Before I get to the news, if you’re not already familiar with HockeyNews.SE then I can heartily recommend them – and their premium subscription – as a great source of news, interviews and features about Swedish hockey and the NHL. It’s all in Swedish (reasonably enough!), but Google Translate works really well in converting it into English.
Not only do they offer their own reporting, they also highlight key news reported by other outlets. That’s invaluable if you live outside of Sweden as all of the main national and local newspaper websites, plus hockeysverige.se, require payment using Klarna and the BankID service that – as far as I’ve ever been able to establish – is not available to non-Swedish residents.
Onto the Line-Up news …
Brynäs
Brynäs started their pre-season training game schedule on Thursday against Timrå.
Returning hero Jakob Silfverberg was used on the top line alongside Jordan Schroeder and Oskar Lindblom, whilst Christian Djoos and Charles-Édouard D’astous were paired up defensively. Defenseman Simon Bertilsson was the main absentee.
Timrå
As for Timrå, Olli Jokinen’s first unofficial line-up as Head Coach featured young Finnish forward Oliver Kapanen, the Montréal Canadiens’ 2nd round draft pick in 2021, centring the top line alongside Filip Hållander and Jonathan Dahlén.
Publicly there’s still uncertainty over which team Kapanen will be playing for in the 2024-25 season. He made 64 appearances for KalPa in the Finnish Liiga last season, including 13 play-off games from which he was credited for 14 points. Kapanen then decided to make the SHL the next step in his development by signing a two-year contract with Timrå in early May.
However, in mid-June he signed a 3-year Entry-Level Contract with the Canadiens and he will be joining the NHL team in early September for their pre-season training camp. Whilst it is still probable that Kapanen will head back to Timrå, there is some talk that he has a chance of making Montréal’s roster if he impresses in their camp. That would be great news for Kapanen, but a real blow to Timrå.
Malmö Redhawks
Goaltender Marek Langhammer was not involved in Malmö’s game on Thursday against Oskarshamn. Daniel Marmenlind was the starting goalie, so Langhammer he have just got some training work in instead rather than being the back-up.
After not being involved in Malmö’s first training game, Fredrik Händemark and Otto Stenberg played against Oskarshamn, joined on the same line by Axel Sundberg. Johan Ivarsson replaced Joseph Burger in defense.
Rögle
New signing Jacob Peterson is dealing with a shoulder injury and will not be involved in Rögle’s first few training games. It doesn’t sound like something that will slow him down for long, though, and the rest of the squad are ready to go.
Head Coach Roger Hansson revealed to Helsingborgs Dagblad the forward lines and defensive pairings that he will be starting out with, as reported by HockeyNews.SE. I’ve updated the Rögle lineup chart to match.
