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***sköldpaddor*** · 05-25-2024, 09:46 PM

VISBY, SWEDEN --- Hello everyone! Tonight, as we enter the round robin portion of the S76 IIHF tournament here in Visby, I am pleased to bring you some delightful information about our talented players! Sweden has historically been on the smaller side when it comes to natural recruitment - we are a smaller nation by population than many of the other powerhouse teams of the IIHF, but our strength has always been in retention, in the staying power of those who either join us by birth or by transferring in from other nations. It is our pleasure to give you a look at some of those very talented individuals who are the life blood of this federation. The information below was provided by the players themselves over the past few weeks, and we thank them for their participation! For that reason, you may see some names missing from this list - that doesn’t mean we don’t value them, of course, it just means they weren’t able to fill out the questionnaire we have pulled this info from.

Without further delay, meet some of our players!!

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THE VETERANS

Sweden’s recent dominance in international play has largely been thanks to the strength of our core of talented veterans. These players have been certainties on the roster for the majority of the past decade, and while they are aging, they are still a huge part of why our team has been so successful.

Hailing from Luleå, Tomas Lind (@Canadice) is a living legend. The oldest player on Sweden’s roster, and frequently wearing the C for his country, he is appearing on the IIHF roster for the fourteenth time this season. Lind has amassed 150 points in 183 games played for Sweden, and has seven medals to show for it (three gold, three silver, and one bronze), in addition to two silver medals in WJC. Lind has spent his entire sixteen-season SHL career with the Manhattan Rage, following four seasons in the SMJHL with the Carolina Kraken.

Adelie de Pengu (@WithTheMoose) followed his best friend, Melvin Majestik-Moose, to the lands of Sweden in a great migration of moose, and the two friends have been mainstays on the Swedish roster ever since. De Pengu is no stranger to Söderberg-Tremblay’s system of coaching, having played the majority of his SMJHL career in Nevada. He was drafted by Manhattan, but played nine seasons in Chicago before being traded to Minnesota in S75. This will be his twelfth appearance for the IIHF squad. de Pengu’s international trophy cabinet includes two WJC silver medals, three IIHF gold, two IIHF silver, and one IIHF Bronze.

Dave Heinrich (@Tesla) transferred to Sweden directly from Hell as a birthday gift for a friend, and he seems to think it’s been a slight improvement in scenery. Appearing on the IIHF roster for the eleventh time this season, Heinrich has spent eleven seasons in the SHL playing for the Chicago Syndicate as well, following a four-season stint in the SMJHL for the Nevada Battleborn. Heinrich’s international play has earned him three gold medals, two silver, and one bronze at the IIHF level, as well as a WJC bronze medal.

Lias Ekholm-Gunnarsson (me) was born in the parking lot of the ferry in Nynashamn, and was raised in Visby after his parents finally got him home. This will be his eleventh appearance on the Swedish IIHF roster, and he currently holds the (modern) historical points record for Sweden with 133 points in 116 games played. He has played his entire SHL career with the Winnipeg Aurora, after four seasons with the Nevada Battleborn. During his time on the team, Sweden has taken home three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal.

Matsmith Söderberg-Tremblay (@SDCore), as his surname might suggest, is the son of Swedish federation head Gunnar Söderberg-Tremblay. He was adopted as a young teenager by the Söderberg-Tremblays, and was given the opportunity to play for either Sweden or Finland, but elected to play for Sweden due to the number of people he already knew there. This will be his ninth appearance on the Swedish national roster, and he has earned three gold, two silver, and one bronze medal with the team. Matsmith has played for Chicago, Winnipeg, and Baltimore in the SHL, and Newfoundland and St. Louis in the SMJHL.

M’Baku Olubori (@hhh81) transferred into Sweden with great dissatisfaction after being unable to play for his home country of Nigeria (since Nigeria does not have an IIHF team). Since transferring, he has appeared on the roster eight times (this season will be his ninth), and has shared in the same seven medals as the majority of Sweden’s S60s core. He has played his entire nine season career for the Baltimore Platoon in the SHL.

Sven Panda (@juniped) missed the registration date for this season’s tournament, but is nonetheless a locker room mainstay for Sweden. He has served as Sweden’s mascot even before appearing on the roster (which he has done six times), and remains a key voice behind the bench for Sweden even when he is not on the ice. He is the son of Swedish legend Juni Panda, and has won two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal with the IIHF team. In the SHL, he has spent his entire career with the Hamilton Steelhawks.

Rasmus Bergling (@JNH) is appearing on the IIHF roster for the seventh time this season, and has established himself as a key member of Sweden’s defensive core since his rookie season. When we asked him about his life story, he quoted a monologue from an Austin Powers movie, so we really genuinely know nothing about him, except for the fact that he is from Linköping. He is (according to him) frenemies with Matsmith Söderberg-Tremblay, and he would like for us to mention Avicii. He played the first five seasons of his career for the Chicago Syndicate, before being traded to the Los Angeles Panthers prior to S75.

