#Rangers prospect Nils Lundkvist signs deal with Swedish team

So Nils Lundkvist, the righty defenseman selected 28th-overall in the 2018 entry draft, won’t be available to the Rangers until either after Lulea ends its season in the Swedish League or the 2021 World Championships are completed if the 19-year-old is reserved for Team Sweden’s roster.

That is because Lundkvist, whose entry-level contract signing with the Blueshirts had been anticipated, instead signed a one-year extension to remain with Lulea on Saturday, perhaps influenced to a certain degree by uncertainty in the U.S. created by the pandemic.

Lundkvist had been expected to line up fourth on the Blueshirts’ depth chart behind Jacob Trouba, Adam Fox and Tony DeAngelo, assuming that DeAngelo — who will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this offseason — is not dealt.

The contract certainly could have included an assignment clause under which Lundkvist would have been loaned to Lulea rather than sent to AHL Hartford if he didn’t crack the NHL as a teenager.

All that might have been rendered moot, anyway, for the Swedish Hockey League seems set on opening next season on schedule while the NHL 2020-21 season is not expected to start until late December, at the earliest. So Lundkvist theoretically could have played the entire season (plus playoffs) in Sweden and joined the Blueshirts, say, in May, for the final weeks of the regular season plus the playoffs.

Not now, though, if he is reserved by Sweden for the World Hockey Championship.