Bad boys welcomed back

Kristian Huselius and his pals who ended up on the front pages of the newspapers here last winter are getting the green light to come back to the Swedish National hockey team. A bit of a surprise really. The hockey association here seemed pretty quick to act and banned the players from the national team right away, before and formal police complaint was made. Perhaps they were a little hasty in fact as it turned out that the players had apparently not broken any laws. They were with a young girl in their hotel room after drinking in the hotel. Apparently there was some question of the girl being drugged, she in fact was uncertain about what happened in the hotel room later, but it did not sound pretty.

Though none of the players were charged with rape, they were banned from the team and publicly humiliated, which in Sweden is one of the worst fates you can suffer. Losing face is bad here, like in Japan.

In any case the players have apologised and now can play again for the national team next year. Huselius is a good player so he will be welcomed, but the Swedish hockey associations reputation will suffer for this reversal.

Pre-season round up - Stealing the Swedes version

The Swedish Elitserien continues to be emptied of young talent. Maybe the Swedish Hockey association should have been tougher with the NHL about compensation and not signed the agreement directly. Russia and the Czech Republic both balked at signing the agreement, now it looks as though the Swedes are paying for it by losing good young players to the NHL. It will raise the profile hopefully of the Swedish league, but it might make for a very different season on this side of the Atlantic. Through the loss of major stars like Peter Forsberg and Marcus Naslund, and promising young talent like Henrik Lundqvist, the Elitserien has been completely remade. Teams like Timrå have lost a lot, including Zetterberg, which is bad enough, but they continue to lose good players like Niklas Nordgren who recently signed for Carolina. Still there are plenty of good players out there, and maybe Sweden will get some of its better older players back.

NHL pulling youngsters into the league

The consequences of the new collective bargaining agreement have not really yet been seen. Even the general managers of European clubs can't be sure what the consequences are, in fact they are changing their positions from positive to negative. One reason is the the NHL is keen to take on some younger players; guys that are cheaper than established stars, have some upside, but are still green. This is a risk of course but young hockey players from every nation are all too ready to leap at the chance to play in the NHL. In Sweden, we lost a promising young player to the Dallas, or better said, to Iowa. That is because Iowa is where the AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars is and Louie Ericsson is going there. He would probably have matured more quickly by staying in Sweden, he surely would have played more since he was already Rookie of the Year in 2003, but he chose to move to the US to the chagrin of Frölunda's general manager.

Oh yeah! Oduya! and Salo too.

Johnny Oduya
So the Indians have now landed a couple of interesting new recruits. Tommy Salo and Johnny Oduya are both ready to play with new contracts. Salo looks to be a good replacement for Henke Lundqvist who we lost to the Rangers. Salo is not the best goalie in the world, and he had a tough season last year with all the expectations at Modo. He has some pretty big skates to fill here in Gothenburg as well, it may be hard for him. We all loved Henke and sang to him nearly every night, it will be tough not having him around. But Salo is a professional and experienced, one or two good games and the crowd will be behind him.

Johnny on the other hand is that rare Swedish thing, a goon. He is tough, good on his skates, and racks up penalties like he was planning on going to hell and wants to be prepared. He sort of fought his way out of a job in Stockholm, was offered a farm contract by Washington, turned it down and came to Gothenburg instead. I have no problem with this, though I think we prefer tough guys who can skate and score to pure goons. Apparently he can actually play hockey so we shall see how it works out.

Pre-season round up - coming home version

A recent article on Swedish Televisions web site quotes Håkan Loob, the general manager for Färjestad, and his justifications for why we will see some more NHL talent in the Eliteserien this year. The main reason is that the guys who played on the fourth or fifth line in the NHL are mostly without work or solid contracts. They are probably nervous and ready to sign a contract even if it is for less than they hoped. The Southern European leagues have already pretty much established their teams and the Russian league is not interested unless the player is a real headliner, like Jagr. So the theory is that many from the NHL will play in Sweden since there are roster spots open, they pay is pretty good, and the level of play is high. We shall see, so far not many moves from the NHL to the elitserien, and Tommy Salo has yet to conclude a deal with Frölunda.

International agreement going unsigned

While the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation has signed the agreement with the NHL, both the Czech Republic and Russia have not. Both those countries want to be better compensated by the NHL for the players they lose to the American league. At issue is the "Player Transfer Agreement," from the IIHF web site - "The Player Transfer Agreement is a plan whereby the IIHF distributes money among the national federations and clubs that lose players to the NHL based on a formula devised by the IIHF and the national federations."

The risk is that if the agreement is unsigned national players playing in the NHL will be unable to join their respective olympic ice hockey teams, which makes for less competitive hockey.

This is an area that will be a source of friction for years to come.

Tommy Salo wants to win SM-GULD

And I do not blame him. I have no idea what is wrong with Modo, they had a dream team last year with Forsberg and Näslund yet they went out in the first round of the playoffs. They consistently have star players, like Salo, yet they manage to self-destruct. Now they are upset because Tommy Salo got out of his contract with Modo at the end of last season, ostensibly retiring, and now he wants to play here in Gothenburg with a chance at a Swedish Championship (SM-GULD). He has earned this, Modo should not stand in his way.

Salo coming to town?

It looks like there are discussions with Tommy Salo and Frölunda. If this works out it could be good news. It is tough to find a replacement for Henke but Salo might be the best available. It means that some of the younger goalies would stay in the junior system for seasoning and we would have two competent goalies the season out. I hope they work it out.

NHL pulling players back

Daniel Alfredsson is going back to Ottawa, PJ (Pebben) Axelsson will play again in a Bruins jersey, Henrik Lundqvist is in New York. But we still may keep some NHL stars here in Sweden. The Indians may get to keep Samuel Påhlsson who has not accepted the qualifying offer from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and is keeping his options open. Sami Salo may stay as well, he likes living closer to his native Finland and enjoys living in Gothenburg, but his blueline partner, Christian Bäckman, is almost certainly going back to St. Louis. A very different team will hit the ice this year.