One of the New York Rangers’ European prospects made the kind of jump that gets noticed fast.
Mikkel Eriksen, a member of the Rangers’ 2025 draft class, scored his first goal in Sweden’s top league on Saturday, doing it just hours after being recalled by Färjestad BK from a loan stint in the second division. The 19-year-old Norwegian center had spent two weeks with Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, where he played four games, put 12 shots on goal and averaged 15:12 of ice time.
Back in Karlstad, Eriksen was right in the lineup against HV71 and skated on the second line at wing. Late in the third period, he helped finish off the game.
A strong corner battle by Eriksen helped Färjestad sustain offensive-zone pressure, Oskar Steen took over behind the net, and Eriksen drifted to the edge of the faceoff circle before burying the puck from a tight angle for his first SHL goal. Färjestad sits second in the standings behind Frölunda, and a moment like that could open more doors for Eriksen in the club’s top-six mix.
Elsewhere in Europe, Rico Gredig kept stacking small gains for EV Zug in Switzerland. The 21-year-old appeared in two games last week and added another assist Tuesday in a 5-2 win over Rapperswil Jona Lakers, the old team of Michael Del Zotto.
Gredig logged 13:38 of ice time, finished plus-2, and helped EV Zug pick up its third victory of the season. On Sunday, he was more visible offensively against Geneve-Servette, where former Rangers forwards Jimmy Vesey and Josh Jooris were in the lineup.
Gredig drove the puck up ice well and generated several shots, but the bounces never came and Zug dropped a 2-1 decision to the National League’s second-ranked club.
In Slovakia, Tomáš Chrenko kept his point streak rolling for a stretch before it finally ended. He had assists Tuesday and Friday to push the run to three games, then went scoreless Sunday in what was only HK Nitra’s second win of the season.
On Tuesday against Liptovsky Mikulas, Nitra fell behind by three goals in the first period, and Chrenko was involved in the comeback attempt. Midway through the second, he set up former Islanders forward Dmytro Timashov to trim the margin to two, but Nitra still lost 5-3.
Friday brought another tough result, this time at Michalovce against HK Dukla, a team Nitra is chasing near the bottom of the standings. Lucas Edmonds, who played for Hartford in the American Hockey League in 2024-25 after the Rangers acquired him from Tampa Bay, scored a hat trick in Dukla’s 6-5 win.
Chrenko stayed active late and picked up an assist with the game basically settled, but Nitra still came away empty in the standings. His point streak ended Sunday when Nitra won on a goal with nine seconds left in overtime.
Samuel Jung saw plenty of ice with KalPa’s junior team in Finland, appearing in both games this week. The 20-year-old Czech winger fired 15 shots on goal and averaged 22 minutes per game, finishing plus-1, but he did not record a point in either a 3-2 shootout win or a 4-2 regulation victory.
Rasmus Larsson, a sixth-round pick three years ago, suited up for Hudiksvalls’ lone game of the week in Sweden. He had one shot on goal, finished plus-1, and was part of an 8-0 win.
Ivan Patrikhayev did not get into the lineup for CSKA Moscow, serving as a healthy scratch in each of the club’s games. The Rangers’ 2026 seventh-round pick has one assist in five appearances and has now been scratched eight times this season. CSKA remains a heavyweight in the KHL, sitting at 10-3-0 and tied with Lokomotiv for first in the Western Conference with 20 points.
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For a team that spent so much time searching for the right mix, that matters. The change in feel is obvious enough that Sullivan is already drawing attention beyond the day-to-day results, with some of the early-season buzz centering on what his impact could mean over a full year. The Rangers are moving in the right direction, and the next question is how long this momentum can last once the league starts testing them more seriously. [Read more 🡒]