Viggo Björck could become the second-line centre Winnipeg has been looking for since Pierre-Luc Dubois. Given enough time in the NHL, the undersized but overcompetitive centreman could climb as high as Winnipeg’s first line.
Several NHL scouts believe in that best-case scenario. Björck has the obsessive work ethic, the advanced play reading and the commitment to winning pucks for his team before he buries them to become a special NHL player. But this is September 2026, and Björck is a rookie. Even with Adam Lowry in his corner, the learning curve ahead of Björck is enormous. As of development camp in July, he was still getting used to the relatively narrow rink dimensions of North American ice.
What is reasonable to expect from Björck in his rookie season? And why am I already convinced that (some) observers will write him off this season and miss out on his potential to become a first- or second-line centre?
Let’s take an analytical look, study Swedish superstar history, and project Björck’s NHL role with the Winnipeg Jets to find out.
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Using NHL equivalency: Will Björck score?
The most straightforward approach to evaluate a forward is by his point production. It’s not a perfect method — linemates and usage have a huge impact on a player’s end-of-season point totals — but points have a huge impact on winning and are easy to count.
Björck didn’t light it up for Djurgårdens IF last season, scoring 15 points in 42 games, although coach Robert Kimby started to use him as a matchup centre in the second half of the season. Strictly using NHL equivalency to compare point scoring between leagues does not flatter Björck’s performance in the SHL. Patrick Bacon of Hockey Stats suggests a 12-points-per-82-games equivalency, ranking Björck No. 11 in his draft class.
Björck has more skill than implied by that model. I thought Björck played better than his peers at development camp in a way Brad Lambert, Chaz Lucius, Rutger McGroarty, and other recent Jets first-round picks hadn’t. Björck reads the play well, appearing to gain more information from his shoulder checks and scanning than his competition, and has the hands to thread passes into dangerous areas to produce offence. The 5-foot-9 centre plays with an unusually long stick, making his shooting mechanics look awkward, but he routinely beat goaltenders with his shot. He also outmuscled older, more veteran prospects with regularity despite giving up size and weight.
But how does he compare to other top draft picks?
Recent Swedish success stories, from Lucas Raymond to Anton Frondell
This chart has a lot of numbers. The most informative to start is by scrolling all of the way to the right — the first year in which each top prospect from the SHL played his first complete NHL season. What do you notice?
Draft year
Player
Draft
Pick
SHL PTS/GP
SWE-JR PTS/GP
1st FULL NHL SEASON
2020
4
0.30
1.56
D+2, 57 PTS, 82 GP
2021
7
0.58
1.16
D+3, 45 PTS, 80 GP
2021
14
0.05
1.00
D+6, TBD
2022
8
0.24
1.08
D+3, 37 PTS, 77 GP
2022
15
0.35
1.35
D+5, TBD
2022
16
0
1.31
D+4, 27 PTS, 60 GP
2023
2
0.57
N/A
D+1, 29 PTS, 55 GP
2023
10
N/A
2.1
D+3, 21 PTS, 71 GP
2024
15
N/A
1.7
TBD
2025
3
N/A
0.7
D+2, TBD
2025
16
N/A
0*
D+2, TBD
2026
8
0.36
1.25
D+1, TBD
Leo Carlsson is the only top Swedish prospect to go straight from the draft to the NHL after being drafted. Now he’s on his way to stardom as a No. 1 centre, and the whole league took notice of his $90 million offer sheet, but Carlsson was a 29-point, 55-game rookie. The Ducks managed his minutes carefully, calling it “the Leo plan” during a sometimes trying rookie season.
And that’s after building a pre-draft resume out of the same league Björck played in. Carlsson dramatically outpaced Björck’s SHL scoring rate, without playing any of his draft season in the Swedish junior ranks. Obviously, one player was a No. 2 pick and the other was No. 8, but it’s a tell: The NHL leap is difficult, even for the best players in the world. Look elsewhere on the chart and you will find several productive NHL players but no one who got to that level immediately after the draft. (You will find players such as Victor Eklund and Anton Frondell, who were productive in small sample sizes at the end of their “draft-plus-one” seasons — and whose example I once thought Björck would follow.)
The good news is that Björck’s 15 points in 42 games against men in the SHL hold up well compared to productive NHL players. He also scored well in a small sample size against junior players, and it’s a great sign that Djurgårdens IF kept him with the big club as much as they did. (To that end, Isak Rosén shows up as a red flag, playing junior games right through his “draft-plus-one” season and taking longer than his peers to become an NHL player.)
