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***sköldpaddor*** · 10-27-2021, 11:40 AM

VISBY, SWEDEN -- Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson spends his winters (the past three now) playing in Örnsköldsvik, but it is summer when I sit down to interview him, and thus we are in his hometown of Visby. He is working, as he does every summer, at a little sandwich shop owned by his parents, and it is there that we sit down after the lunch rush, once there are only a few customers remaining.

Lias says the first thing people notice about him is usually his size - and he does not note that as a positive. “You’re probably thinking wait, this is the guy?” I assure him that in my time covering hockey I’ve long since learned not to judge a book by its cover, and he grins. “Good,” he says. “I think a lot of people underestimate me, but that’s just because they’ve never seen anything like me before.”

As you may already be guessing, Lias’s self-confidence is not in short supply. That has, according to his mothers, created some hesitancy on the part of scouts and coaches, but thus far, Lias has been able to back up most if not all of that confidence with skill.

“He has always been very matter-of-fact about it,” Lias’s mother Amelia tells me. “I don’t think he sees it as bragging, just…telling things like he sees them.”

Amelia and her wife Maja have lived in Visby for Lias’s entire life, although he was born across the water. “He was two weeks early,” explains Maja, “and we were coming home from visiting my parents, and I’d been, you know, I had been having false alarms for a week, so I thought it was more of that, and then an hour later…it all happened very, very quickly.”

“He’s been in a hurry since the day he was born,” Amelia laughs. “Never really slowed down.”

Lias seems entirely comfortable to sit and listen as his parents talk about him, and doesn’t interrupt, staying quiet until I ask him another question - with all of that confidence, are there areas he thinks he can improve in?

“Well yeah,” he says, “of course. I’m not sitting here at seventeen years old claiming to be the best player currently in the game. I know I have to work for it. I need to work on some of my defense, because that hasn’t been my main focus yet. But here’s the thing - people ask me this question a lot, because I think they read me as full of myself, and not willing to own up to my weaknesses. People ask me this and I think they’re waiting for me to just say I don’t have any weaknesses or something. That’s not true, I can talk about the stuff I need to work on. But I’m not going to pretend like I don’t know I’m good so people will call me humble or whatever.”

No one is going to be calling Lias humble in the near future, I am relatively certain of that. I have spoken to a few of his current teammates and coaches briefly, though, and one interesting thing that stands out to me is that they have almost all described him as a team player. I mention that, and ask him how he manages to balance that with his straightforward desire to acknowledge his own skill set.

“Well, it’s a team sport,” he says. “Figuring out how to vibe with the team you’re on is part of being good at it. I know what I bring to the table, but I also try to think about like, you know, how I can help everybody I play with get a little better, too.”

I ask him what influences he thinks have made him better, and how he discovered he had a talent for the things he is so eager to tell me he is good at.

“I did some youth stuff here at home when I was really young,” he says, “like four or five. But then they found out,” he nods at his mothers, who are clearly the they he mentions, “about the dev camp stuff in Stockholm, so then I started doing that for a couple of weeks in the offseason.” He’s referring to the youth developmental camps originally started (and still operated by) Gunnar Söderberg, who is beginning his final season in the SHL this year after what will be a seventeen-year career in the SMJHL and SHL. Söderberg has always been fairly outspoken in marketing the program specifically towards the LGBTQ+ community, and while there’s certainly no such requirement for participation, it was that outreach that caught Amelia and Maja’s attention.

“We thought it was just a really interesting program," Amelia says, "regardless of…you know, the path his own life takes in that regard, because we really didn’t know, he was only seven when he first started up there, regardless of any of that it was really nice to have that kind of community, where we knew he’d be able to focus on his hockey without having to worry about anybody giving him any grief about his family situation.”

Lias himself does not comment on that aspect of the program, and cuts immediately back to the hockey discussion.

“I did that during parts of the summers, and then I come back here and help out the rest of the summer here, but I’m always training,” he says, gesturing at our surroundings. “Freja’s old enough to help out a little now too, so I can stay away more sometimes.” Freja is Lias’s sister, who is keeping busy behind the counter throughout this interview. Both siblings bear a striking resemblance to Amelia - auburn hair, grey eyes, the same round features and dimples that are apparent even before they smile, and Maja laughs when I comment on that.

“You would never know I gave birth to them both, would you?” she muses, glancing back and forth between the two.

“Ekholm genes are too strong,” Amelia teases, and explains that she’s not joking - both children were born via donation from her younger brother, and Lias’s other given name, Elliot, he shares with his uncle. Freja is three years younger than Lias, and despite the clear physical similarities between them, it is apparent that Lias is the one who attracts the spotlight. I ask if it’s always been that way, and Lias laughs, glancing over at his sister.

“Yeah, you know, you think that, but outside of hockey she is way more popular than I am.” It is an uncharacteristic note of humility from him, but unsurprising, given how closely-knit their whole family unit seems to be. Later, when I speak to Lias’ parents alone, Amelia tells me that the only thing he takes more seriously than hockey is being Freja’s older brother.

“He’s always been so protective of her, since she was born,” she says. “Even then, when he was just three, he would hardly let her out of his sight. And she idolizes him, you know, has always wanted to do everything he was doing.”

Now, though, it is clear that Lias is intent on leaving home, more than he has even in the past when he has gone to play on the mainland. I ask him if he has any uncertainty about that, and he shrugs.

“I’m a big boy,” he says, and then, one corner of his mouth twisting in a wry smile, adds, “metaphorically speaking, anyway. I’ve been leaving home to play for a lot of the year since I was fourteen, I’m not scared of being away. I mean, obviously I’m going to miss my family, but this is what I was born to do, I’m ready to go and do it.”

Which begs the question - where does he see himself ending up, ideally?

