Henrik Samuelsson was drafted by the Coyotes in the 1st round, 27th overall in the 2012 NHL Draft.
The young forward lit up junior hockey with the Edmonton Oil Kings, helping his team to two WHL Championships and the Memorial Cup in 2013-2014. From there he stepped into the AHL seamlessly, scoring 18 goals and 22 assists in 68 games for the Portland Pirates in his first AHL season.
From there his production fell off a cliff and he became another in a long line of misses for the Coyotes scouting department.
Henrik Samuelsson ended up playing in just three NHL games in his career. All three were in 2014-2015, and all three were in this jersey. This sweater is also photomatched to his NHL debut and the other two games.
Samuelsson’s game worn jersey does not show much wear given the lack of playing time.
There are some loose threads in the end of the right sleeve, and a small amount of pilling. Below the crest is the most visible mark, with a slash mark sticking straight out from the bottom of the coyotes’ ear.
Henrik’s jersey has a very interesting mass of loose threads (or fraying) on the right sleeve numbers, as well as what looks like some dye fading from the twill into the jersey. Thanks to this mess of frayed threads, Samuelsson’s jersey can be photomatched to all three games.
His NHL debut, on February 26th, 2015 against the New York Rangers, shows the issues with the sleeve numbers quite well.
The next two games he played in — February 28th, 2015 against the Boston Bruins and April 9th, 2015 against the Vancouver Canucks — also show the loose and frayed threads, but the stick mark below the crest is also visible.
Samuelsson’s jersey has the Arizona Coyotes set tag in the back hem.
Samuelsson became the second player who played youth/minor hockey in Arizona to be drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2012.
Henrik played for the PF Changs 16U AAA and PF Changs 18U AAA teams before his time with the USNTDP and Edmonton Oil Kings. PF Changs was the precursor to the current Jr. Coyotes program in Scottsdale.
Along with Zac Larraza, the pair remain the only homegrown products to be selected by the Coyotes.
Henrik Samuelsson is also in rare air as one of the few Arizona products to be drafted into the NHL or NWHL. The list is small but growing steadily, and it’s even larger when you factor in players who have broken into the professional ranks and might potentially make it to the NHL in the future.
His career might have taken a different path than was expected, but Henrik (and his brother Philip) remain important figures in the growth of the desert hockey movement.