This is Cederholm’s first rodeo, and he’s loving it

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This article was published 08/07/2016 (3388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Smiles, hugs and happiness are generally the order of the day for prospects when it comes to the NHL Draft.

Few players ever beamed like Jacob Cederholm did when the Winnipeg Jets called his name in the fourth round with the 97th overall pick last month in Buffalo.

“I couldn’t soak it in at first,” said the 18-year-old Swede at this week’s Jets development camp. “I just didn’t believe it. Maybe after half an hour I really believed I got drafted.

“It’s just a huge opportunity for me as a player and a person to develop in every situation both on and off the ice.

Even an hour after his selection, Cederholm was lighting up the room.

This week, he wasn’t embarrassed in the least to say how the draft brightened his day.

“I know that every organization is professional in the NHL and I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Winnipeg Jets,” he said. “So I was just so happy to be here. I was so excited so that’s why I was so happy. To be there with my family, it was like a dream come true.

“Everybody is so supportive in my family. They’re my biggest fans. I couldn’t ask for better parents. My mom and dad, they were so excited that I got drafted. That they have two boys getting drafted (Jacob’s brother Anton was selected by the Canucks three years ago), I think they’re so proud of us and we’re so proud of them for making us so good.”

Cederholm was not the biggest defenceman on the ice this week at development camp. That tag belongs to 6-7 Logan Stanley.

But at 6-4 and 187 pounds, he seems to be part of a trend on the blue-line.

Already, Cederholm is known as a sturdy defender, more focused on using his size to advantage to shut down opponents than on scurrying up the ice. He’ll play in the Swedish elite league next season for HV71 in Jonkoping. He played nine games for the team last season and three the year prior and knows more eyes are going to be on him now he’s been selected in the NHL Draft.

“Of course I’ll feel a bit of pressure, but I can only do my best thing out there, keep on working hard every day and getting one day better, not one day older,” he said. “Those are just the things I can do, and to work on my details, and then my day will come. Just to get this opportunity, I’m so pumped for the season. And I’ll be pumped to get home and get this going with my team.”

Cederholm is headed back to Sweden this weekend, ending an eventful trip to North America that also included a visit with his brother Anton in Portland, Ore., last week, right after the draft.

“He’s there for the summer so I went for a week to see him,” Cederholm said. “That was the first time in a half a year I saw him. We were doing some really nice stuff. I went to my first rodeo. Just doing stuff with my brother, it was nice just hanging out. He was so proud, too, and it was amazing to be there.

‘I know that every organization is professional in the NHL and I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Winnipeg Jets. So I was just so happy to be here. I was so excited so that’s why I was so happy’– Jets draftee Jacob Cederholm

“Portland’s an amazing place, and hot. It was nice to get some vacation.”

Cederholm said he’ll spend the rest of his vacation at home, which is Helsingborg in the far southwest of Sweden.

It’s a very old city with a metro area of more than 250,000 inhabitants, just four kilometres across the Oresund (bridge) from Helsingor, Denmark.

“We used to live, half a year ago, where we actually had view over to Denmark,” Cederholm said. “We actually went there sometimes with our school. It’s a really nice city.

“Helsingborg is not too big, not too small. Downtown, I really love it. It’s got nice beaches and the restaurants are really, really good. I’ll get home and be with my friends and my family and just spend some time. Then in a few weeks I’ll be back to Jonkoping and then get things going for the season.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca