LA Kings prospect Tobias Bjornfot has been suspended for three games by the SHL for his knee tackle in Thursday’s game.
In place of an NHL regular season, I’ve been keeping close tabs on the LA Kings prospects playing overseas. Carl Grundstrom scored his first goal for Björklöven yesterday, but Tobias Bjornfot is one player that I have been following the closest. He’s loaned to Djurgården in the SHL and put together a recent string of solid games while logging increasing minutes. Before yesterday’s contest, he logged a season-high 20+ minutes on-ice.
Then I noticed that he only played 8:50 on Thursday and had a 5-minute major. Doing some digging, I was able to find Spencer Pomoty (@SPProspects) on Twitter, who was live-tweeting the game. So I reached out and asked what happened.
Per @SPProspects, Bjornfot was tossed from yesterday's contest, logging only 8:50 on-ice time. I asked him what went down.
— Rink Royalty (@RinkRoyalty) October 16, 2020
"Bjornfot was playing well today but, he got a 5 minute kneeing penalty and tossed from the game with 15 minutes left still in the second."#LAKings
As it turns out, the SHL suspended Bjornfot three games for that knee tackle, which you can see in both the video and the official statement. Loosely translated, the SHL indicated that the knee tackle “entails a high-risk injury.” If you know anything about how the SHL handles hits like this, they don’t take them lightly.
New LA Kings’ prospect Lias Andersson was recently suspended for five games for a hit as well. Hopefully, it’s a learning moment for Bjornfot, who is expected to have a larger role with the LA Kings roster in the 2020-2021 season, whenever the league sets a start date.
Through the first six games, Bjornfot has 1 assist. He’s been putting more shots on goal than his first couple of games and tied with New Jersey Devils’ seventh overall pick Alexander Holtz with four shots-on-goals two games ago.