Pre-season round up - Post strike version

Espen Knutsen retires.

It looks like Mattias Timander will stay in Sweden. That is godo news for Modo, bad news for the rest of the league. He is a tough back with size and a chip on his shoulder. Modo will probably lose Alexander Steen to Toronto though. He was a former Frölunda player, part of the effective farm system Frölunda has, but he did not produce as much at Modo. Interesting to see how he adjusts to the NHL. You can checkout Modo's web presence in English here - http://www.modohockey.se/english.cfm

In other news, Espen Knutsen, from Djurgården is retiring. He played in the Elitserien for years, as well as the NHL, and was an integral part of the team from Stockholm as they won championships, tough loss of a character player.