into play for the Leafs in this?

Well, prior to his bewildering firing by Canucks ownership last week, Dave Nonis was "deep in negotiation with Brunnstrom and Barry", and indications were that an unofficial announcement could have been made to inform the other 19 teams not to bother asking about him within the next few weeks.

Now, as the man who was instrumental in forging this deal no longer is employed with the Canucks, this casts an even bigger shadow over the stability of the Vancouver organization now that rumours of Luongo's unhappiness with the Canucks are circulating, and the future of Markus Naslund with the organization is in question. The Brunnstrom camp find themselves standing on the dancefloor without a partner, and rest assured, they came to waltz.

This leaves the other two front runners, Detroit and Toronto.

But why is Toronto the front runner when Detroit is a playoff contender with Cup wins that have occurred in Brunnstrom's lifetime?

Playing time.

Between the Wings and the Leafs, both teams have very strong Swedish presence, which was the factor he used in naming his top 3. However, Detroit has proven scorers Datsyuk and Zetterberg, solid second liners Samuellsson and Holmstrom and budding prospects Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula. Right there, those are an easy top 6 players, and that's not even factoring in the inevitable summer free agent acquisitions or burgeoning Daniel Cleary.

Realistically, there's no place for him to go, and if he's travelling halfway across the world to play in the NHL, he's not coming to be a 4th liner.

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