Likity Quist

William Quist was "William who?!" when the Edmonton Oilers called his name at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, 6th round #157.
Quist is a big boy (192cm - 6'4") who has thus far not played in any big leagues. Upon his return from the Oilers' camp, he was set to playfor Junior Elite team associated to the runner-up of last year's Swedish Elite Series championship, Linköping Hockey Club.
Linköping is a good team. They are dominating junior hockey. Unfortunately, not with Quister in the line-up.
News now is that the team and Quist have parted ways (source: in Swedish).

He has not had much ice time, suffered through injuries and sickness, not to mention a suspension for fighting.  The question is perhaps, who was he really fighting, the coaches or himself?  The move from Tingsryd to LHC should have been a positive step in his development.  Blog rumours cite the lack of ice time and being benched... and bad luck.  

Now William is set to return to Tingsryd's junior team (one level below LHC's juniors) and will likely get a shot on their "A" Team (two levels below LHC's "A" club).  

An Oiler fan can only hope this is a small blip in William Quist's development.  Developing him into an NHL or Elitseries player is also about being a good teammate.  Hopefully when the book is written about the LHC J20 team, it will simply be a small mistake rather than the beginning of the end.

Outpost Sweden

Another loss. Another injury. Oh, whoa be the Edmonton Oilers - 2007-08 edition. It feels sometimes like last season never ended.

As the Oiler management are forced to dig deeper and deeper into the farm system, one can wonder how to answer the trivia question: what comes next after Bryan Young? (to which the answer is apparently: Allan Rourke)

In the least, perhaps it may be time to cross off one more wasted draft pick from our list of future Oiler hopefuls.

Word from the Uppsala newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning, is that the Oil’s 2002 draft pick (111th overall) Jonas Almtorp is leaving the Oilers farm team in Stockton and is rumoured that he will sign with Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish Elite League.

Not that Almtorp was ever much of a highly touted prospect to begin with.
In the pre-season, Almtorp played 3 games and got 2 shots. He had straight zeros across the board!

Strangely though, according to Almtorp himself, Mac T and the Oil gave him a good look and he was “closer to getting a spot with the Oilers than with the Falcons”. Almtorp is quoted as saying that the Oilers coaches “like different kinds of players”, meaning his anonymous style would have fit very well among a team as anonymous as the current Edmonton Oilers.

The Springfield Falcons apparently had too many forwards and before he knew it, it was Snakes as opposed to Ladders all the way to Stockton.
His minor success in Stockton perhaps came with the realisation that it is in fact Stockton of the ECHL.

Look for Jonas Almtorp to leave little Thunder as he voyages back to Sweden, where his play will be equally anonymous.

Writer's note: I readily acknowledge that there is more to a player than appearing on a scoresheet, though role players are defined by more than a pair of skates and equipment. Jonas Almtorp is apparently good enough to play at the highest of levels, though I truly wonder what his role should be, if is not to contribute with some offense.