Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Pick Dower Nilsson Getting Shot With Swedish Junior Squad

Published

3 years ago

August 5, 2021

Bob Duff

Detroit Red Wings 2021 NHL entry draft selection Liam Dower Nilsson is among the Swedish selections for the upcoming Four Nations Cup.

Summer hockey is all about evaluation and development. This is exactly the approach that Swedish world junior coach Tomas Monten is taking in assessing the talent pool available to his team.

Sweden’s national junior team just got back home from the World Junior Summer Showcase. Monten will be taking almost an entirely new lineup to the upcoming Four Nations Cup in the Czech Republic.

There are 18 new players on the Swedish roster who weren’t in Plymouth, Mich. for the WJSS. Among the news faces in the selections is Detroit Red Wings draft pick Liam Dower Nilsson.

Dower Nilsson is viewed as a strong two-way center whose strength as a player right now is in his defensive game.

Strong Two-Way Centre

“He’s another high character kid,” said Mark Seidel, director of the North American Independent Central Scouting Bureau. “The coaches raved about him. He’s very smart defensively and can shut down the other teams top players. Not a ton of offense but he will get the most out of his talent.”

Dower Nilsson invokes the name of former Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg when assessing his own game.

With the 134th pick in the 2021 #NHLDraft, the #RedWings select center Liam Dower Nilsson.#DRWDraft x #LGRW pic.twitter.com/5W4yDpyjPv

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 24, 2021

“I would say I’m not that level yet but I would say that I’m pretty similar to him as a player, too, as a centerman and a leader,” Dower Nilsson said. “I would say that I’m more of a playmaker than a shooter for sure.

“I would say that I’m a competitive center who loves to win and hates to lose. My strong area of the game is in the offensive zone, around the net, being sneaky with passes and also with my shot.

“I’m a leader on the ice and off the ice, too. I love to (make) my teammates better and win games.”

The Four Nations tournament is slated for August 26-28 in Hodonin. Along with Sweden and the hosts from the Czech Republic, also participating are Russia and Finland.