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SHL Line-Ups

SHL: 16 August

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

The pre-season training schedule in Sweden is now properly up-and-running, so lots of SHL teams are starting to get their skates on and trying out some initial ideas for forward lines and defensive pairs.

Some of the teams haven’t reported their line-ups yet, so we’ll start with these three teams and then update on others tomorrow. As always, check out the individual team pages for the full line-up charts.

Skellefteå (Team Page)

Skellefteå got their training-game schedule underway on Friday with a game against Allsvenskan team Björklöven.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Detroit’s 1st round pick in the recent NHL amateur draft, was put on the left-wing of the top line alongside the Johnson brothers (centre Jonathan and right-wing Andreas). Brandsegg-Nygård will be heading to the Red Wings’ pre-season camp in early September so Head Coach Robert Ohlsson will be keen to get him some good playing time with different line-mates over the next week or so.

Rickard Hugg is still rehabilitating after having surgery on a pectoral muscle injury, but he is back training with a non-contact bib on and shouldn’t be too far behind.

On the defensive end, Måns Forsfjäll and Axel Sandin-Pellika were not involved in this game, but captain Jonathan Pudas was on the ice after finishing last season with his arm in a sling.

Rögle (Team Page)

Rögle’s team for their opening training game against Frölunda was as expected, other than Daniel Zaar missing out due to illness. Alexander Gunnarsson was loaned from Ettan team Halmstad to make up the numbers as Rögle’s junior players were unavailable.

Frölunda (Team Page)

As for Frölunda, the main absentees from their opening line-up were Henrik Tömmernes, Gustav Rydahl and Wiktor Nilsson. We’ll await further news as to whether they were being rested or if there are any injuries involved. Young goaltender Tobias Normann got the start with Lars Johansson backing him up.

New recruit Arttu Ruotsalainen was put on the top line with fellow Finn Mikael Ruohomaa and another newcomer in Filip Cederqvist.

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SHL Line-Ups

SHL: 15 August

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

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.

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SHL Line-Ups

SHL: 14 August 2024

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

Following the publication of our SHL team pages, I’ll be posting short blogs whenever I make a batch of changes to the SHL line-up charts.

HV71

An interesting development, reported by Jönköpings-Posten (via HockeyNews.SE), coming out of HV’s camp is that both André Petersson and Oscar Engsund did not travel with the team to Gotland for their first training game against Visby/Roma. The reason: they didn’t pass the physical tests that the club requires when players return after the off-season.

Thankfully for the pair, they passed on Wednesday instead so will be joining up with the squad for the games against Oskarshamn and Malmö this weekend.

I’ve added a worksheet for the lines used on Wednesday evening against Visby/Roma. Oliwer Kaski and Radan Lenc were other notable absentees.

I have also updated the status on defenseman Mikael Seppälä. He has been out since 30 December last year due to a back injury. The JP report states that he is approximately a month away from a return, although I wouldn’t expect him to be ‘full go’ for a couple more weeks after that.

Leksand

Falu-Kuriren (again, via HockeyNews.SE) are reporting that Eddie Larsson, Arvid Eljas and Justin Kloos all missed training on Wednesday. As there are no reports on when they will return, I’ve left the Line-up chart as it is for now. For reference, FK reports that this is how they lined up in training on Wednesday:

Goalkeepers:
Mantas Armalis, Jakob Hellsten.

Defensive pairs: 
Joonas Lyytinen Matt Caito
Patrik Norén – Axel Rindell
Fred Nilsson – Alexander Lundqvist
Anton Johansson – Lucas Lagerberg

Forward Lines:
Martin Karlsson – Marek Hrivík – Jon Knuts
Lucas Elvenes – Patrik Zackrisson – Hannes Hellberg
Peter Cehlarik – Kalle Östman – Max Véronneau
Oskar Lang – Lukas Vejdemo – Marcus Karlberg.

Örebro

On Wednesday Örebro played their second training game, this one against Karlskoga. Head Coach Niklas Eriksson made quite a few line changes compared to their opening game against Nybro last Thursday, including a first training-game start for Patrik Puistola. He was on a line with Patrik Kalrkvist and Robert Leino.

William Wikman wasn’t in the line-up, so that’s one to keep an eye on as to whether that was a precaution or a potential injury.

