The SEL thread

[Teus]

Thought we needed a thread like this. :)

Good places for stats and info about SEL (or Elitserien as we call it in Sweden) in English:

http://stats.swehockey.se
http://www.eliteprospects.com
http://www.selfantasy.com/fantasyguide/introduction.htm
http://www.eurohockey.net/se

Still over over 3 months to season starts, but it might be become the best SEL season ever. Here is the schedule for the 04/05 season: http://www.swehockey.se/files/{335D1...7089A12DD}.pdf

Biggest question is of course if Forsberg will play in the league next season, a lot points to yes.

[TheNextOne]

Forsberg is there - it's almost 100% guarenteed with his dad coaching. They already have Tommy Salo signed for the full year. Markus Naslund will almost certainly be one of the players who will sign for MoDo if he can get an "out" claus. The Sedins have mentioned that if they don't get a contract from Vancouver soon, they will also play in MoDo for the full year (regardless of the NHL). There were rumours of Todd Bertuzzi playing there, but I don't know if that can happen now.

Other Canucks I know of that will be going there are Ohlund (Lulea) and obviously Arvedsson but I'm not sure which team he will suit up for.

[Teus]

Originally Posted by TheNextOne

Forsberg is there - it's almost 100% guarenteed with his dad coaching. They already have Tommy Salo signed for the full year. Markus Naslund will almost certainly be one of the players who will sign for MoDo if he can get an "out" claus. The Sedins have mentioned that if they don't get a contract from Vancouver soon, they will also play in MoDo for the full year (regardless of the NHL). There were rumours of Todd Bertuzzi playing there, but I don't know if that can happen now.

Other Canucks I know of that will be going there are Ohlund (Lulea) and obviously Arvedsson but I'm not sure which team he will suit up for.

The Sedins are pretty unsure of the future, now when Burke is gone. They could end up in Modo, even without a lockout.

Arvedson will probably go to Färjestad.

[Teus]

MIF Redhawks have changed their name to Malmö Redhawks.

http://www.mifredhawks.com/kp.asp?co...edir ect=true (in Swedish)

[Johan Eriksson]

And it's good they changed back to Malmö. The whole MIF thing felt kind of silly, anyway. I'm looking forward to next season, though I don't like all the good players going to MoDo (which I don't like - probably because all the journalists always suck up to them). I though that the games played during spring was a bit more intense than usual (though the play offs were a bit dissapointing). We need more hitting in this league, and more players going to the net. Also we need players skating a lot more to bring the pace up a bit.

[Teus]

Originally Posted by Johan Eriksson

And it's good they changed back to Malmö. The whole MIF thing felt kind of silly, anyway. I'm looking forward to next season, though I don't like all the good players going to MoDo (which I don't like - probably because all the journalists always suck up to them). I though that the games played during spring was a bit more intense than usual (though the play offs were a bit dissapointing). We need more hitting in this league, and more players going to the net. Also we need players skating a lot more to bring the pace up a bit.

Hitting is something I would love see more of. It feels like it's underrated here, a great clean hit can open up a lot in the offense zone.

I don't like Modo either, always great to watch game 5 from the 1994 finals. :D

Agree with you on the name change to Malmö. MIF was just a nick name and it should have stayed so.

[Teus]

I like what Malmö have done so far in the off-season. First of all they have lowered the salary total and signing a new name in SEL in Björn Kinding as new coach. Players they have added:

Peter Hirsch - Team Denmark's goalie that should give Hadelöv some competition.

Miska Kangasniemi - The Finn with the great name should make the D more solid.

Robert Lukas - Hard to predict how he will do, but he is of Austria's best d-men.

Mikko Luoma - Played 3 NHL games last season, hopefully he will be as good as Peter Andersson was last season.

Mika Hannula - Love his style of playing, great to have him back.

Björn Melin - Young forward who had a great playoff with Swedish Champs HV71, can he continue on that?

Markus Matthiasson - One of the best snipers in the league, surprised he choosed Malmö.

