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Victor Hedman's gigantic stick is high in the air. It looks long enough to fly a flag and it seems to stretch into the rafters of the Ottawa Civic Centre.

Then, suddenly, the monstrous Swede is rapping that stick against the ice, three times and loudly, demanding the puck from his defence partner Erik Karlsson, who is stationed on the other point.

Karlsson, an Ottawa Senators draft pick, ignores the giant and shoots. The puck is deflected and meekly flutters into the protective mesh behind the Latvian net.

Godzilla is not happy. He stares deliberately across the blueline at his partner, shoulders sunken, knowing an opportunity has just been lost.

Therein lies the rub with Hedman, the chief rival to Canadian forward John Tavares to be the first overall selection in the 2009 NHL entry draft.

At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, Hedman draws size comparisons to Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks because he is so much taller and heavier than the others. But when scouts talk about his game, they draw comparisons to Jay Bouwmeester of the Florida Panthers, or countryman Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings.

"Maybe I could be more physical, but it's not my game," Hedman said after a 10-1 victory over Latvia before 9,622 yesterday. "I'm not out to kill someone or to hurt someone."

Hedman likes to possess the puck. He likes to skate with it, he likes to create with it, and he likes to shoot it. He is hyper aggressive when the small rubber disc is in his orbit, so much so that his coach says he needs to play nicer with others.

But for someone so large, and so capable of dominating a game physically, Hedman has not yet tapped that potential. He leans on opposing forwards, but he doesn't splatter them. He plays without Pronger's nasty streak, rather, there is a calmness about everything he does, perhaps born of his superiority at every developmental level.

"I try to be a puck-moving defenceman and I like to take the puck up out of the zone and make passes," Hedman said. "That and play on the power play. That's my game, and not the physical part."

If not here at the world junior championship, the 18-year-old is already playing against men in the Swedish elite league, where he serves as the No. 2 defenceman for Modo, and plays on all special teams. He comes from the same Ornskoldsvik hockey factory that produced Vancouver's Sedin twins, and he earned his lumps against two older brothers, four and eight years his senior and both hockey professionals, in basement games of "floorball" where young Victor was always in goal.

But yesterday, only the Latvians were taking lumps. Hedman earned one assist and was plus-two, but more impressive were the flashes of skill.

In the opening period, he dropped a no-look, backhand pass while being harassed by a small Latvian forward who resembled a gnat on his immense back. It was the type of showy pass — in front of his own net, no less — that you don't attempt without supreme confidence.

In the second period, he delivered a hard, two-line pass that set up a partial breakaway. That came seconds after a perfectly timed pinch and sharp shot to the low corner that required an equally sharp pad save.

But Hedman was not without flaw on this night. He got caught flat-footed and, while in frantic chase, launched his stick in desperation at a streaking Latvian. The crowd jeered when the referee penalized Hedman for slashing and did not award a penalty shot.

Surely, scouts took notice of that, too. But there is a huge caveat to evaluating Hedman at this game. It is against Latvia, perhaps the worst team at this tournament.

Next up, Hedman and Sweden will face Russia in a game that will decide first place in Group B. After that, Sweden could face a quarter-final or semi-final game against the United States or even Canada, the latter being a dream one-on-one matchup between Hedman and Tavares.

"He has the whole package. He is a young player who can be really good and I think he's waiting for the bigger games that are coming," Sweden's head coach Par Marts said. "You haven't seen the best of him yet."