No. 6 overall selectee of 2011 NHL draft Mika Zibanejad had a great time at the camp
Mika Zibanejad, who was picked 6th overall in the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) draft by Ottawa Senators, had a great time at the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp and enjoyed every bit of it.
19-year-old prospect of Senators, who has been playing in his native country, Sweden’s elite league and spent some time of the last season with Ottawa Senators, getting some games was very pleased as he helped his country’s team win 3-1 in the four games
series being played in US.
The Stockholm, Sweden native started his career back in his own country with Djurgårdens IF, a side in the junior league. He played in that team for two seasons before moving to the senior’s hockey in 2010-2011 season and with the same team’s senior side.
He scored five goals and four assists for a total of nine points in 26 games.
In the next season he earned a call from Senators and made his NHL debut in 2011-2012 season and scored a point in his very first game, which was an assist. But failure to score any point in his next eight games became a cause of him being sent back to native
country’s league.
The 6-foot-1, 200 pounder’s best achievement to date surely has been winning Gold medal with Sweden hockey team in World Junior Championships of 2012. He played a great role in Sweden’s gold medal campaign as he played 6 games, scored 4 goals and one assist,
the most important goal by him surely being the one that he scored in overtime against Russia in the finals.
Son of Iranian father and Finnish mother, calls it a great moment while talking to NHL.com. According to him it was unbelievable to win his country’s first gold medal in 31 years at competition as he said,
"It was obviously one of the biggest moments for me in my hockey career so far. It was unbelievable. Obviously it makes it more special because [the last gold] was 31 years ago. It's a big thing back home, and it's been bigger every year. We got closer every
year. People are interested in how we're doing. It was amazing."
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