Pontus Holmberg follows a bit of a familiar tale for Maple Leafs fans, at least in recent years. He was a late round draft pick — the 6th round in fact — as an overager, way back in 2018. In a very general sense, he followed in the recent footsteps left for him by Andreas Johnsson and Pierre Engvall.
Since then Holmberg showed small but steady improvements over in the SHL, not just in terms of point production but also rising up his Swedish team’s depth chart. By the time he finished his last season in Sweden, he was an SHL playoff MVP and finished as their first line center.