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 reviewed the first seven teams (alphabetically) yesterday and now look at the other seven. 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.
Malmö
Generally Malmö look to be in decent shape in terms of player availability. Not so good is that they are the most common answer as to which team may be relegated this season (including in my own predictions). They do have good talent on the roster and if they can stay healthy then there’s enough there to potentially keep them out of the bottom two. I worry about their depth, though, if a couple of their key players miss any significant time.
MoDo
MoDo are another team who mainly have a clean bill of health ahead of their season opener. The recent signing of Mattias Norlinder gives them an impressive group of defenders that appears to be pushing Ludwig Byström down to the Extra Defender role. That’s frustrating for him after signing for the team this summer, but a sign of strength for MoDo.
Rögle
There was bad news today for Rögle. It’s been confirmed that Daniel Zaar’s injury will keep him out of the opening game against Färjestad, and possibly for longer. Linus Sandin will take Zaar’s place on the 2nd line.
Jacob Peterson and Michael Kapla both missed training on Wednesday; however it is expected that they will be available on Saturday. Leon Bristedt also should be in the line-up after leaving the training game against HV71 on the 14th with an injury.
Skellefteå
The reigning champions are in great shape from the perspective of retaining their crown, given that they have kept the majority of their squad together from last season.
It’s a different story in the short-term. They have been ravaged by injuries over the past few weeks, to the point where they have been calling up J20 players and making short-term loans to have a full line-up for their recent Champions Hockey League games.
The latest update (from yesterday) is that the team hopes to have Axel Sandin Pellikka and Frans Hara back in their defensive ranks for Saturday, although neither is guaranteed. Skellefteå only have three other recognised SHL defenseman available so they are in a challenging spot in not wanting to rush them, but also needing players back asap. Gustav Lindvall will start in goal with Linus Söderström still out injured.
On the forward lines, Linus Lindström and Jonathan Johnson are definitely out injured and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård unavailable due to being at the Detroit Red Wings’ camp. Pär Lindholm was expected to be back in training today, so there’s optimism around him being ready, whilst Oscar Lindberg’s involvement depends on developments with his wife expecting to give birth.
Timrå
Timrå currently look to be relatively settled heading into the season, with the main omission being young Finnish star Oliver Kapanen who is in North America at Montreal’s training camp.
Forward Sebastian Hartmann is said to be making good progress from his horrible injury back in February, where his calf was accidentally sliced by an opponent’s skate, with the hope of him maybe being available for games by the end of October.
Växjö
Head Coach Jörgen Jönsson confirmed yesterday that Hugo Gustafsson will be out for at least a month after getting clattered in Växjö’s CHL game against Storhamar this past Saturday. Gustafsson suffered a concussion, but the length of absence is said to be more related to other injuries from the collision.
Off-season recruit Karl Henriksson is also unavailable due to injury, but otherwise Jönsson has a full squad to pick from.
Örebro
The main question around Örebro right now is the potential of a new player joining the squad. HockeyNewsSE reported yesterday that they are in the mix to sign former Växjö centre Kalle Kossila, whose move to Bern in Switzerland was scuppered by an issue revealed in his medical examination.
He is said to be ready to play, subject to getting up-to-speed with new teammates. That would suggest it was not an immediate physical issue but something that Bern’s medical team highlighted and was deemed to create too high of a risk against the lucrative multi-year contract that Bern were due to commit to.
Kossila would be a high quality addition for Örebro if they could get him, but for now it looks like they will go with Hannes Björninen, Milton Oscarson, Robert Leino and Christopher Mastomäki as their four centres.
