by Brock Ormond | AHL On The Beat
It’s a big adjustment coming from a different country to the competitive fishbowl that is the American Hockey League.
However, 20-year-old Oskar Pettersson has fit into the Belleville Senators puzzle perfectly on their quest to secure a Calder Cup Playoff spot.
The native of Halmstad, Sweden, made his way to North America and signed with the B-Sens in January after being selected by the parent Ottawa Senators in the third round of the 2022 NHL Draft.
The move to Belleville came after winning a silver medal with Team Sweden at the World Junior Hockey Championship in his home country, and playing with Rogle BK in the Swedish Hockey League. Pettersson said he wanted to try the next step of his hockey career.
“I’ve always had a dream of playing in North America ever since I was a little kid,” Pettersson said. “I’ve always been very interested to see how my game would develop here on the smaller ice surface. I think I have gained a lot from that.”
In the past month and a bit since donning a B-Sens uniform, Pettersson said he has found the North American game faster, with more aggression and battles along the boards.
In order to contend with that, the young forward is tapping into his favorite players from Sweden, Patric Hornqvist and Gabriel Landeskog, and using his 6-foot-2, almost-200-pound frame to adjust.
“[Hornqvist] was a great player, good grit and he was a great player in front of the front of the net, scoring many goals and using his body,” Pettersson said. “With Landeskog, it’s just the way he competes and how he combines both skill and hard work.”
Pettersson had praise for his coaches, including head coach David Bell and assistants Nathan McIver and Chris Dennis, for their guidance in making his transition easier and putting trust in him.
“They’ve done a great job by not giving me too much information on the team’s system straight away, and taking it step by step so it doesn’t get overwhelming for me,” he explained. “They’ve been awesome.”
Off the ice, the adjustment to life in Canada has been eased by the current group of Scandinavians, including fellow Swede Jacob Larsson and Finns Lassi Thomson, Leevi Merilainen and Nikolas Matinpalo.
Pettersson credits those players, especially Larsson, who has become a mentor of sorts for him, for being so welcoming.
“Larsson reached out to me the day I came. He’s been great,” he expressed. “If I’ve got any questions at all, I just ask him, and he helps me out. He has been inviting me for dinners and stuff too.
“I also live with Leevi, we’re staying together in a house, so it’s been great.”
Growing up in Halmstad, a summer port city with more than 71,000 inhabitants on Sweden’s west coast, hockey was in Pettersson’s fabric.
“My father always played hockey and then he coached my older brother who’s three years older than me,” he said. “My older brother has always been a role model for me, so I always wanted to do what he did so I would say the reason why I started was because of him.”
Pettersson finished by saying he wants his goal for the rest of this season, besides booking a trip to the AHL postseason, to be building his game, learning from the sizable group of veteran players on the Sens and getting stronger ahead of a full professional season in 2024-25.
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