NHL Draft profiles: Could Solberg fall to Penguins?

This is the ninth story in a series of player profiles from the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., focusing on potential second-round picks for the Penguins at 44th and 46th overall.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Stian Solberg was a forward until he was 14 years old, until a trip to Sweden for a tournament with his Norwegian team changed everything.

"It's actually a pretty funny story," Solberg deadpanned at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo earlier this month. "One of my teammates peed in his (hotel) bathtub, and the coach said, 'You can't do that! You can't play! Stian, you're playing D!'"

Four years later, Solberg is still playing defense and will be a first- or second-round pick in this summer's draft. His bathtub-peeing teammate, he told me, isn't playing hockey anymore.

"I just noticed I was a better defenseman," Solberg said. "So I switched."

Solberg seems built to be a defenseman. He's got pretty good size, especially for his age, at 6 foot 2 and 205 pounds. He makes good use of it too -- he's a heavy hitter who plays with an edge and has a bit of a mean streak to his game.

"I would say I'm a two-way defender," said Solberg, who is left-handed. "Really enjoy the physical play, like to play hard and make sure that the other teams don't have a great time out there."

Solberg named Drew Doughty and Moritz Seider as defensemen he looks up to in the NHL -- "two guys with a great view of the ice and who like to bring up the puck and play hard," he explained.

The Elite Prospects draft guide compared him to Jacob Trouba, saying that Solberg is a "defensive defenseman with one of the best physical games in the entire draft."

A native of Oslo, Norway, Solberg has spent time in the top Norwegian league for the last three years. It's not a very strong league, but it's still a professional league against grown men, and Solberg has been able to handle himself well. He had five goals and 10 assists in 42 games last season, the third-most points among his team's defensemen, and his 47 penalty minutes were the second-most among his team's defensemen. He had another two goals and seven assists in 17 playoff games, and led his team in penalty minutes with 35.

Solberg made his World Championship debut this spring with Norway in the top tier of the tournament. Norway was in Group A for the tournament, having Solberg go head-to-head against the likes of Canada, Czechia and Finland. Norway went 2-5 in preliminary play, beating just Great Britain and Denmark, failing to qualify for the playoffs but avoiding relegation for next year's tournament. Solberg was a key player for his team, playing around 25 minutes a game. He had two goals and an assist in seven games, including this goal against Canada:

... and this one against Czechia:

"You know, I'm still young, so I wasn't expecting that, such a big of a role," Solberg said of the World Championship. "But I felt like I played pretty good in the playoffs. So I felt like it was deserved too, but a little bit surprised."

Next season, Solberg will make the jump to a better league, signing a two-year contract with Farjestad BK in the Swedish Hockey League.

"I was just feeling like that's my next step to take," Solberg said of his decision. "Sweden is a really competitive league with some great players, and it's a great place to develop and to get to be a better hockey player."

Around mid-season, Solberg was looking like he would be a late-second round or early-third round pick. His second half of the season -- especially the Norwegian playoffs and the World Championship -- improved his stock ... perhaps too much for the Penguins. Solberg might be a late-first round pick now.

"I felt like my second half was a much better time of the season," he said. "I improved a lot. I got more confidence and felt like I did my s--- pretty good. My playoff was good, and my men's tournament in the end there was pretty good."

Regardless, the Penguins were one of 30 teams to meet with Solberg at the combine. He told me that his meeting with the Penguins was around 20 minutes long, a "great meeting with great guys" that included some video work of his own plays.

If Solberg is still around when the Penguins are on the clock with their 44th overall pick, it should be the easiest decision ever for them, especially for a team with a very small pool of defense prospects.