The 2025 Draft is over for the New Jersey Devils, but they made sure to get a defenseman before their finish.
Well, after five forwards and a goaltender, the New Jersey Devils have finally picked a defenseman in the 2025 NHL Draft. A teammate of Gustav Hillström, Holmgren should spend the 2025-26 season in the Swedish J20 Nationell league after playing well in their U18 league in the 2023-24 season. Yes, 2023-24 — Holmgren missed his entire draft year with an injury. I will be looking for what happened there, but I have not seen anything yet. Below, you can see his statistics from Elite Prospects.
Elite Prospects
So, this is a pretty difficult pick to evaluate. I cannot find video of him on YouTube. Information on him online is scant. He will have to show that, whatever his injury was over the last year, that he will not be deterred from making the NHL. If nothing else, it would be a hell of a story for a guy who was unranked being selected, coming off a completely lost year, to make the NHL. And if he ever plays with Jonas Siegenthaler, you can call it the Siegs-Sigge pairing. I guess there’s that.
I cannot hate on it for the same reasons I cannot say I love it. For all I know, Holmgren might be someone the scouting department has had an eye on since last season, and they may just be taking this shot in case he got attention as an overager next year. If it turns out that they made a shrewd move in that regard, that would be amazing from the scouting department. But if it turns out that this injury derailed his career, it will be a head scratching use of the pick. But I really feel like this cannot be properly evaluated until we know more about Sigge Holmgren. At the very least, I have a good amount of trust in Brynäs IF to prioritize professional development as one of the historical great Swedish teams, and I wish them the best of luck getting back to the top with Hillström and Holmgren in their system.
Now that you know what I think about the pick, please feel free to give your reaction to the pick in the comments. Please also vote in our flash poll (ends at 7:00 PM tomorrow), that will lead to a later post describing what you, the People Who Matter, thought of the pick. Thank you for reading.