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Swedish Hockey

SHL Resources for the 2024-25 season

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

The Swedish Hockey League teams are back in pre-season training ahead of Opening Day on 21 September.

And the three Swedish representatives in the Champions Hockey League – Skellefteå, Färjestad and Växjö Lakers – get their competitive seasons going two weeks before then.

That means it’s time to start breaking cover with the first of a few new features I’ve been planning for this season.

You’ll see in the main menu that there is now a Swedish Hockey League page and separate pages for each of the 14 teams.

I’ll be developing the pages over the next two weeks, but the plan is to provide a quick guide for newcomers to the SHL.

Additionally, I’ll be maintaining line-up sheets for every team throughout the season. These are embedded on each team page.

There are some excellent stat-based resources for the SHL, most notably:

However, none of them offer a quick and easy way to see how line-ups change game-to-game, so I thought I’d do it myself. I’ll develop the format and detail as the weeks go by, but if you have any suggestions on ways to improve them then please let me know in the comments section.

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Swedish Hockey

André Petersson to stay with HV71 after all

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

Just five days ago, André Petersson’s time with HV71 appeared to be over.

And now? Well, it looks like he’ll be staying after all.

HV71’s Sporting Director, Chris Abbott, announced in a video on their official website that a meeting took place over the past weekend. We don’t know exactly what was said, but the end result is that Petersson was back training with the team at their first official practice in front of their fans on Monday.

What changed?

We’re helped in this instance by the Canadian Chris Abbott providing his answers in English. Let’s start with how I summed things up in my previous article:

A real change in culture is needed at HV, as Petersson himself said. To deliver that, Abbott has to show strong leadership. Letting an agent be seen to be calling the shots would immediately damage his authority. Pilko’s [Petterson’s agent] comments left Abbott with no choice but to accept his captain’s departure.

And maybe that leads us to something like the truth, if a single version of the truth really exists here.

Agents work for their players, not the other way around despite what some teams like to claim to save face with their fanbase. If Petersson is unhappy and wants out with a year remaining on his contract, the agent’s job is to make that happen. If achieving that means Pilko has to make himself the bad guy publicly, so be it. That’s just part of the job.

My key points were that Abbott had to be seen to be in charge and that sometimes an agent has to be the bad guy on behalf of his client. What I didn’t write, as the reports didn’t suggest this was likely at the time, was that this did still leave the door open for Petersson to be welcomed back into the fold. That could be achieved, if Petersson wanted to stay, by essentially pinning the blame on the agent.

And so to Chris Abbott’s comments:

“As far as the last week or two, there’s been some difference of view here on what the future would look like with André from his side, mainly his representation, and discussions with me. I can say, I was very happy to have a chance to sit down with André this weekend”.

“It’s actually mostly, like a lot of things, chalked up to communication. And I’ve been very open with him and his side about our position and my role coming in here and, for me, that means putting the team first in all the decisions and I know that our whole group is well aware of that”.

A textbook example of smoothing things over! Communication was the issue, something that could be solved by cutting out the middle man.

Now, I don’t really buy that. Aljosa Pilko wasn’t going rogue here, even if his method of tweeting about it was questionable. It was a calculated strategy once Abbott made clear he was not going to honour the alleged verbal agreement between Petersson and the former HV senior management.

HV’s (former) captain has one year left on his current contract. Any player would want more security than that if they could get it, especially someone of Petersson’s ability. His vital contribution to the team avoiding relegation last season would also make it understandable if he was annoyed that a new deal was not forthcoming.

It made sense for his agent to force the issue by going public with his concerns. If it paved the way for a new multi-year contract elsewhere, with HV deciding it was better to let him leave, then that would be a job well done. If it pushed HV into reconsidering their position then that would be fine too.

The latter option was not going to happen straight away. Chris Abbott has to demonstrate that his authority has not been damaged. That process has already begun …

Had a very good discussion, and he [Petersson] expressed his wish to be a part of this team moving forward. I can say both the coaching staff, myself, all of André’s teammates are happy that that decision has been made. So, look forward to him fully buying into the way that we’re doing things, moving forward, and that’s putting the team first and going after this season as we should, and that’s together.