“Somewhere I’m appreciated,” he says, which is more or less the type of vague answer I am used to receiving from prospects who don’t want to commit too fully to any one thing prior to the draft. “I’ve spent my whole life so far proving myself, showing people that I can hold my own out there with guys a lot bigger than me. I’m ready to go and play somewhere they’re going to respect what they’re getting and recognize that I’m worth the pick they’re using on me.”

I ask him where he anticipates being taken in the upcoming SMJHL draft, if he sees himself as an early pick or someone who will fly under the radar.

“Well, if anybody’s paying attention, I’m a pretty obvious first round choice. Always hard to really judge how far people have been looking, though, when you haven’t been playing on the same continent as a lot of the guys who are getting scouted right now. People don’t always pay attention to the things they should.” He declines to tell me which teams have spoken to him so far, but does mention that it’s “a few” and one could probably be forgiven for assuming it is not as many as he would like or expect, given the face he makes when he says it. “You can talk to my agent if you want more info there.”

Lias’s agent is Johnny Hamilton, who also represents well-known SHLers like Seattle’s Cassius Darrow and Chicago’s Gunnar Söderberg (who, as previously mentioned, runs the development program that initially got Lias seriously invested in the game). I ask if the agent connection came as a result of his familiarity with Söderberg.

“Kind of, I guess,” he says. “Like, I think it was a really good fit, and I don’t know if Gunns actually said anything to Johnny about me but I definitely knew about Johnny from him, so when he hit me up I already knew I didn’t have to worry about anything like…shady or whatever. Johnny knows what he’s doing and he’s already been keeping an ear to the ground for me over there while I wrap things up here.”

When I spoke to Hamilton himself after this interview, he clarified things a little on that front.

“I'm pretty engaged on Twitter. A few of his Tweets popped up on my newsfeed, and I liked what I was reading of his attitude and energy. I reached out to see if he had highlight reel I could review. His coach sent something over and I could tell he was a special talent.” He assures me that Söderberg actually had nothing to do with it, and it was only after Lias himself mentioned working with Söderberg that he even realized the connection was there.

I ask Lias if either Hamilton or Söderberg have given him any pointers or recommendations for the upcoming juniors draft, but he is fairly restrained when it comes to divulging any of his hopes for that, and he seems equally reluctant discuss any specific thoughts on the draft after that, his SHL draft, a full season away.

“I think about it plenty,” he assures me. “I mean, what kid who wants to play pro hockey doesn’t think about that like, every day? I’m just trying to take things one at a time. Juniors draft first, then we’ll think about what’s next. I’ve been wanting this since I was like six years old, I can wait a little longer to make sure the timing is right.”

What would six-year-old Lias tell me, if I asked what his dreams are, if he had to pick one player he looked up to the most? Lias seems to find that question amusing, because he laughs, and the smile doesn’t leave his face even as he answers.

“Well, I grew up a big fan of San Francisco. I know Gunns probably wants me to say I watched the Syndicate religiously and wanted to grow up to be like him or whatever, and he’s obviously been a big role model for me, but like, Svenson, HLO, those guys, you know, I grew up watching them play for Sweden at worlds and all, I just kind of gravitated towards that. I don’t know if I’d really say I have a favorite team, but I definitely kept up with SFP a little more than most other teams, I guess.”

Lias also hopes to represent Sweden internationally eventually, although he is aware that there is steep competition for roster spots at the IIHF level.

“Yeah, that team is crazy stacked,” he grins. “I feel like I can crack the squad for world juniors, but I’m aware it’ll be a while before I’m ready to go beyond that. Like, not that I don’t think I’m good enough, there are just a lot of extremely good, well-established players there, and you don’t want to mess with that kind of chemistry just for the sake of getting a new guy in there, even if…you know, the new guy is me. Those guys have been playing together for several years, so it’d be hard to expect to just slide in there and take away somebody else’s roster spot until some of the older players start to age out.”

With that opinion out in the open, I wonder what his plans are for moving forward from the SMJHL draft - if he expects to be called up sooner rather than later, and I’m surprised when he shakes his head.

“Nope, and I guess this is probably different than what people expect me to say, too, but when I make it to the SHL, I want to be damn sure I’m going to hit the ground running. Like, I don’t want anybody to say I wasn’t ready yet, or that I needed to spend more time developing, I want to earn my way there and I want to be the best in my class when I get there. I’m not like, too proud to play in juniors for as long as it takes to get my game where it needs to be.”

I ask him if he thinks his outspoken nature will cost him anything as far as draft position, and he shrugs.

“That's not really my problem. Look, I’m confident, but I don’t think it’s unjustified. I’m good at the game. And you can say what you want about like, raw physical potential or whatever edge you think I’m missing, but I can promise you, there is nobody out there who is going to work harder for this than I am. I don’t take anything for granted, and I go out there and I give it everything I have, every single time, whether it’s practice or regular season or the playoffs.”

Lias’s high opinion of his own skill set may rub some scouts and GMs the wrong way, but throughout my conversation with him and the people closest to him - his parents, his agent, his current and former coaches and teammates - I’ve become convinced that he may have more grounds for that confidence than many players who insist that they are the next big thing. He has the work ethic and the raw talent to justify his belief in himself; what remains to be seen is how well he responds to the coaching he will need in order to find his place in the game in North America.

“Lias will be a star. Who wouldn't want to strike quickly to lock that in?” Johnny Hamilton claims, and while you might argue it’s his job as Lias’s agent to say things of that sort, he seems to genuinely believe it. And if Lias continues to apply himself with as much dedication as he has thus far, I’m inclined to believe it, too.

Lias is expected to be selected in the upcoming SMJHL draft, and will be eligible for the S63 SHL draft.