- Oliver Wahlstrom signed a one-year deal with SHL club Djurgarden after going unsigned in the NHL all summer
- The 2018 11th overall pick finished with 73 points in 236 NHL games for the Islanders and Bruins
- Read below for what Djurgarden’s sporting director said and when Wahlstrom is expected to debut
Oliver Wahlstrom is taking his career to Stockholm.
The 26-year-old winger, taken 11th overall by the Islanders in 2018, has signed a one-year contract with Djurgarden of the Swedish Hockey League.
Djurgarden announced the move Tuesday. Wahlstrom never found an NHL deal this summer, and rather than take another minor-league contract, he is heading overseas.
He offered one line on the move in the club’s Swedish-language release.
“I’m super excited to come over and start as soon as I can,” Wahlstrom said.
New York drafted him out of the U.S. National Team Development Program, where his shot was already famous. Watch the Islanders call his name at No. 11:
That shot never turned into steady NHL production. His best year came in 2021-22, when he put up 13 goals and 24 points in 73 games.
Wahlstrom finished with 37 goals and 36 assists in 236 games across parts of six seasons. Boston claimed him off waivers during 2024-25, and those 16 games with the Bruins are his most recent NHL action.
Check out the kind of finish that kept him on rosters:
Last season he scored 24 goals and piled up 42 points in 62 games for AHL San Jose, leading the Barracuda in goals. Defenseman Lucas Carlsson, a teammate there, signed with Djurgarden this summer too.
Sporting director Marcus Due-Boje had been hunting a top-six forward who could work a power play. He said Wahlstrom ticked several boxes at once.
“We add skill in the offensive zone. We add cockiness. We add a weapon on the power play,” Due-Boje said.
Take a look at the tape that made him a first-rounder:
His debut is not coming right away. Wahlstrom will miss the SHL opener against Bjorkloven.
Due-Boje said Friday that tax paperwork is keeping Wahlstrom in North America a few more days and that he should land in Stockholm around the middle of next week. That points to a home debut against Farjestad on Oct. 1.
Stockholm is not new territory for him. The Islanders loaned Wahlstrom to AIK, Djurgarden’s city rival, to open the 2020-21 season, and he put up eight points in 10 games in Sweden’s second tier before heading back to Long Island.
