For a player without a single identifiable fault in his game, it must be tough being thought of as second-best. Swedish defenceman Victor Hedman finds himself plunked into the middle of that puzzle.

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NHL top prospect Victor Hedman talks to the media after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings Team Practices before Game 3 of the 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Finals at Mellon Arena on June 2, 2009 in Pittsburgh.

Photograph by : Harry How/Getty Images

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There's simply not much to dislike about the six-foot-six, 220-pounder's game.

"He is a big, hulking, strong, great skating defenceman," offered National Hockey League director of Central Scouting E.J. McGuire.

"In a lot of ways, last year was the year of the defencemen where a lot were not only drafted high, but made their team. He is right up there.

He's right in the (Zach) Bogosian, Jack Johnson class."

"He doesn't have any weaknesses," said Goran Stubb, NHL director of European scouting.

"As an 18-year-old he played over 20 minutes (per game) regularly last season in the Swedish league. He's a very mature player."
While Hedman is a good candidate to be selected first overall at the NHL's entry draft on June 26 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, hockey pundits believe the 18-year-old giant is more likely to be drafted second, after London Knights star forward John Tavares.

"He's an excellent player," admitted Hedman of Tavares. "He obviously knows where to put the puck. He's a pure goal-scorer. I think he's going to be a great player for years to come."

Tavares, for his part, is equally a fan of his competition for the top pick overall.

"He's a big guy so he eliminates your time and space very quickly and he's very mobile for a big guy," Tavares said. "He closes space down on you very easily and it's hard to get around him because of his size. He's very good at reading the play and jumping in when he has to."
McGuire believes Hedman is as complete a defenceman as any eligible for the annual talent sweepstakes.

One of the rumoured knocks was how he responds to physical attention, but McGuire said Hedman shot down that theory at the world juniors. Hedman was a bit of a target for the Canadians after returning from a collarbone injury.

"They paid him some particular physical attention and he withstood that," said McGuire. "That was a bit of a litmus test because of his injury and I think he'd been back only two weeks prior to the world juniors. How he came out of that as far as NHL teams scrutinizing his play and performance, and I think he answered that."

Stubb agreed: "He is very mature, as I said, and I think he didn't really show at all that he had problems with an injury."
Hedman said his offensive game didn't quite shine at the juniors, but there was a reason.

"Obviously, they ask me what happened. I mean, I was in a more defensive role that I was used to. But if you want to get the most out of me, I need more puck. That's my style of play. I like to have the puck. But I'm not the type of guy to disagree with the coach, so I did what I was told to do.

"I was playing with Erik Karlsson (drafted 15th overall by the Ottawa Senators in 2008), and he's a very offensively gifted defenceman. So I took the defensive part and he was doing the offensive part. You can't obviously have two defencemen who are joining the rush or the turnovers are going to be brutal. They needed one guy to stay back more, so that was me."

Scouts across the hockey globe are drooling over Hedman - many contend he'll make an immediate impact in the NHL, even as an 18-year-old playing the most difficult position in the game.
Hedman was named rookie of the year this past season in Sweden. He posted fairly big numbers for a youngster - seven goals and 14 assists in 43 games. His tutor on the Modo blue-line was Mattias Timander, a veteran of 419 regular season NHL games with the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets.

He credits Timander for helping him along, but points to another Swede as the player he admires most.

"Obviously, I look up to (Detroit defenceman) Nick Lidstrom and pattern my game after him. But I think I'm more offensive than him," Hedman said. "It's just his leadership and style of play, I really admire."

Hedman hails from the Swedish hockey factory of Ornskoldsvik - a town of less than 55,000 people known for producing star NHL players such as Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Niklas Sundstrom. His older brothers play as well - Oscar plays for Frolunda HC, while his oldest brother, Johan, plays for Morrum in the Swedish Elite League Division II.

"They taught me. We were always playing down in the basement and I was almost every time coming up crying. They pushed me around," Hedman cracked.

Victor Hedman
Team: Modo (Swedish Elite League)
Position: Defenceman
CS ranking: First, skaters
Born: Dec. 18, 1990, Ornskoldsvik, Sweden
Height: Six-foot-six
Weight: 220 pounds
2008-09 stats: 43 GP, 7 G, 14 A, 21 Pts
Central Scouting's take: "Victor Hedman brings to his game unsurpassed combinations of size, explosiveness in his skating, quickness and offensive ability. He is indeed the whole package and that just might get him the No. 1 selection overall."