Devils' 2026 First-Round Draft Profile: Viggo Björck
Evaluating what Viggo Björck brings to the table as a potential target with the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
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With the 2026 NHL Entry Draft less than two months away, and the Devils in possession of five picks, I’ll be going through a ton of prospects over the next several weeks in order to prepare readers for appealing targets in every round. At the end, I’ll be doing a full mock draft (with reasoning) so that you’ll be able to decipher my preferred targets. Enjoy!
All 2026 NHL Entry Draft Profiles:
12th Overall (First Round): Ethan Belchetz | Ryan Lin | Oscar Hemming | Wyatt Cullen
44th Overall (Second Round):
103rd Overall (Fourth Round):
140th Overall (Fifth Round):
172nd Overall (Sixth Round):
I’m going to begin this draft profile with the sentiment that I very much doubt that Viggo Björck will be available when the Devils draft 12th overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. That said, much stranger things have happened than an immensely talented and high IQ player dropping by virtue of being 5’10 or shorter. It happened in 2019 with Cole Caufield, in 2021 with Logan Stankoven, and in 2022 with Lane Hutson. Last season, we saw a consensus first-round talent in Cameron Schmidt drop to the late third round by virtue of being small.
In most mock drafts, Björck is gone by the time the Devils pick. Then again, in most mock drafts, the players above were selected far ahead of where they actually ended up. So, it is certainly possible that the 5’10 Swedish forward ends up pickable at 12.
With that in mind, if the rest of the league is silly enough to let Björck slide to that spot, the Devils should select him with no questions asked. Let’s talk about him:
By the Numbers
Rankings: #8 by EliteProspects | #6 by Craig Button | #4 by Scouching | #6 by Scott Wheeler | #7 by SMAHT Scouting | #8 by McKeen’s Hockey | #4 by Yours Truly
Size: 5’10, 172 Pounds
Production: 6 Goals & 9 Assists (15 Total Points) in 42 SHL Games (1 Goal & 2 Assists in 3 Playoff Games)
Björck grades out as a late-first rounder in terms of star projection and NHL projection in Byron Bader’s model, but I’m not concerned with that whatsoever. As a draft-eligle prospect, he logged top-six center minutes in the second hardest league in the world and absolutely looked right at home. His production was underwhelming relative to the ice time he accrued, but that certainly isn’t the whole picture. The underlying numbers are extremely favorable.
Obviously, Björck grades out super well in all three facets of the game here. Defensively, there is perhaps no harder worker in the class (as we’ll get into later), and I actually think the tracked minutes here underrate his transition work. He was often Djurgårdens’ top transition threat, doing the bulk of the work on breakouts and zone entries while he was on the ice. Regardless, it’s a wildly encouraging underlying profile nonetheless.
Evaluating Björck’s Tools
Skating
For a 5’10 skater, Björck isn’t a superb skater. I still think he grades out as an above-average player in terms of speed, acceleration, and agility, but the “concern” in his game is that, given his size, typically what counteracts concerns is elite speed and agility. Björck doesn’t have elite speed or agility, but that doesn’t mean he’s a poor skater by any means. He is perfectly capable of getting past defensemen using his top gear.
Björck is also perfectly apt at getting past defenders using weight shifts and side-steps, with enough agility to get around one or two defenders at a time. He baits, draws in, shifts, and accelerates out of it:
Shooting
I like Björck’s shot mechanics quite a bit, particularly with his wrist shot. He picks his spot, winds up, and hits it. His release is sound and deceptive, and given his ability to get shots through traffic with ease, he can find ways to beat goaltenders at all distances.
I don’t think Björck’s one-timer is all that perfect — he could probably use to add a bit more power to it — but his backhand is fantastic. He can lift the puck comfortably from in-tight while on his backhand, making him a very real threat in the interior from all angles and orientations.
Hockey Sense & Playmaking
Björck’s IQ is where he truly shines. As far as pure vision and hockey sense go, I think there is a real argument to him being the smartest player in the class. He sees the ice incredibly well, and is able to predict the defense’s exact movements before they happen. That makes him a constant threat to find surprise high-danger looks, generating quality chances that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Beyond that, he’s able to thread tight passes through layers of traffic, being unafraid of challenging a defenseman’s reaction time and ability to read deception.
Beyond his ability to read the play when he has the puck on the stick, Björck’s best ability is his off-puck movement, positioning, and smarts. With consistency, he finds open gaps in coverage and exploits them, being able to silently maneuver into high-danger areas of the ice with ease.
Björck has eyes in the back of his head, implicitly understanding where his teammates are and will be at all times, often times not even needing to scan the ice to make the right play.
Björck also generates a ton of playmaking chances through sheer hard work and tenacity. He’s no stranger to playing the body to feed his playmaking chops, whether that is through proactive contact, shifting weight to put himself in better body positioning, or simply aggravating the opponent into a turnover before capitalizing on it:
Puck Skills
I think Björck possesses top-notch hands, and what I appreciate about them is that he keeps it relatively simple unless a high-end finesse move is really needed. He has the skill to make a through-the-legs move, but recognizes that many times, that’s less efficient than making a simple deke to create a bit of space. Overcomplicating things can result in a poor play, and Björck knows this.
Björck’s hand-eye coordination is immensely strong, too. He plays the netfront a surprising amount for a player of his stature, and he succeeds there by perfectly angling his stick to tip a shot on net with consistency. Beyond just that, he uses that hand-eye coordination to chip pucks to himself off the wall or juggle it through pressure when needed.
Defensive Play
I don’t think it’s a stretch to call Björck the most defensively capable player in the top-half of the draft. Between his unparalleled work ethic, perfect positioning, excellent stick-checking ability, or breakout skill by virtue of his burst skating and hands, he truly does it all. There is a reason he was playing in the toughest defensive matchups and on the penalty kill as an 18-year-old playing in the SHL on a playoff team. His defensive work is magical.
Physicality
Björck is a pest. Not in the typical sense of playing on the border of clean and dirty, but in the sense of simply being aggravating to play against. He plays extremely physically for his size, with a Zach Benson-esque ability to force trauma upon defenders playing against the forecheck through sheer willpower and tenacity. He’s strong on the puck, protects it well, and uses body checking to wear down the opponent and better position himself on both sides of the puck. For his size, he has immense strength and power and certainly plays with a style more typical of a player who has 6” and 40 pounds on him.
If the GMs ahead of the Devils over-prioritize size as they typically do, Mehta might be able to capitalize on their ineptitude. In the event that Björck is available, he should absolutely be the preferred target — he’s a consensus top-six talent in the draft from pundits and scouts alike, and his work ethic should neutralize any and all concerns about his combination of size and skating ability. Even then, his skating isn’t a real concern, and banking on IQ, hockey sense, and work ethic seem to be the way to go in today’s NHL. I’ll be manifesting for his drop to 12 until it happens.
NHL Timeline: 2027-28
NHL Stylistic Comparables: Zach Benson, Logan Stankoven, Brad Marchand
The clips in this video were taken from Jesse Marshall’s mixtape on Bjorck, which you can find here. I highly, highly recommend watching the video in full and checking out Jesse’s Substack, Faceoff-Factor! He can also be found on The Athletic and EliteProspects from time to time.
For what it's worth, Pronman at The Athletic has this guy as our selection in his mock draft.
Too early to predict what our lineup would look like when he gets to the NHL, but on our current day roster, where would you see him slotting in?