The Washington Capitals have a thing for Swedish centers.
With the 37th overall selection in the 2025 NHL Draft, the Caps selected Milton Gastrin from Modo. Gastrin is a 6'1" 185 pound center who turned 18 years old earlier this month. He's a two-way forward that was described by the NHL Network analysts as having "no holes in his game".
He was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, the same small town that produced Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Petr Forsberg, Victor Hedman, and many others.
He's a strong skater, has leadership ability, and can shoot the puck at a high level. He's not necessarily elite at anything, but he does a ton of things well and the Capitals love to develop young players that are versatile.
He's viewed by many as a low-risk, higher reward player. Accrdoing to his prospect profile with the Hockey Writers, Gastrin is "unlikely to be a high-end offensive creator in the NHL, but I could see Gästrin becoming a really strong third-line center or middle-six winger someday. I think the highest ceiling for Gästrin is a second line center at the NHL level, and if a team believes he could be that then they will likely be taking a serious look at him later in the first round."
He's not a player that will make an NHL impact right away, but with more seasoning with Modo or a few years in Hershey, he could develop into a strong mid-line center for Spencer Carbery's squad.
There was one Swedish center that worked out really well for the Caps. What was his name? Oh yeah, Nicklas Backstrom. I'm not putting that level of pressure on Gastrin, but it'll be fun to see how that plays out.