Austrian, Denise Altmann, has decided to hang up her skates after 11 years with Linköping Hockey Club. The 30 year old has been part of the captaincy team for both club and country over the last 6 years.
Altmann has played in every season the women's hockey league has been established in Sweden, first with the name as Rikserien and then as the SDHL. She has set the records that everyone else behind must try to beat.
She finishs her career as the SDHL's highest ever scorer in Goals, Assists and Total Points. In all, she an incredible 539 Points in the regular season evenly split between Goals and Assists.
She has twice won the championship with Linköping and twice has come second, including this season, which would be her last for the Östergötland club. Had she played 7 more games in the regular season she would have also been the player with the most games in the league, a position now held by Brynäs IF's Angelica Östlund, who also retired this year.
To give a comparison, hockey legend and superstar Wayne Gretzky, is the person in the NHL history who has the same position as Altmann, as the League's top Goals scorer, Assist getter and Total Points holder. The Austrian's Points Per Game of 1.77 would put her third in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
These records are also likely to hold for a long time. That's because she has an enormous lead of over 200 points (!!!) over rivals in these competitions, such as Erika Grahm (MODO Hockey) and Emma Nordin (Luleå HF). Although these two Swedes are a bit younger at 27 years old, they are unlikely to catch the Austrian unless they play well into their 30s.
But otherwise, the former Linköping player has set a very high bench mark, making a case to be the best forward in this first generation of hockey players in the Swedish league.
Next autumn Denise's hockey adventure will continue as she joins the leadership team at Linköping Hockey Club as a trainer with focus on developing forwards.
Reference:
@ABritOnThinIce1
