Milan Sundström is one of the best passers I’ve watched so far in the 2027 draft class. The problem is that his skating limits how often he gets the puck, so skill doesn’t impact the game as much as it should.

Watching Sundström reminded me of a pass-first point guard in basketball. He’s constantly looking to create for someone else, sometimes to a fault. Even when there are opportunities to attack himself, his first instinct is to move the puck and put a teammate in a better position. For historical context, he reminded me a lot of watching Nicklas Bäckström playing for the Capitals.

Sundström has soft hands in traffic and an excellent understanding of passing lanes. He’ll subtly change the angle of his stick, wait an extra second for a lane to open, and thread pucks through layers of defenders into dangerous areas. It’s not just vision. It’s patience and execution. Across my tracking, he completed nearly 80% of his passes, with almost 23% of his passing attempts going to dangerous areas of the ice. Those numbers matched exactly what showed up on film. His ability to create offense with his passing was the best part of both viewings.

The frustrating part is how difficult it was for him to put himself in those situations consistently.

Sundström’s skating limits the number of touches he gets throughout a game. He doesn’t separate from defenders; he isn’t particularly explosive through the neutral zone, and many of his puck receptions came from a standstill, where pressure arrived almost immediately. Once defenders closed on him, he relied heavily on his hands and reach to protect the puck because there wasn’t another gear to escape.

That lack of pace showed up in my tracking as well. Sundström was involved in just 36% of his team’s offensive transition plays, a number I’d like to see north of 40% for a player whose biggest strength is creating offense for others. When he was involved, though, he was extremely efficient, completing over 85% of those transition plays. The decision-making wasn’t the issue. It was simply getting enough opportunities to influence the game.

That’s also why his shot generation was so modest. He averaged just 2 shots per game, with only 1 coming from a dangerous area, and there were multiple occasions when I wanted him to become more selfish.

He’s such a pass-first player that he’ll often bypass decent shooting opportunities in search of an even better pass. I appreciate the vision, but there are times when the best play is simply putting the puck on net.

The defensive side of his game left me wanting more. Positionally, he’s usually in the right area and understands his responsibilities, but I found myself wanting much more urgency. Too often, he’d stay a couple of feet away from his check, trying to anticipate the next pass instead of closing space and forcing a decision. Rather than taking away time and space with an active stick or physical engagement, he’d often wait for the play to come to him. His defensive transition numbers reflected that inconsistency.

It’s still early in the evaluation process, but I think Sundström’s projection depends on one question above all else.

Can he find another gear?

I’m not necessarily talking about becoming an elite skater. If he can play with more pace, get more involved in transition, and create more puck touches throughout a game, I think his passing ability becomes even more impactful. The vision, hands, production, and creativity are already there. The question isn’t about him being an impactful junior player in Sweden; it’s about projecting him to the Allsvenskan or SHL if he plays there this upcoming year. 

Do I think he can do it successfully? I can’t definitely say yes. 

It’s more of a yes, if…

And that’s the fun part of summer scouting. Identifying the developmental areas of concern and flagging them for when true scouting begins in the fall.

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