Peter Hammarström - Better if comment on him, Johan. :)

The two players with most points last season, Jesper Mattsson (needed a change) and Juha Riihijärvi (wanted too much money), aren't on the team anymore. Wouldn't mind keeping them both, but maybe the way it is now is better. Those two were awesome when they had good games, but didn't work 100% in every game. Scoring will probably be spread over more lines and a guy like Frans Nielsen will hopefully get more playing time.

I don't care that they didn't sign Petri Liimatainen. He got a great shot, but his salary is very big and he was horrible in D last season.

Carl Söderberg will hopefully get a more playing time, going to be interesting to see when he will be picked in this year's draft.

Malmö are looking for a center for the 1st line, Brad Boyes of Providence Bruins is one of the names I've heard.

They can't really afford missing playoff one more year and I can't last another playoff without them in it.

Johan, how do you think Färjestad have done in silly season so far? Höglund, Mattsson and Henriksson are all great signings and I've heard Arvedson might end up there too. There are of course also have some other players that can return from NHL, thanks to the lockout.

Funny fact: The new coach, Björn Kinding, will be a judge in that new tv show "Making the Cut".

EDIT: LOL, that was longer than I expected. :)

[Johan Eriksson]

I like many of Malmö's signings, I gotta say that. Peter Hirsch will be a nice addition, and should be starter in my opinion. Hopefully he'll lift Hadelöv up to his full potential which he hasn't played at for a couple of years. Melin and Matthiasson are great pick ups too, especially Melin who I expect to take another step next season. He's a fairly big guy if he he learns to use that even more he'll definitly increase his numbers.

Hammarström is an OK player, though I don't mind loosing him. He has a decent shot, obviously, but is a bit weak strengthwise and not always the hardest working man. I guess it depends on the surroundings.

As for Färjestad I really like having Höglund back on the team. While he wasn't really NHL quality he is a good goal scorer and I'm confident he'll up the offensive side quite a bit (maybe in particular on the power play). Mattsson is a nice pick up too. As for Henriksson I'm not quite as sure. While he's a decent goalie I think FBK should have stayed with Wallinheimo instead - sure he has a peculiar style but he does stop most pucks and the critique he recieved during Färjestads long slump was mostly undeserved in my opinion. If FBK is to win they still need to find a big solid defenseman. They still haven't been able to replace Fokin and it's been a while since he left. I'm not sure which guys are available but this should be top priority.

Btw, how's it going with the new arena down in Malmö? That would be a much needed improvement, and it's overall nice to see the new arenas in the league, with their bigger slope and more intense atmosphere. In particular I like the one up in Sundsvall.

[Teus]

Originally Posted by Johan Eriksson

I like many of Malmö's signings, I gotta say that. Peter Hirsch will be a nice addition, and should be starter in my opinion. Hopefully he'll lift Hadelöv up to his full potential which he hasn't played at for a couple of years.

Hadelöv is still a man for the national team when he is at best, like during Kvalserien. He usually plays better with more competition for the starting job, so maybe he can be more consistant this year.

Btw, how's it going with the new arena down in Malmö? That would be a much needed improvement, and it's overall nice to see the new arenas in the league, with their bigger slope and more intense atmosphere. In particular I like the one up in Sundsvall.

There is some info about the arena at the end of this article on their website: http://www.mifredhawks.com/kp.asp?co...edir ect=true

They still plan to have it done year 2008, but it might be delayed because of "Ciytunneln". It's really needed as the old arena is one of the worst in the league. Question is if they can steal back spectators from football, so it will not be like hockey in Globen in the new arena.

[Johan Eriksson]

It seems lack of audience is mostly a Stockholm thing - almost everywhere else most seats are filled. It's a shame that it is that way here though - few things kills the intensity of the game as much as a half empty Globen. In my opinion there's just too much volume in Globen, meaning that it takes a lot of people to create a decent atmosphere, and as soon as numbers drop below 10 000 it feels like watching the game in a grave. And it almost never exceeds 10 000. A sad thing, especially since Djurgården are pretty entertaining under Wikegård's leadership.