A few updates for you as the pre-season training game schedule starts to ramp up from this coming weekend.
Brynäs
Brynäs have had a week of training and will get back to pre-season training games on Friday against AIK. I’ll update the Line-Up chart properly tomorrow when they post their line-up, but there are a couple of notes already:
- Simon Bertilsson has been gradually building up his training after suffering from some elbow inflammation. The defenseman confirmed in an interview on their YouTube channel that he will be good to go against AIK.
- Head Coach Niklas Gällstedt spoke to Matthias Persson of HockeyNewsSE about the team’s pre-season training so far. That includes revealing the two powerplay units he will be deploying. I’ve updated the “PP PK” worksheet with the details.
Linköping
Linköping confirmed on Monday that they have signed Robin Kovács. The former AIK, Luleå, and Örebro forward has spent the past two seasons in Switzerland with Lausanne. He negotiated an early termination of his contract and has signed a new a four-year contract to return to the SHL.
Kovács wasn’t yet ready to feature for Linköping in their game on Thursday against Växjö. Also on the absentee list were Oscar Fantenberg (out for another week or so with an upper-body injury), Patrick Russell (national team assignment with Demark) and Jonathan Myrenberg. The team also confirmed that Rasmus Rissanen and Nick Shore will not be joining the squad until late September.
Växjö Lakers
As for Växjö, they called up a couple of forwards from their J20 group (Anton Linde and Ville Svensson) to make up a full set of 12. Off-season recruits Karl Henriksson, Otto Koivula and Félix Robert are all still out of action. That will be a concern given that Växjö are just one week away from their opening Champions Hockey League game against Eisbären Berlin next Thursday 5 September.
Joachim Blichfeld was absent too, but in his case he was looking very sharp playing for Denmark in their Olympic qualifier against Great Britain this evening.
