Nicklas Danielsson has become one of the most successful members of the 2003 Canucks draft class and certainly the most well-traveled of the bunch. He is still professionally active today, having played in over 700 games — for eight teams across four different leagues — since being drafted 160th overall. However, not one of those games was played on North American ice. The Canucks drafted Danielsson from Brynas IF of the SHL, where he returned for his draft-plus-one year.
Unfortunately, he underperformed the years both before and after being drafted, and by the end of 2003-04, ended up in the Swedish Division 1, now known as the HockeyAllsvenskan, playing for Almtuna IS. Another disappointing season in SHL during the 2004-05 campaign resulted in Danielsson spending the entirety of 2005-06 with Almtuna, where he finally broke out of his shell, scoring at a near point-per-game pace.
This was enough for Djurgardens IF to give the 21-year-old forward another shot in the SHL, where he played until 2010. While his play left much to be desired at first, Danielsson improved over time. In 2010, he signed with Modo for two years, during which he played the best hockey of his career, getting 52 points in 53 games in 2011-12.
By this time, he was ready to venture out of Sweden, and joined Bern SC in Switzerland the next year. Unfortunately, the points didn’t follow, and Danielsson was moved to Prague Lev of the KHL mid-season, where he continued to struggle.
He lasted one calendar year in Prague before returning to the Swiss League, this time with Rapperswil-Jona, where his production spiked again in 2014-15. In 2015, at age 31, Danielsson transferred to Lausanne HC, where he put up decent to excellent numbers over three seasons. Last summer, he returned to Brynas, where he scored 30 points year, and will play until his contract expires in 2021.