A player that deserves a lot more attention than what he has been getting is Luke Dahlstrom, another young prospect with tons of potential that has come up through the Cottage Grove Youth Hockey Association.
Dahlstrom has great size, as the right shot defenseman stands at 6’3” tall and packs 175 lbs. on his frame. Luke got his feet wet last season for Park of Cottage Grove, playing dependable defense while scoring 2 goals and adding 2 assists in 26 games played.
Luke plays a responsible style, making good decisions and backing it up with aggressiveness. He’s very difficult to play against as Luke has shown great tracking ability and commands space in front of the net. On loose pucks in the corners, Dahlstrom is quick to react and has demonstrated good technique and body positioning to win these battles. He showed some toughness and grit to his game and shows no hesitation on the ice.
Dahlstrom keeps things simple on the ice and does not take a lot of chances offensively, but he has the tools to carve out some offensive numbers in the future. Luke has a good stick, is a balanced skater, and has a good awareness of possessing the puck in the o-zone. He will need continued progression on some of his outlets as he needs to make small adjustments as some of his passes were into his teammate’s skates during recent viewings.
There were some growing pains last season as he assimilated his game to the high school level, and this is the norm for sophomore defensemen breaking into the league. As we tend to see year after year, a high percentage of these defensemen at this age have huge progression swings heading into their junior seasons. After seeing Luke play in the High-performance Spring festival and Final 54, Dahlstrom will be in this group that will make an impact moving forward.
Dahlstrom is a great player with huge upside.