Where in the world is Fabian Brunnstrom

Well he’s thinking of Toronto
or maybe Detroit too,
.
The folks in Dallas have a shot
and there maybe a Montreal bonjour..
.
He’s traveled far across the seas
To land on North America’s shores,
.
He’s said to be the latest hockey sensation for sure
But tell us, where in the hockey world is Fabian Brunnstrom?



He’s possibly the most anticipated arrival from Sweden since Abba and knock down furniture, and armed with a Rand McNally road map and some pretty good playoff tickets in three of his four final cities Fabian Brunnstrom is apparently very close to making a decision.

Brunnstrom, is the 23 year old unrestricted free agent, who just completed his first season with Farjestad of the Swedish Elite League. And for a few days now he has been the pre draft story in the NHL, a potential addition to an NHL team that will come with few conditions.

He has been the talk of the NHL over the last few weeks ever since the Vancouver Canucks tossed Dave Nonis over the side, Brunnstrom apparently had developed a rapport with the former Canuck GM and was for all intents and purposes set to join the Canucks, however events in Vancouver evolved in a way that apparently didn’t sit well with the Swede and so the chase was on to lure him to one of the other 29 NHL cities.

He has popped up on our television sets during the various playoff games of the last few weeks, a cameo appearance in Dallas or popping up in Detroit like Elvis, in the building somewhere. Montreal gave him a two day tour of the city and perhaps a complimentary line up card to impress upon him the worldly ways of hockey these days in Montreal.

The latest entry into the Brunnstrom sweepstakes has been the Maple leafs who drafted Borje Salming into trying to talk the Swedish phenom into donning the Blues of Toronto for the 2008-09 season, at the same time perhaps as an insurance policy to try and impress the youngster the Leafs also began to discuss another year for Mats Sundin in Toronto.

The rumour of the day in Toronto was the pending arrival of Dave Nonis in Toronto to take on the GM duties at the Air Canada Centre, a move that would certainly give the leafs a leg up in landing Brunnstrom, considering his close regard for the former Canuck GM, Nonis could simply add some of the MLSE magic money pile to the offer sheet and come in making some noise we guess, if we indeed want to start dwelling in the land of the conspiracy theories.

Back on the ice, the Brunnstrom travelling road show is providing for a lot of speculation as to just how promising the Swede may be. While his first full year of play in the Swedish Elite league, didn’t exactly have him burning the league up with points, playing with Farjestad of the Swedish Elite League, he scored 33 points in 42 games.

The fact that he fell through the cracks at the drafting table and will come with virtually no , makes him a most coveted addition to a roster and a mostly cost free one at that.

He'll put finger to map in the near future, selecting the North American city which he feels will be the best option for his fledgling NHL career.

If he's the next big thing then his decision will make one of the four finalists on the list today a whole lot better, a whole lot quicker.

If however, he's a bust one wonders if we'll even remember all the excitement that he generated in the last two weeks, or if he'll just become another piece of familiar furniture from the folks who gave us Ikea...

Globe and Mail-- Brunnstrom set to streamline list of suitors
Globe and Mail-- Hotly-pursued free agent Brunnstrom ponders his options
Detroit Free Press-- Brunnstrom to make decision by Thursday
Detroit Free Press-- Wings try to woo Swedish star Fabian Brunnstrom with grand tour
Montreal Gazette-- NHL clubs drooling over Brunnstrom
Toronto Star-- Brunnstrom's eyeing Maple Leafs
Canoe.ca-- Brunnstrom to decide soon
TSN.ca-- FIRST INTERNET-CREATED HOCKEY LEGEND SURFACES