TRAVERSE CITY -- You've heard this one before.
The Detroit Red Wings pluck a diamond in the rough from the lower tiers of the Sweden's leagues.
Said kid costs Detroit only a middle-round draft pick, and goes on to be a major contributor on a Stanley Cup team.
The punch line is always the same; only the names change.
Yeah, it's an old one, but a good one.
Detroit is at it again, and either the NHL isn't paying attention to how the franchise that regularly has the league's best record is putting together its team, or super-scout -- and Swede -- Hakan Andersson is just that good.
In deference to the rest of the NHL, we'll assume the latter.
Dick Axelsson -- nicknamed Hat-Trick Dick -- is the latest in a long line of mid-round picks from Sweden who the Red Wings think can be a major player.
Coming to the unofficial North American home of Swedish hockey players, Axelsson said he was happy when he was selected by Detroit in the third round of the 2006 draft.
"I'm not so good with the English, so it's good for me," he joked.
The Red Wings are now home to Swedish heroes Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg, plus Tomas Holmstrom, Mikael Samuelsson, Andrea Lilja, Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall.
And Detroit has more Swedish talent in its organization, including a 6-foot-2, 176-pound left winger in Axelsson.
"He's one of their leading scorers," said Detroit assistant general manager Jim Nill of Axelsson's season at Djurgarden in the Swedish Elite League. "We like his skill set. He's still got to get stronger -- like every young kid -- and learn how to compete hard every night. But that's part of the process of being here."
At Djurgarden, he was teammates with fellow Wings prospects Daniel Larsson and Johan Ryno. Current Detroit defenseman Kronwall played for the same team and Wings top prospect Jonathan Ericsson played at Huddinge, Axelsson's previous stop in his hockey journey. Detroit also used its fourth- and seventh-round picks this year on Swedes.
In his first prospects camp with the Wings, Axelsson has a long list of things he says he needs to work on to become an NHL player.
"Everything. I think everything," he said. "In the NHL, the play is so good, so I have to work at everything."
One hiccup in Axelsson's ascension to the NHL was a run-in with police earlier this year.
He was jailed for public drunken behavior in April in Stockholm and was expelled from the Swedish national team after the incident. He was not allowed to play or travel with the team in the World Championships in the Czech Republic.
"I had some trouble with the cops," Axelsson said, "But it's forgotten now."
Axelsson, 21, will return to Sweden in two weeks to play another season with Djurgarden this season.
After starting off the season at Djurgarden with 17 points in 27 games, Axelsson tapered off and ended with 25 points in 47 contests, but Nill said that was more due to injuries than to hitting the wall.
With Huddinge in Sweden's second-tier, he racked up 21 points (13 goals) in 25 games in the 2006-07 season.
On Huddinge's third-tier team in 2005-06, he had 17 goals in 23 games and then another 13 points in 13 games in the playoffs. That same year, he had 19 goals and 34 points in 28 games in Sweden's U-20 league. Those outputs drew the eye of Andersson and Detroit selected the relative unknown in the third round that year at age 19.
He's in the mold of a Zetterberg offensively, but isn't as defensively developed yet. Neither is he as physical as the Wings would like, partially the result of playing on Sweden's larger rinks.
"The ice is so big, you can't hit," Nill said. "And the game has gotten so fast now, it's hard to hit. When we talk about playing hard, it's about playing tough on the puck. It's not about being physical; it's about winning battles consistently."
Of course, those larger rinks also tend to result in increased skating skills, spacing awareness and offensive general prowess.
The Red Wings have the rights to another Swedish player named Axelsson, although the two aren't related.
Axelsson is a common name in Sweden -- much like Smith or Jones here in the States -- and Anton Axelsson, a fifth-round pick by Detroit in 2004, is the brother of current Boston Bruins forward P.J. Axelsson.
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