Nils Lundkvist wins Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award as Rangers’ top rookie in camp

The young defenseman voted the team’s best rookie in training camp.

On Monday morning, the New York Rangers announced that defenseman Nils Lundkvist has been named this year’s winner of the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award.

The Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award was first presented in 1988 and is named for Lars-Erik Sjoberg, who was the Rangers chief European scout for eight years. It is awarded annually to the top Rangers rookie in Training Camp as selected by the media. The media did not name a winner last year because of the pandemic.

Lundkvist, 21, was originally drafted by the rangers in the first round (28th overall) in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. He led all Rangers rookies this preseason with three assists in four games.

Here are the previous winners of the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award:

1988 Mike Richter
1989 Troy Mallette
1990 Steven Rice
1991 Tony Amonte
1992 Peter Andersson
1993 Mattias Norstrom
1994 Mattias Norstrom
1995 Niklas Sundstrom
1996 Eric Cairns
1997 Marc Savard
1998 Manny Malhotra
1999 Kim Johnsson
2000 Filip Novak
2001 Dan Blackburn
2002 Jamie Lundmark
2003 Dominic Moore
2005 Henrik Lundqvist
2006 Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky
2007 Marc Staal
2008 Lauri Korpikoski
2009 Matt Gilroy
2010 Derek Stepan
2011 Carl Hagelin
2013 Jesper Fast
2014 Anthony Duclair
2015 Oscar Lindberg
2016 Jimmy Vesey
2017 Filip Chytil
2018 Lias Andersson
2019 Adam Fox
2021 Nils Lundkvist