Battre Sandstrom - Scouting Report

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Battre Sandstrom - The Better Sandstrom

 

Recently Sandstrom played an entire season for the Saskatoon Wild, after falling all the way down to 8th overall. This season was met with Sandstrom not quite hitting his personal goals as well as a not so stunning run in the playoffs. They did not manage to go the distance. With the VHL draft coming up a few scouts have looked at Sandstrom’s pros and cons to see if he would meld well with some teams. 

Pros:

Shooting Ability - Sandstrom’s strongest trait is probably his ability to shoot the puck. This is something that he has focused on everyday and it shows. He’s a shoot first player who has strong accuracy and has a quick strong release. 

Defense - Well it would make sense that another of Sandstrom’s strengths would be defense. He is a defenseman after all. He has the ability to intercept passes, block shots and poke check with the best of them. He is a responsible player on both ends of the ice. 

Puck Handling - Since Sandstrom is a shoot first player he has the ability to hold on to the puck well. He doesn’t have to worry about losing the puck going blue line to blue line and can easily set up plays that allow him to shoot the puck.

Cons:

Passing - Sandstrom is a shoot first player and he doesn’t pass all that often. You’ll see him tally some assists on the score sheet but those are probably just rebounds off of the goalie. This will be something to keep an eye on as things may change depending on where he gets drafted in the upcoming draft. 

Checking - At the time one of the biggest weaknesses of Sandstrom is his checking. Even though Sandstrom has the physical size being 6’8 and 250 lbs. Sandstrom doesn’t do much checking, he would rather try to take the puck off the stick then play the body. This is something that may help or hinder him as things go forward. Similar to passing it might depend on where he gets drafted on the focus of his skills. 

Discipline - This is something that I think will improve over time. The ability to not take bad penalties goes hand in hand with experience. As Sandstrom gets used to this new league, expert his PIMs to go down. 

Expect interesting things from this player going forward. The VHL will for sure have its own plans for this new defenseman.