Posting some thoughts on U16 playoffs as it stands. Judging the teams on max capacity, it will be a really interesting to se the ending. Djurgården knocked out. Not a big fan of the format honestly, rather they split the group differently so we get more inter-regional play. Favour Täby and Modo from group E. Modo has been dominating against worse competition this year, but the team is really stacked offensively. Gästrin wasn't as good as one could have hoped for, but not bad. Hugo Hallin is fun.
Täby just seems to be that Stockholm team this year, going to be a bunch of players from that team that end up in varius j18regional teams next year. Standout is obviously Melvin Novotny, who is one of the top player in the country who I currently have in the range that is very hard to rank. But a player to look out for.
Group F could be a bloodbath. Brynäs was unbeaten in groups, but they sure were never really safe. The Frölunda game could have gone wrong(still don't know how they managed to not capitalize on some of those chances, and HV71 very well could have won the tense battle for 1st place which meant...... nothing at all. So a rematch could go either way. I really like HV71s top end talent with Theo Sonestedt, Karl Annborn and Noel Skarby as well, but think the team felt a bit thin and fragile at time. Some plays felt a bit hail mary. Brynäs is more solid for the most part, even though they don't necessarily have any of the absolute best 07s in the country, the team is really solid. If it were'nt for the pathetic regional stuff they could absolutely have made a region team with the players that didn't fit or get a role on Brynäs that would have been easily better than Arboga and Karlskoga, and probably on par with Mora as well. That's also why I think Brynäs has been so strong this year. But I want to shoutout Gustav Hillström, who goes very unnoticed when discussing swedish 07s right now, mostly because of non-dominant j18 numbers, not getting a chance on Sweden yet, and... not having a father who is famous in the region. But he is the best player on the team, consistenly makes small good plays, adapts well to two types of teammates who are very different in playstyle (Leo Sundqvist and/or the Östberg twins) and generally plays a consistent game with good gamesense. Has gotten way better as the season progressed as well, and I would honestly like to see him get a chance at the next 4 nations, even though he doesn't have same offensive motor of the current 6-7 best forwards in the country.
Like Växjös team too. I have personally been very doubtful of Laksonen long term, but there is not denying that he is a bit of a man amongst children right now in the u16. But the team has depth, and I think they showed in the last group. Will be interesting to see how they do against a team like Brynäs. Since it just a game against each team, its so hard to have a good guess. The only chance I feel relatively safe with is that Malmö is the worst team out of the 4, but watch them win the group now. I'll say Brynäs and Växjö advances if I'm put at gun point, but HV71 might be the most fun and chaotic to watch.