Berggren said for the first 5-6 weeks after he injured his back, he was only able to do some light biking and a few other things but after that, he was able to fully train and he feels stronger than ever at this point.
The Detroit Red Wings drafted Berggren in the second round, 33rd overall, in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.
He was considered to be a late first-round talent so picking him up early in the second round could turn into a bit of a steal.
However, the injury has delayed Berggren's development a bit and he will have to have an excellent, completely healthy season in Sweden this coming year in order to consider coming to North America in 2020-21.
16 -- Berggren played in just 16 games for Skelleftea AIK in the Swedish Hockey League. Last season Berggren played 38 games for Skelleftea AIK J20 of the SuperElit and 10 games for Skelleftea AIK in the SHL.
5 -- In international play, Berggren played in five games for Team Sweden's U20 team.
7 -- Berggren also competed for Skelleftea AIK in the Champions Hockey League tournament, playing seven games.
1 -- In those seven games in the CHL, Berggren scored one goal.
3 -- Berggren registered three assists for Skelleftea AIK in the SHL and also had three assists for Team Sweden's U20 team.
4 -- In general, Berggren is not a highly penalized player. He had four penalty minutes this past season.
19 -- The skilled Swedish forward was just 17 when the Wings drafted him in 2018. He does not turn 19 until July 16.
Quotable: "Jonatan is a real skilled player. He played 16 games at the start of the year and it didn't go the way he would have liked it to. But having said that, he was injured the whole time. It wasn't until a little while that they found out he had a back injury that eventually kept him out for the rest of the season. He's a kid that brings good skill, he's a good skater. But he's another one, he's just young, he's had to learn about the physical side of the game. He's maturing in terms of trying to figure out what he's going to need to do in order to give himself the best chance of playing in the NHL. I've talked to him plenty of times during the summer. He has a good workout program, a good off-ice program set up for him in order to put that necessary strength on. He's in the same boat as a lot of other young, skilled good players, we're trying to make them, especially on the development side, we're trying to make them figure out sooner rather than later that it's not so much how much you weigh, it's how strong you are. You need to have a certain level of strength in order to play in the NHL nowadays. So it really doesn't matter how big you are, how tall you are, how much you weigh, it's going to be how strong you are. If you're a smaller, skilled player, you have to be able to protect the puck and not get knocked off it. He's kind of going through that phase right now. But he's healthy now for the first time in a long time, he's had a great summer of training and I look forward to seeing him in development camp." -- Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development