In the new Abbott era it is all about the team. So long as André Petersson toes that line, and continues to play as we all know he can, the pathway to a contract extension is there for both parties.

For now, the first step has been taken to a reconciliation. Petersson has been welcomed back into the group, Abbott has arguably enhanced his standing by showing that he won’t be pushed around, and Pilko takes the heat in a way that he won’t lose a single minute of sleep over.

Meanwhile, I need to update my HV71 projected line-up again!

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Swedish Hockey

HV71 set to lose their captain?

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

On Tuesday evening, as the heat of a rare sunny British summer day started to reduce, I sat at my laptop and continued work on my 2024-25 SHL preparation.

The result was a first draft of my 2024-25 team sheet for HV71. Less than 24 hours later, I’m having to make my first major revision to it.

Team captain André Petersson was notable by his absence at HV71’s opening training day on Wednesday. Sportbladet have subsequently reported that the squad were informed that he would not be returning to the team for the coming season.

How HV71 got here

Last season almost ended in disaster for the Jönköping club when they narrowly escaped relegation by winning a Game Seven ‘Play-Out’ decider against Oskarshamn. With six minutes of the game left, and HV resting on a comfortable 5-0 lead, it became clear over the TV coverage that the tone in Husqvarna Garden was suddenly changing.

The relief and joy of the evening was being replaced with anger and frustration. Thirty seconds later, the production crew at TV4 cut away from the action on the ice to the action in the stands. Three white banners were being held aloft, with a very blunt message to the HV higher-ups.

“The board and Nubben’s incompetence have destroyed HV’s existence”
“This would never happen. Now all bridges are burned”
“Resign everyone”

HV’s captain, André Petersson, was interviewed by TV4 after the game and he wasted little time in making clear whose side he was on. “A change is needed”, said the captain, explaining that “it’s basically the same situation three out of the last four years and I don’t think it’s okay when we have these fans and the municipality supporting the team”.

Sporting Director Kent Norberg, the “Nubben” targeted in the fan’s message, was promptly ‘relieved of his duties’ and that was only the start of the off-season upheaval.

Yet few would have predicted that Petersson would be following Norberg out the door.

Agent goes public with the dispute

Things have come to a head over the past couple of weeks. On 23 July, Petersson’s agent, Aljosa Pilko, took to social media to publicly criticise HV’s new Sporting Director Chris Abbott. In summary, Pilko claims that his client had been promised a contract extension – presumably by Norberg – and Abbott was now refusing to honour that agreement.

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If the claim is true then Petersson’s frustration would be understandable. No one can deny his commitment to HV in recent seasons, nor the contribution he has made to keep the team in the SHL.

The problem is, Abbott’s position is just as understandable in return. He cannot be bound by a verbal agreement that he was not party to. Petersson is presumably one of their top earners, he would certainly deserve to be, and Abbott would want to settle into his role before making such a financial commitment.

The rights and wrongs from there depend on what’s really happened. Pilko has implied that Abbott isn’t returning his calls, which would be an odd approach to take when it concerns the team’s captain. Abbott may disagree with that claim, or may feel justified in refusing to take Pilko’s calls given earlier discussions.

What everyone can agree on is that an agent publicly ‘clowning’ a Sporting Director is usually the beginning of the end.

Only one ending

A real change in culture is needed at HV, as Petersson himself said. To deliver that, Abbott has to show strong leadership. Letting an agent be seen to be calling the shots would immediately damage his authority. Pilko’s comments left Abbott with no choice but to accept his captain’s departure.

And maybe that leads us to something like the truth, if a single version of the truth really exists here.

Agents work for their players, not the other way around despite what some teams like to claim to save face with their fanbase. If Petersson is unhappy and wants out with a year remaining on his contract, the agent’s job is to make that happen. If achieving that means Pilko has to make himself the bad guy publicly, so be it. That’s just part of the job.

Whilst the manner of Petersson’s impending departure will be debated, what is clear is that it is a sad end to his time with the club. And, the timing is going to cause Abbott a headache he could really do without.

My initial roster draft from Tuesday evening had HV71 turning out a potential top line of Henrik Borgström, Tanner Kero and André Petersson. The latter has now been replaced with a question mark.

Abbott is going to need to work quickly to turn that question mark into a high quality replacement.

