Oliver Bjorkstrand: Prospect Profile
By Ryan Ritchie
Sep 21, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; Columbus Blue Jackets right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand (28) against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Nationwide Arena. The Penguins won 1-0 in a shootout. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Oliver Bjorkstrand had two goals and an assist in the 6-4 Columbus win over Buffalo on Friday night (Oct.2). Breakout candidate William Karlsson added a goal and two assists, as reported by si.com/nhl via the associated press.
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Back on September 25th, Oliver Bjorkstrand was among several cuts that the Blue Jackets made sending them down to their AHL affiliate Lake Erie Monsters, based out of Cleveland.
Seven days later on Friday October 2nd, the Columbus Blue Jackets recalled 7 guys from Lake Erie, among them Oliver Bjorkstrand. Coach Todd Richards said the move was made to rest the high majority of regulars from risk of injury with back-to-back games.
Taken in the 3rd round of the 2013 NHL draft, Blue Jackets scouting hit an absolute home run with Oliver Bjorkstrand. The hockey world knows he’s one of the Blue Jackets top prospects, but I don’t think people realize just how good this kid is.
Oliver’s Hockey Bloodlines & Roots
Lets start at the beginning by talking about his hockey blood lines. His father, Todd Bjorkstrand was an American born player from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Todd played 4 years of NCAA hockey at the University of Maine from 1980-84. He actually captained the team in 1983-84, where he accumulated 52 points in 34 games during his last year of college hockey.
After spending four seasons bouncing around from the ACHL to eventually the IHL during the mid to late 80s, Todd decided to take his talents overseas to play in Denmark’s top league.
Now obviously it’s not the Swedish Elite or SM-Liiga or any of those European leagues littered with ex-nhl prospects and talent. It’s still quality European hockey though.
He actually holds 3 of the top 10 single season performances in Denmark’s top league (1st,2nd,10th). Ranked #1 all-time in 1994-9995, he led Herning IK with 121 pts (64 goals) in 42 games (2.88PPG).
The next season in 1995-96, he produced the 10th best all-time single season performance with 101 pts (53 goals) in 42 games (2.40PPG).
He then preceded to follow that up in 1996-97 with 115 pts (55 goals) in 52 games (2.21PPG)
Todd Bjorkstrand is the all-time leading scoring in the Danish league as he managed to produce 1199 pts in 550 career games. That’s a 2.18 PPG average over his entire career.
Perhaps more impressive is his 627 goals over that 550 game span. By the way, the next highest scorer had 950 points over 525 games. That’s 249 extra points with only 25 extra games played.
Just to gauge how dominant Oliver Bjorkstrand’s father was. During Todd’s 14 seasons in Denmark, in only two of those seasons did he manage to score less goals than games played. He scored (from lowest to highest) 32,35, 35, 38, 38, 42, 43, 44, 46, 50, 52, 53, 55, 64. Todd even made an appearance for Team USA at the Spengler Cup in 1988-89.
Once retired, Todd took over the role of head coach for the team he spent 14 seasons playing with. He went on to coach Herning to league champion 4 of the next 6 years. After 12 years coaching Herning, and a couple of World Junior appearances coaching his son Oliver, Todd made the move to the Austrian league where he’s been coaching the Graz 99ers for the past two seasons.
Next: Oliver: The Early Years before North America