The Detroit Red Wings may have landed a real one in Eddie Genborg.
The 2025 second-round pick has taken his game to another level at the IIHF World Junior Championships, where he’s wearing the captain’s letter for Team Sweden and piling up points at a ridiculous clip. Through three preliminary-round games, Genborg has already put up eight points, good for a 2.67 points-per-game average.
That kind of production is turning heads, especially after what he already showed last season. Genborg posted 25 points in 43 games with Timrå IK in the SHL, a strong number in a league known more for structure than scoring. He also helped Sweden win gold at last year’s World Juniors, finishing with 13 points in 16 games.
His teammates have noticed the jump, too.
“Eddie is awesome,” Genborg’s teammate Gustav Hillström said in an interview with Swedish website Expressen. “You just have to keep the stick on the ice, and he will find it. You just have to push it in there.”
At 19, Genborg has clearly made a fast rise, but the next stretch of his development may matter even more than this hot run in international play.
This season is a big one for him. He spent a short stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins at the end of last season, but the transition wasn’t smooth. In 11 games there, he managed three points and worked his way up the lineup gradually.
Now, with another SHL season under his belt, the picture looks different. Genborg has eight points in 14 SHL games so far and is projected to finish with 30 points in 53 games, which would top last season’s output.
Those numbers don’t jump off the page at first glance, but the SHL doesn’t hand out offense easily. The article points to Lucas Raymond’s last SHL season as a useful comparison: the Red Wings’ leading scorer had 18 points in 34 games, which works out to roughly 28 points over a 53-game pace.
The expectation now is that Genborg finishes the SHL season, then heads back to Grand Rapids for the playoffs and the rest of the year. From there, the offseason should bring a move to North America and a full transition to life in the United States.
He should have some help when that time comes. William Lagesson has become a mentor-like presence for the Griffins’ Swedish players, and Noah Dower-Nilsson said the support in the room has already been valuable.
“Laggy [William Lagesson] and [Wilmer] Skoog have been here a few years. They help me often,” said Noah Dower-Nilsson, a new Swede on the Griffins’ roster. “I know can ask them for anything.”
That kind of support system could matter for Genborg as he adjusts to North American ice and everything that comes with it. And if things go according to plan, next season could give him a real shot at the NHL roster out of camp.
If he makes it, he’d likely slot into a middle-six role alongside Carter Bear. If he doesn’t, he’d likely take Bear’s place on the top line in Grand Rapids, assuming the first-rounder makes the NHL.
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