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YOUNG BLOOD
That brings us to the young blood of team Sweden! While our older core is aging out, our younger players are only getting better, and the future is very bright indeed.

Tony Soprano (@gurbs) is a man of some mystery, hailing from Newark, a city he swears is in Sweden. He is appearing on the IIHF roster for the fifth time this season, and has won two gold and one bronze medal with the team. Tony is a spry young fellow despite his appearance, and will be moving up the center of Sweden’s lineup as the older centers in the forward core age out. He has played his SHL career with the Philadelphia Forge, and spent four seasons prior to that in the SMJHL with the Anchorage Armada

Willow Söderberg-Snooks (@Reno) is the daughter of retired SSL players Helena Söderberg and Eirlys Snooks, which means she is connected to the team in several ways. First, she is Gunnar Söderberg-Tremblay’s niece (Helena is his sister), which also makes her the cousin of Matsmith Söderberg-Tremblay and Florian Söderberg-Motyla. This will be Willow’s fifth appearance on the national roster, but she already has 33 points in 58 games played as a defender. Willow has played her four seasons in the SHL with the San Francisco Pride, and played four seasons for the Regina Elk in the SMJHL before that.

Despite having been born in Poland, Florian (@Fluw) is connected to an extensive lineage of Swedish national players. He, like Willow Söderberg-Snooks, is the nephew of of former Swedish player and current federation head Gunnar Söderberg-Tremblay (whose older sister Emilia is Florian’s mother), which also makes him cousin to Willow and forward Matsmith Söderberg-Tremblay. Florian is appearing on the IIHF squad for the first time this season, but has just finished his first season in the SHL for the Toronto North Stars after spending four seasons in the SMJHL for the Yukon Malamutes.

Dag-Otto Björntjänst (@kenvald) has just wrapped up his rookie season in the SHL for the Tampa Bay Barracuda, and will be making his first appearance on the IIHF roster for Sweden this season as well. He played for Carolina and Great Falls in the SMJHL prior to that. Dag-Otto comes from a long line of mailmen, and was one of the first in his family to not follow go into the family business. Instead, he is chasing his dream of being a professional athlete, and looks to prove the worth of that decision this year for Sweden.

Denebor Milasch (@Cobbenstein) made his debut between the pipes for Sweden last year, winning gold in his rookie season in that capacity, but will be stepping into the primary starter role for Sweden this year, eager to repeat the performance of last season. Milasch has not yet appeared in the SHL, but has played four seasons for the Carolina Kraken in the SMJHL, and will be moving up to play for the Toronto North Stars in the SHL this coming season. He is a native of Poland, but Poland has no national team and Denebor came up playing in the lower Swedish sub-18 leagues, so according to him it made sense to commit to Sweden when given the chance.

The final rookie making his debut for the national team this year is Niclas Sundqvist (@Halkohol). Sundqvist is a native of Grums, and has played three seasons for Great Falls in the SMJHL, and is a prospect for the Manhattan Rage. He will be joining the blue line forces in Sweden, and is expected to play significant minutes this tournament despite his young age. He has said that his favorite memory so far is being called up to the IIHF team before his SHL call-up, but we hope to give him even better memories this season to add to that!

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THE PIPELINE
Sweden’s roster is strong, and so is our prospect pipeline! We spoke with a few of the youngsters waiting in the wings for this as well, and are pleased to introduce them to you!

Will Tomlander (@roastpuff), according to him, hails from a town of around 50 people, and has certainly already made his mark on the legacy of that place. He currently plays for the Detroit Falcons in the SMJHL, and is a prospect for the Seattle Argonauts. He would like for us to mention that he is a scrub who can’t score, but we’re going to wait until he’s called up to make a judgment on that ourselves.

One-half of the likely goalie tandem of the future, Herman Ståhl (@Zema) is a native of Uppsala, and has already made excellent memories winning with team Norden in WJC. He has played two seasons with the Colorado Raptors and one with the St. Louis Scarecrows in the SMJHL, and is a prospect for the Manhattan Rage.

The other half of the aforementioned goalie tandem, Anastasia Söderstrom (@boom) has already cemented herself in SMJHL lore with a number of accolades there, including the Rookie All Star Team, 1st All Star Team, Defense All Star Team, an Ideen Fallah (MVP) award, an Esa Anrikkanen award for best rookie, and seems to be destined for greatness. While she is still young, Swedish fans should look forward to her eventual ascent to the national team! Anastasia currently plays for the Detroit Falcons, and is a prospect for the Calgary Dragons.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look at our team, and with any luck, we’ll have more team profiles to share with you as more of the team get a chance to give us the information! And most of all, we hope you enjoy the tournament!

Heja Sverige!
Sweden

*hhh81* · 05-25-2024, 10:40 PM

BORG BORG BORG

***Seany148*** · 05-25-2024, 10:47 PM

What does böner mean

TheOPSquid · 05-26-2024, 12:28 AM

This is amazing

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