The biggest takeaway? Björck will be a success story by being an NHL player at all. Early arrival is usually associated with a high peak. And, if Björck does play a full NHL season at 18 years old, he’ll do so before Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and nearly every other Jets pick in the 2.0 era outside of Patrik Laine.
How will Björck fit with the 2026-27 Jets?
It’s possible that Winnipeg will change its standard line deployment — scoring line one, checking line one, scoring line two, checking line two — from the past few seasons. The Jets are thought to have conducted a top-to-bottom review of their operations and recently added skills coach Matt Larke to their staff. I’d still encourage caution toward any lineup that lists Björck as the Jets’ second-line centre (including mine).
Consider Winnipeg’s Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2024-25 season. With everybody healthy and the Jets dominating regular-season competition, the custom was to list Scheifele’s line first, Vladislav Namestnikov’s line second and Lowry’s line third. The reality was that Scott Arniel used Lowry’s shutdown line far more often than Namestnikov’s secondary scoring line.
That’s exactly how I expect things to play out this season, and I expect it will be positive for Björck’s development. Part of Lowry’s job will be to win the field position, giving Winnipeg’s other lines more offensive zone faceoffs. Lowry named Björck in that, saying he hopes he’ll “make it so (Björck) doesn’t have to go 200 feet to generate offence.” It appears as though Björck is heading for a good gig, with Cole Perfetti on one wing and either Gabriel Vilardi or the Connor Hellebuyck trade return on the other.
How have recent Jets centres done in those circumstances?
PlayerSeasonGPTOI/GPPoints
2023-24
78
14:28
37
2024-25
78
15:05
38
2025-26
82
14:29
29
Namestnikov had the benefit of Nikolaj Ehlers on his line with Perfetti and scored 37 and then 38 points. The Hellebuyck trade is unlikely to yield a right wing who matches Ehlers’ play driving, so why should we expect Björck to clear 40 points from that spot as a rookie? (We shouldn’t.) If Björck comes close to that figure at 18 years old, it will be the product of great chemistry, great luck or such a spectacular launch to his career so as to put “future No. 1C” in his scouting report.
The Ben Kindel conundrum
Ben Kindel, taken 11th by Pittsburgh in 2025, surprised everybody but the Penguins by making the NHL to start 2025-26. Kindel is an undersized centre who is noted for his all-around game and was a star scorer for the Calgary Hitmen for several seasons. He’s similar to Björck in that he wins more battles than he should at his size and has good hockey sense, although Björck is uniquely competitive even compared to other top prospects.
So what’s the Kindel conundrum?
He generated disproportionate hype by making the NHL at 18 years old to start last season. Then he scored “only” 35 points in 77 games, so public perception made what looks to be an overcorrection. Kindel is ranked No. 92 in our annual look at the top players aged 23 and under. Björck is ranked No. 21, with a first- or second-line projection, but what happens if he too scores “only” 35 points this season? Will fans call him a bust? Will pundits overlook his impact on the flow of play, puck battles won and team success? It sounds hyperbolic, but I think it’s a real concern.
I’d like to preach patience in the early years of Björck’s NHL career. Even in the best-case scenario, where he grows into an all-situations centre who wins his matchups and controls the flow of play, it’s unreasonable to expect him to score 40 to 50 points this season. When he fails to reach that mark, look to his overall impact and don’t discount the magnitude of making the NHL at 18 in the first place.
A final definition of success
Put the calculators away. Tear up the scoresheets. Watch Björck’s rookie season with your eyes and think it through.
Does he get to the right spots without the puck, demonstrating an understanding of the right routes? Does he stay beneath his check defensively, finding a way to kill plays either with his long stick or by establishing just the right angle to gain leverage on his bigger opponents? Does he come out of his battles down low or along the boards with the puck? And if he doesn’t control the game in those areas at first, does he learn?
I believe that offence will come if he chains games, months and seasons together wherein he controls the flow of play. He has the vision and plays at pace such that, on a long enough timeline, he’ll put players in dangerous positions if his line has the puck. The question, for me, is how often can he ensure that a Jets player has the puck on his stick — and how soon can he establish that dogged, puck-possession style of play that left Jets scouts in awe during their late-season viewings.
“At the SHL level against pros, this guy has the puck so much. It’s not just touches — he drives plays. I think he has the puck more than any player I’ve seen in a long time,” the Jets’ director of amateur scouting, Mark Hillier, said.
If Björck shows any ability to make that impact at 18 years old, whether he scores 20 points or eclipses Namestnikov, Toews and other recent Jets centres, that’s the kind of success that will be worth celebrating.