Färjestad BK won the regular season last year for the time in 10 years but were not able to go all the way and repeat the championship title they won that year, and again in 2010/11. They will be hoping to go one better this year and put white and green ribbons on the Le Mat Trophy for the first time in nine years.
Arguably it will be too much for the Karlstad team that they have lost their top three scorers from last year in Oskar Steen, Jesse Virtanen and Joakim Nygård. But this was a team with great strength in depth and they retained key players like keeper, Markus Svensson and forwards with AHL experience like Michael Lindqvist (pictured) and Johan Ryno as well as underrated work horse, Per Åslund. The last named is 33 years old and was in both the Swedish champions teams with Färjestad.
To replace the outgoing forwards they have brought in two seasoned players in Victor Ejdsell and Ville Leskinen. Ejdsell comes direct from a season in the AHL with the Chicago Blackhawks' AHL outfit in where he scored 0.45 PPG and got a tryout in the NHL too. He has returned to the club that gave him his first matches in the SHL four years ago, but is a much improved player and potential match winner for the club.
Meanwhile, 25 year old Leskinen played in the JWC team for Finland that won Gold in Malmö as underdogs in 2014 and has excelled in the last two years in the Finnish Liiga. Last season he won the top scorer in both Total Points and Goals and has nearly 1 PPG average in the last two years in the league.
It is in defense that the team will change the most, with both Virtanen and captain Mikael Wikstrand leaving, the latter of whom has been playing some of the best hockey of his career since playing in the 2018 Olympics.
To replace them the Karlstad club has brought in two exciting looking import players from the KHL for their first season in Sweden. They are Czech international, Vojtech Mozik and 2018 US Olympian, Jonathan Blum. Mozik is 26 yrs and has served 2 seasons in the AHL and a handful of games in the NHL with New Jersey Devils, whilst 30 year old Blum has 110 games in the NHL mainly with the Nashville Predators who drafted him in 2007.
It may take some time for this new constellation to gel, particularly with an overhaul at the back. But the season is long and this club seems to have got a recipe for success on paper - now it is a question of putting it into action on the ice.
@ABritOnThinIce1
