Bruins trade prospect and 2025 7th round pick for D prospect Victor Soderstrom

The Bruins have picked up a former 1st rounder who’s making his way in Sweden!

Yesterday, the Boston Bruins went ahead and made a small trade; trading the rights of prospect Ryan Mast and a 2025 7th Round Pick for the rights to prospect Victor Soderstrom.

 Bruins’ twitter

Soderstrom was picked 11th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes, and made his way from Brynas IF in Sweden over to the Coyotes organization, where he largely played as a decently strong player for the Tuscon Roadrunners, finishing his last season in Tuscon with 32 points in 62 games.

His time in the NHL was during what we’d now call the final days of the organization, and his play largely reflected it; being a decent skater with good instincts, but otherwise replaceable on a team with a lot of otherwise replaceable elements. He was traded to the Blackhawks in 2024-25 when he made his way back to Brynas, and by all accounts he’s had a very strong season over there; finishing his year with a 47 point campaign in 49 games, and an 8 point playoffs in 17 games played.

While it’s very easy to see his 2-way game and say “offensive defenseman”, the reality for him is that the offense never quite developed in the way that it was expected to once he hit the NHL. He was...okay, and not exactly playing on a team that would ever give him either the time nor the opportunity to work on being the best version of himself, so we can perhaps forgive his meager initial offerings if we remember he was effectively out on an island in the desert.

 evolving-hockey.com

Besides, since going home, it’s clear he’s finding another gear that previously eluded him.

All of the previous of course, hinges on the idea that the Bruins still need to sign him. A former first rounder who’s struggled considerably to find himself in North America that comes back older and wiser may be just the thing that Boston’s particularly grim-looking right side needs to get a little better, and will likely come relatively cheap. As for whether or not he plays any NHL games?

Well...that’s what camp’s for.

Let’s all (tentatively) welcome Victor to the Black and Gold!