Victor Söderström didn’t want to give up on the NHL so early, but it seems that he didn’t see a path to that dream running through Salt Lake City. Playing this season for Brynäs IF in the SHL, he learned on Friday – the NHL trade deadline – that his NHL rights had been traded from Utah HC to the Chicago Blackhawks along with the rights to Shea Weber – who hasn’t played since 2021 and is essentially retired – in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.
Apparently, that changes everything for him.
“Yes, it really does,” the 24-year-old defenseman told Mattias Persson of HockeyNews.se.
“We’ve been trying to arrange it all season, so it was nice that it happened before the deadline,” said Söderström. “But now I’m focused on the last part of the season with Brynäs the playoffs coming up. We’ll have to deal with that afterwards.”
Söderström was picked 11th overall by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. However, in four seasons in the organization, he was only able to get into 53 NHL games, scoring one goal and adding 10 assists and 30 penalty minutes. He spent the rest of the time toiling with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners.
Last summer, the Coyotes’ hockey operations, which included Söderström’s NHL rights, were transferred to the new Utah franchise. But with the same coaching staff and management and essentially the same personnel on defense, he thought it would be just more of the same for him as well.
“I told Utah that I wouldn’t (sign) there even if they wanted me to, so the solution was to come home here and start over a little and find the joy in playing hockey again,” Söderström explained. “I’ve had a great year and got to play on a really good team. Every game has been really fun and I’ve tried to get better every day. We’ll see what happens with Chicago now that they own my rights. The goal has always been to move the rights to another club.”
Söderström played for Brynäs from age 14 to 19, getting his first taste of professional hockey with the Gävle-based club. He played 79 SHL games as a teenager, scoring six goals and adding 16 assists for 22 points with 18 penalty minutes.
Last September, he signed a two-year contract with Brynäs, which had just been promoted back to the SHL after winning the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan last season.
the SHL club announced on Sunday.
In addition to Söderström, the team added forwards Jacob Silfverberg, Oskar Lindblom and Jordan Schroeder, defensemen Christian Djoos and Charles-Édouard D’Astous, and goaltender Erik Källgren. Even so, Brynäs has shattered all expectations, having already clinched first overall in the standings and the top seed heading into the playoffs, with its final regular-game coming up on Tuesday.
Individually, Söderström has 36 points in 48 games, which ranks fourth on the team and fifth among SHL defensemen.
The question for Söderström now becomes whether he will remain with Brynäs for the year remaining on his contract or seek a return to North America and try to earn a place on the Chicago roster – a rebuilding team with room for opportunity.
He acknowledges that he has talked about it.
“Yes, a little bit with my agent,” he answered. “But like I said, I’m focusing now on being here and then we’ll focus on that after the season.”
