SHL Line-Ups: 17 September

The Swedish Hockey League 2024-25 gets going this coming Saturday. I’ve been updating the Team Line-Up charts with projected line-ups for the opening games, which I’ll be revising as more news is announced by teams closer to the weekend. I’ve reviewed the first seven teams (alphabetically) and will look at the other seven on Wednesday evening. Here are the latest updates. As always, click on the team name to go through to their respective page where you can see the line-up chart and other related team info. And don’t forget that our latest podcast episode is a comprehensive preview to the SHL season ahead.

Brynäs

The main news with Brynäs is the recent signing of defenseman Victor Söderström. Previously of the Arizona Coyotes/Utah organisation (technically he’s still with Utah as they retain his NHL rights), Söderström has joined on a two-year contract. The expectation is that he will be ready to play in the season opener against Linköping.

Meanwhile, Charle-Édouard D’Astous is battling with an undisclosed injury. HockeyNewsSE spoke to Brynäs’s sporting director Johan Alcén today at the SHL launch event and he would not be drawn on whether D’Astous would be available this Saturday. I’m leaving him out of the projected line-up for now.

Frölunda

Gustav Rydahl made his return to the ice last Thursday, playing in a game for the first time since December due to a back injury that required surgery. Getting some time in a training game is a different proposition to playing a competitive SHL game, so it’s not guaranteed that he will be in the starting line-up against Leksand, but it’s very positive news in any case.

Färjestad

Färjestad are many people’s pick (including mine) to finish top of the SHL again. The state of their squad coming into their opener against Rögle is a good indication as to why. They appear to have everyone fit and raring to go other than Jérémy Groleau, currently rehabilitating from off-season surgery, and potentially Linus Johansson.

They have been perfect in the Champions Hockey League, with four wins out of four games, and have looked very impressive. Like Skellefteå and Växjö, the fact that they’ve already started playing competitive games may give them an advantage in their opening match-up against Rögle too.

HV71

HV71 are also in a good position when it comes to having a healthy squad for new Head Coach Anton Blomqvist to pick from.

Henrik Borgström didn’t play in their final pre-season game against Rögle; however Blomqvist confirmed that this was precautionary and it’s expected he’ll be ready to go by Saturday and slotting back in as the centre on HV’s top forward line.

New recruit Tanner Kero was the centre on the top line in Borgström’s absence. I suspect HV would prefer to keep Kero in his natural position at centre as he settles into the SHL, so the likely option there would be for him to centre the third line and for Måns Lindbäck to shift across to the wing.

Recent signing Sean Day could make his debut against Växjö on Saturday, although he has only just joined the team so we’ll wait and see if he is quite up to speed.

Leksand

Largely a settled group for Leksand, albeit with Lucas Elvenes having dealt with an injury recently. All signs point to him being available for Leksand’s opener against Frölunda.

Linköping

Remi Elie missed their recent pre-season game, but should be fine for the game on Saturday against Brynäs. New recruit Robin Kovács looks likely to start the season on a forward line with Broc Little and Patrick Russell.

The main question mark is in defence, with Linköping using J20 player Felix Öhrqvist in their most recent training game against Örebro. Currently I’ve got him listed as being in the starting line-up, pending any further developments.

Rasmus Rissanen and Nick Shore will not be joining the team until later this month, so they are not currently available.

Luleå

Luleå suffered a big blow recently with the news that defenseman Oskar Laaksonen is going to be out injured until early 2025. Oliwer Sjöström and Arttu Tuhkala are two promising young defenders who are being tipped to step up in Laaksonen’s absence.