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Swedish Hockey

Sandin Pellikka to stay with Skellefteå

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

Skellefteå, the reigning Swedish Hockey League (SHL) champions, have received a boost ahead of the 2024-25 season. It has just been confirmed that talented young defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka will be spending another year with the team.

The 19-year-old has come through the junior system at Skellefteå and was selected by the Detroit Red Wings with the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Player draft.

Sandin Pellikka’s impressive performances last season, in both the SHL and for Sweden in the World Juniors, made many assume that he would be heading to North America for the new campaign, suiting up with Detroit’s AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins.

Instead, he will spend another season with Skellefteå, as reported by Helen St. James of Detroit Free Press.

Staying where he is comfortable

The report confirms that this was Sandin Pellikka’s decision and one that the Red Wings were happy to endorse. Their assistant director of player development, Dan Cleary, is quoted as saying, “we just don’t see the harm in it. No sense rushing him”.

The player admits that there is more to work on from a defensive standpoint in Swedish hockey. He will get the opportunity to do that in a coaching environment that he is comfortable with.

Sandin Pellikka’s 2023-23 season

Last season was Sandin Pellikka’s first full year at the senior level, having made 22 SHL appearances in 2022-23 alongside amassing 36 points in 31 games in the J20 Nationell.

He played in 39 of Skellefteå’s 52 regular season games, with his absences coming in one block when he played for Sweden in the World Juniors and then missed approximately one month afterwards having played through an upper-body injury during the tournament.

Stepping up in his captain’s absence

Skellefteå’s captain, Jonathan Pudas, has been the SHL points-leader among defensemen in each of the past three seasons. He played in 50 regular season games last season, but was only on the ice for four play-off games due to two separate injuries, the second of which resulted in him helping to lift the SHL trophy with one arm still in a sling.

Sandin Pellikka stepped up in his experienced teammate’s absence, particularly on the power-play unit. His average ice-time on the man-advantage increased in the play-offs by a whole minute compared to his regular-season mark.

Pudas delighted the Skellefteå fans at their trophy parade by announcing that he had signed a five-year contract extension with the team. Fitness permitting, he will resume his role as the defenseman on the top power-play unit, one that ranked 1st in the SHL last season on a 34% success rate (the team also had the best penalty-kill in the league at 88.46%).

More to do in 24-25

That should be of no concern to Red Wings fans, though. Sandin Pellikka will still get plenty of ice time on the man-advantage. More importantly, he’s already advanced with his power-play skills for his age. What matters most for his development in 2024-25 is logging 19 minutes or so of ice time, game-in, game-out, against some of the leading offensive talent in the SHL.

Skellefteå will be more than happy to give him the opportunity to do just that in the coming season. That’s great news for them and great news for the Red Wings too.

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Swedish Hockey

Catching Up on Recent SHL Signings

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

The past week has seen another group of player signings in the Swedish Hockey Leagues.

MoDo Making Moves

Predicting which two teams may end the coming season in the relegation play-off is always very difficult, not least as you’re bound to upset their fans in the process.

One team who you could reasonably put in the group of potentials is MoDo. That would be ased on their 11th-placed finish last season and that 2024-25 will be their second season in the SHL following promotion. Just as music bands can struggle with the ‘difficult second album’, the ‘difficult second season’ can be an issue too.

The problems are usually two-fold. Firstly, some of your best players can be snapped up by more established teams now that they have shown what they can do in the top-tier. For MoDo, that’s come in the form of forward Josh Dickinson departing for Rögle and defenseman Daniel Brickley moving to Tappara Tampere in Finland.

Secondly, staying up the first season often relies on retaining the team spirit that helped you get promoted in the first place and that group dynamic can be disrupted when bringing in new players if you are not careful.

So far it looks like the team has managed this process well this summer and they confirmed two more additions last week. Paul LaDue has joined from the Bridgeport Islanders in the AHL and Ludwig Byström returns to the team that gave him his professional debut as a 16-year-old back in 2010.

Mattias Persson of HockeyNews SE was so impressed that last Tuesday he even tipped MoDo to be a play-off team in 2024-25. If that comes true then it will be the perfect way to banish the ‘difficult second season’ curse.

