As with most of the young defensemen on this list, it will be a few seasons before we see what Leo Sahlin Wallenius can truly do for the San Jose Sharks. Fans will have to be patient as they wait for the 53rd overall pick in 2024 to develop because he’s not coming in to solve San Jose’s problems on defense this season or even in the next few seasons. Sahlin Wallenius is continuing to develop his game.
In his first season post-draft, the teen fluctuated between playing in Sweden and Finland. As Sharks’ Director of Player Development told the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast over the summer, Sahlin Wallenius “fell out of favor” with the coaching staff in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) early in the season. He was loaned to TPS in Finland, where he found his game, and more importantly, his confidence. After that, he returned to the SHL where he finished out the season.
Sahlin Wallenius’ stat sheet is typical of what you would see from an 18-year-old playing in a men’s league in that it has numbers from all over the board. He played with six different teams last season, putting up a variety of different statistics on each of those teams.
| Team | Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIMs | +/- |
| Växjö Lakers HC J20 (J20 Nationell) | 8 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 2 | 4 |
| Växjö Lakers HC (SHL) | 16 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Nybro Vikings IF (HockeyAllsvenskan) | 14 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 12 | -4 |
| TPS (Liiga) | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Sweden U19 “C” (International Jr.) | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| Sweden U20 (International Jr.) | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Position: Defenseman
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 183 pounds
Age: 19
Date of Birth: April 10, 2006
Draft Year: 2024 (53rd overall by San Jose Sharks)
Shoots: Left
2024-25 Team: Växjö Lakers HC (SHL)
What we like
The last time we made this list, Sahlin Wallenius clocked in at 15th and he still has all those attributes that earned him that spot our Top 25 Under 25. Sahlin Wallenius is a smooth skating defenseman, one of many that Sharks’ General Manager Mike Grier has worked hard to accumulate in the team’s prospect pool. His footwork is very good, which helps him close on attackers and evade pressure when he’s moving the puck up the ice.
While Sahlin Wallenius has done well scoring against kids his own age, so far that has not translated into the men’s league at the SHL level. While that could change, given that he lacks a booming shot or fancy puckhandling skills that will translate to the NHL-level, his defensive skills are likely his best attribute moving forward.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it means that Sharks fans aren’t going to see Sahlin Wallenius’ true skills on the scoresheet. They will have to wait until they see Sahlin Wallenius in person on the ice at SAP Center or Tech CU Arena before they see what he can bring to the Sharks. What Sahlin Wallenius is likely to be is a defensive defenseman who could play alongside an offensive partner like Sam Dickinson or create a formidable shutdown pairing on a future Sharks team.
Areas of improvement
As with a lot of players on this list, especially defensemen, the biggest area of improvement is going to be consistency. Sahlin Wallenius has a solid toolset to be successful in the NHL. He knows how to defend, close gaps and manage the game. That said, when he was playing against men in the SHL last season, he had trouble using those skills night in and night out, which is what led to him being loaned out to TPS in Finland.
This season, Sahlin Wallenius will need to prove he can use his skills to earn consistent minutes with the Växjö Lakers HC in the SHL. It does no one any good, especially the player, if he’s only playing five to ten minutes per night. He needs to be playing 15 to 20 minutes per night for this to be considered a successful season, preferrably 20-plus minutes.
What’s next for Sahlin Wallenius?
Sahlin Wallenius will return to the SHL this fall where, if all goes well, he will take a step forward in his development and stick with his SHL team fulltime. In the spring, the player and the Sharks can make the decision on whether to bring him over to North America to play with the Barracuda. That’s what Sahlin Wallenius did last season during the Barracuda’s playoff run and there’s no reason to think it won’t happen again.
In the meantime, Sahlin Wallenius is expected to play a prominent role for Sweden at the World Junior Championship in January. He played for Team Sweden at the summer showcase and put up solid numbers, five points in five games. Sweden was the best team in the mini-tournament, winning four out of its five games and finishing with a plus-eight goal differential.
Highlights
In this first clip, we see the kind of confidence Sahlin Wallenius got when he started playing with TPS in Finland.
Leo Sahlin Wallenius with the OT winner for TPS! pic.twitter.com/0Nr5x9rEQk
— JD Young (@MyFryHole) January 24, 2025
And just to show you that the kid kept that confidence going through the summer, I took this one from the Trekronorse Instagram page, which shows Sahlin Wallenius ending things during a shootout competition at the WJC Summer Showcase practice.
Previous Top 25 Under 25 Posts
20. Jack Thompson
21. Cole McKinney
22. Zack Ostapchuk
23. Mattias Havelid
24. Egor Afanasyev
25. Carson Wetsch
Honorable Mentions: Joey Muldowney, Jake Furlong, Brandon Svoboda, Nate Misskey, Gabriel Carriere
