Madison Square Garden Sports : Nils Lundkvist Named Winner of Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award

Published: 2021-10-11 11:02:30 ET MSGS

Award is given to top rookie in training camp

NEW YORK, October 11, 2021 - The New York Rangers announced today that defenseman Nils Lundkvist has been named this year's winner of the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award, which is given annually to the top Rangers rookie in Training Camp as selected by the media.

Lundkvist, 21, led all Rangers rookies this preseason with three points (three assists) in four games. His three points were tied for the most among New York defensemen and third most among all Rangers skaters.

In the preseason opener against the Islanders on Sept. 26, Lundkvist was one of two Rangers (Adam Fox) to skate in over 20 minutes with 21:11 TOI. On Oct. 1 in New Jersey, Lundkvist found his way on the scoresheet with an assist on fellow Swede, Mika Zibanejad's goal. Playing in the second of a back-to-back on Oct. 2, in Boston, Lundkvist helped lead the Rangers to their overtime win with two assists in the first period of that game. For his final act of the preseason, Lundkvist recorded a shot in 18:44 minutes of ice time in the Blueshirts' 6-2 win against New Jersey at Madison Square Garden.

A Pitea, Sweden native, Lundkvist is playing in North America for the first time this season after spending parts of the last four years with Lulea HF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The Blueshirts drafted the 5-foot-11, 187-pound defenseman in the first round (28th overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

The Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award, which was first presented in 1988, honors the memory of Lars-Erik Sjoberg, who was the Rangers chief European scout for eight years. During his tenure with the Blueshirts, Sjoberg played a prominent role in the team's decision to draft Europeans such as Tomas Sandstrom, Jan Erixon, and Ulf Dahlen. Prior to joining the Rangers as a scout, Sjoberg played five seasons with the Winnipeg Jets during their time in the World Hockey Association (WHA), and he also skated with Winnipeg in its inaugural NHL season in 1979-80.

LARS-ERIK SJOBERG AWARD WINNERS 1988 Mike Richter 1989 Troy Mallette 1990 Steven Rice 1991 Tony Amonte 1992 Peter Andersson 1993 Mattias Norstrom 1994 Mattias Norstrom 1995 Niklas Sundstrom 1996 Eric Cairns 1997 Marc Savard 1998 Manny Malhotra 1999 Kim Johnsson 2000 Filip Novak 2001 Dan Blackburn 2002 Jamie Lundmark 2003 Dominic Moore 2005 Henrik Lundqvist 2006 Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky 2007 Marc Staal 2008 Lauri Korpikoski 2009 Matt Gilroy 2010 Derek Stepan 2011 Carl Hagelin 2013 Jesper Fast 2014 Anthony Duclair 2015 Oscar Lindberg 2016 Jimmy Vesey 2017 Filip Chytil 2018 Lias Andersson 2019 Adam Fox 2021 Nils Lundkvist

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Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. published this content on 11 October 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 October 2021 15:01:04 UTC.