Timrå IK
Losing your top three highest scoring forwards and your goalkeeper is definitely not the way to start your first season in the top flight of Swedish hockey after promotion. But that is the position Timrå find themselves in. The brilliant Jonathan Dahlén will be playing in the AHL, Erik Karlsson will be in Liiga and Johan Johnsson has gone to rivals, HV71.
That leaves top scorers four and five - Jeremy Boyce (pictured) and Jesper Olofsson - behind to step up into the void and show their class in the top division. The club also have retained Hungarian Vilmos Gallo, who, despite being only 22, has already played two seasons in the SHL with Linköping as well as a number of international games.
They have wisely brought in players who already have experience in the dogfight that is the bottom half of the SHL. That includes seasoned Mattias Guter from Karlskrona and Ludvig Rensfeldt from Rögle. The latter is 26 and was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
However, perhaps their most important signing is the replacement for Henrik Haukeland, who was the best goal keeper in the HockeyAllsvenskan last year.
Niklas Svedberg comes to Timrå after five years as first-choice keeper in the AHL and then KHL as well playing in eight international matches. All this bodes well for a player who could be the difference between relegation and survival for the newcomers.
@ABritOnThinIce1