HV71 and Brynäs too

Two other teams you would have to put in the relegation series conversation are the team that narrowly escaped relegation in 23-24, HV71, and the team that has come up from the Allsvenskan, Brynäs. Both teams have made a number of additions over the off-season to try to keep out of the danger zone.

Brynäs unsurprisingly have been especially active in building a team to step back up to the SHL. Their most recent move has been to complete their goaltender tandem by signing former Frölunda junior Ludvig Persson. Persson spent four years playing in NCAA and now returns to Sweden to compete for playing time in the crease with Erik Källgren.

Brynäs benefitted from some outstanding goaltending in their promotion campaign courtesy of the Anaheim Ducks’ prospect Damian Clara. The 6’6″ goalie was selected 60th overall in the 2023 draft and was then loaned to Brynäs by Färjestad for the 23-24 season. Clara signed an Entry Level Contract with the Ducks in June and although he is expected to return to Sweden for one more season, that will be with Färjestad.

As for HV, they were one of several SHL teams linked to Finnish forward Joona Luoto this off-season and they were able to confirm that they had won this particular prize last week. The former Winnipeg Jet and Columbus Blue Jacket spent the 23-24 season in Switzerland with Bern and should be a very useful addition to HV71’s group of forwards.

Teams at the top getting better as well

At the other end of the table, last season’s beaten finalists Rögle have completed what, on paper, looks to be a flawless off-season by signing Jacob Peterson. The former Frölunda and Färjestad forward returns to the SHL after three seasons in North America that included 83 NHL games combined for the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks.

Peterson is one of 10 main new signings that Rögle have secured this off-season. Sporting Director Hampus Sjöström deserves a lot of credit for the retooling job he has done, particularly after the somewhat surprising exit of Rodrigo Abols who opted out of his contract to sign a two-way contract with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Meanwhile beaten semi-finalists Frölunda followed up their signing of Arttu Ruotsalainen on 12 July with the capture of Linus Weissbach over the past weekend.

The team from Göteborg has also had to recover from an unplanned departure to the NHL, in Frölunda’s case that being Jere Innala opting of his contract to sign with the Colorado Avalanche. Bringing Weissbach back home is an excellent Plan B, not least as the 26-year-old will still feel highly motivated to keep his own NHL dream alive.

The forward hasn’t been able to find a way through the Buffalo Sabres’ deep prospect system over his past three AHL seasons. He will return to Sweden determined to perform well for Frölunda and to catch another NHL team’s eye in the process.

Växjö to add one more?

Expressen reported on Monday that Växjö Lakers are about to complete their summer shopping with the addition of Canadian forward Félix Robert. [NOTE: just after I published this article, Växjö confirmed the signing on their website].

He turns 25 years old on Wednesday 24th July and his birthday present will be to sign a contract to play in Europe for the first time. The centre has played in the AHL for the Syracuse Crunch over the past two seasons, with very consistent results: 34 points from 55 games in 22-23 and 34 points from 53 games in 23-24.

The news immediately puts to bed any rumours of a return for Kalle Kossila. The Finnish forward’s move to Bern was called off at the end of last week due to them finding issue with an undisclosed part of his pre-contract medical examination. Kossila had been excellent for Växjö over the past two seasons and a return to his former team might have been an option, given that they will know his recent medical history better than most.

However, there will be no space for him once Robert arrives and HockeyNews SE reports that it is looking likely that Kossila will stay in Switzerland with Ambri-Piotta.

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Swedish Hockey

Färjestad sign Oskar Steen

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

Färjestad finally got their man on Saturday.

After weeks of discussions, Oskar Steen has decided to return home after five seasons in North America. He has signed a 5-year contract with Färjestad and, whilst all SHL contracts tend to have an NHL opt-out, it’s a real statement of intent that Steen will be part of the Karlstad core for years to come.

Roster being rebuilt

As with most SHL teams, Färjestad have had quite a bit of roster-rebuilding work to do this summer after losing several key players, particularly among their forward group. This is how they lined up for their final game of the 2023-24 season when they were dispatched from the play-offs by Rögle.

Two of the three from the top line have departed. Liam Öhgren benefitted from Färjestad’s early play-off exit by heading across to North America and making his NHL debut with the Minnesota Wild. He is on course to build on that in 2024-25, although he may start the season in the AHL. As for Victor Ejdsell, he decided to capitalise on his excellent 23-24 season by signing a lucrative contract with Bern in the Swiss National League.

Oscar Lawner has joined Linköping, Marcus Nilsson has moved to the Allsvenskan with Björklöven and Partik Lundh is weighing up his options having left at the end of his contract.

Tomasek still with the team

The good news for Färjestad is that the player we all thought was leaving, David Tomasek, remains with the team.

After an excellent first season in Sweden, capped off by claiming a Gold Medal with Czechia at the World Championships, it was no surprise that several NHL teams were looking at him. Tomasek decided that after the season he had, and being 28-years-old, he was only going to leave if he received a one-way contract, meaning that he would be on an NHL contract rather than a two-way deal that could have seen him spending the season in the AHL.

Such an offer ultimately did not materialise, so he has backed himself to repeat or better his 23-24 campaign, which is great news for Färjestad.

Several new additions

The signing of Steen comes two weeks after the capture of Marian Studenič, who has spent the past six seasons in North America including games in the NHL for the New Jersey Devils, Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken.

Viktor Lodin has moved to Karlstad after his contract with Oskarshamn was voided after their relegation to the Allsvenskan, whilst Emil Alba makes the step up to the SHL after impressing for Södertälje over the past four seasons.

How they may start the season

Lodin and Alba are likely to centre two of the lines, with Linus Johansson and Joel Kellman taking that role on the other two. Steen and Tomasek can play at centre as well, but it feels more likely that they will start the season on the right-wing. Michael Lindqvist would also come into the team after finishing the 23-24 season on the injured list.

After finishing top of the league in the regular season, it was a bitterly disappointing end to 23-24 for Färjestad. Sporting Director Rickard Wallin appears to be intent on giving his team every chance to wipe that memory away as quickly as possible. He has completed some excellent work to fill some holes this summer, with Steen being the latest quality addition,

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Swedish Hockey

Recent Swedish Hockey League Signings

by Matthew Smith
written by Matthew Smith

Although the NHL Free Agency market quickly ran cold, teams in the Swedish Hockey League are continuing to build their rosters. Three teams have added a new player over the past couple of days.

Timrå sign Max Eisenmenger

Timrå have added 25-year-old German national team centre Max Eisenmenger on a two-year contract.

The 6’4″ forward spent the 2023-24 season with Adler Mannheim in the DEL, where he played 41 times and contributed 10 points. He is no stranger to Swedish hockey as he grew up in the country, coming through the junior ranks at Södertälje and Djurgården. He also spent the 2022-23 season in the HockeyAllsvenskan with Tingsryds.

This will be his first step up to the SHL, aside from 2 appearances for Djurgården as an 18-year-old. He’s a two-way centre, but more known for his defensive work and face-off ability than someone who you would expect to be racking up too many attacking points.

Frölunda sign Arttu Ruotsalainen

Frölunda have been looking for two new forwards following the departures of Malte Strömwall to Switzerland with Rapperswil-Jona Lakers and Jere Innala to the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche.

Arttu Ruotsalainen will fill one of those vacancies after his signing was confirmed on Friday.

The Finnish forward made 35 appearances in the NHL for the Buffalo Sabres across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons before heading back to Europe, spending the past two seasons in the Swiss National League. He amassed 42 points in 52 games for Kloten in 2022-23 before moving on to Lugano in 2023-24 where his production took a downturn with 14 points in 43 games.

He has good pedigree though and should fit in well at Frölunda.

Växjö sign Otto Koivula

Växjö Lakers were another team searching for some fire power after losing two key forwards this summer, in the form of Kalle Kossila and Marcus Sylvegård.

Tanner Kero was one of the names linked to the Lakers before he signed for SHL rivals HV71, but another of the rumoured former NHL/AHL targets has been secured in Otto Koivula.

Koivula did make 28 appearances in the NHL for the New York Islanders across three seasons, but spent all of the 2023-24 season with their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders. He was an unrestricted free agent this summer and has decided to return to Europe on a two-year contract.

The 6’5″ Finn has the type of power forward game that should really add an extra dimension to Växjö’s offensive options and it would be no surprise if he impresses enough in the SHL to make his way back to the NHL at some point.

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