SHL preview

Last season's champions Skellefteå AIK have to been seen as main favourites also this season. The strong team from last year is almost intact even if three young guns including Oscar Lindberg plus goalie Joackim Eriksson all left for North America. Instead Skellefteå added Henrik Karlsson who goes the other way and moves back to Sweden after a few years overseas. Jonas Frögren is also a strong addition on defense. Offensively the signings are quite modest but with last season top scorer BUd Holloway still on the team together with players like Jimmie Ericsson they should be able to continue with their strong offensive game. The preseason has been great with eight straight wins.

Luleå is considered to be one of the main contenders after Skellefteå. Almost the entire strong defensive lineup is still there from last year even if goalie Johan Gustavsson has left for Minnesota. Can really Daniel Bellissimo from relegated Timrå replace him, last year's backup David Rautio is a likely first pick this year and he has always done well when given the chance. On forward a few good Finnish players like Mika Pyörälä, Joonas Vihko and Toni Koivisto has left and replaced by role players like Per Ledin, Oscar Sundh and Johan Forsberg. The question mark for Luleå is who will score the goals. Niklas Olausson was best last year with 11 goals and 25 assists in the regular season and Linus Klasen is expected to lead the team on offense otherwise it looks a bit thin. But if Luleå can continue with their great defense they won't need to score so many goals to win games.

Färjestad is always a title contender with a great tradition of winning. The team look weaker this year than last year however a few key players like Chris Lee, Magnus Nygren and Alexander Salak has left and is mainly replaced by a bunch of quite unknown AHLers. Will goalie Daniel Taylor be a good starting goalie? At least he did well in European Trophy. There has been many AHLers succesful in SHL over the last years but also many dissappointments so we will have to see how these guys do. Per Åslund, Rickard Wallin and Christian Berglund will as always be important on offense. Just like Skellefteå, Färjestad is unbeaten during thre pre season.

Linköping has one of the smallest roster movements in the league which seems positive. Mattias Sjögren and Chad Kolarik both from AHL is the two off the most interesting signings. Kolarik was the top scorer of European Trophy first round and might be a very good replacer for last seasons top scorer Carl Söderberg who left for NHL and played in the Stanley Cup final already last season. Pär Arlbrandt is still on the team and will probably continue to score a lot.

HV71 is another club that is always expected to finish high but just like Färjestad there are some questions mark around the team. Many players left and has mainly been replaced by juniors and the North American trio, Brett Sterling, Riley Holzapfel and Aaron Gagnon. Holzapfel scored seven points (as did Jason Krog and Marcus Nilson) in the European Trophy and seems like a good addition but the team and last year's star goalie Gustaf Wesslau didn't do very well in the tournament.

Frölunda had a some what bad season last year but is now making a new start with WJC gold medal winning coach Roger Rönnberg as new head coach. Rönnberg has signed some of his former junior players like Tom Nilsson, Erik Gustafsson and Alexander Wennberg making the team interesting. But with experienced players PJ Axelsson retired will the mix be good enough? Joel Lundqvist will have a big leading role in this team. The goalie duo is unexperienced at this level with young Linus Fernström and new Lars Johansson from Allsvenskan, will they cope? The preseason has been pretty good with five wins in nine games.

MODO has been going through some hard seasons both on and off the ice and is now passed by Skellefteå as the best talent school in Sweden. Now they're making some kind of new start with Anders Forsberg as new head coach, Forsberg who had to leave Skellefteå during last season after he announced that he signed with another club. The signings are quite modest with Jeff Tambellini and TJ Hensick as a few more well known names. The team also have a very unexperienced goalie pair, but Forsberg believes a lot in Anton Forsberg and Linus Ullmark. On the positive side for MODO is that many of the key players from last season is still on the roster lead by Norwegian Per-Åge Skrøder going in to his eight consecutive season with MODO. Notable losses are Kyle Cumiskey and experienced Niklas Sundström.

Brynäs won the title two years ago but was never close to defend it. Just like Linköping they are one of the teams with the smallest roster movements which seems positive. Petteri Nokelainen who never really made it the NHL is a interesting addition together with Anton Rödin who also moves back from overseas. Super talent Elias Lindholm goes the other way. It's hard to predict where they'll end up, but probably somewhere around the playoff line. Brynäs was the second worst SHL team in the pre season with 1.44 point per game.

AIK missed the playoffs last year and seems likely to do so also this year even if Teemu Ramstedt is a high class signing to replace Broc Little who made 46 points last season and left to try to reach NHL via AHL. Besides him most of the backbone of team is still on the roster and that could perhaps help AIK to improve this year. AIK won half of it's preseason games.

Växjö also missed the playoffs last year and might have a better chance than AIK to make it this year. As always a lot of imports on the roster with NHLer Colby Armstrong as one of the notable imports. Jonas Holøs has been big on D for the Lakers but has now left for NHL and is replaced by Cory Murphy who made 32 points in KHL last year. Scott Munroe from the AHL is the new goalie, will he be able to replace Fredrik Norrena?

Leksand is back in SHL again. Have they learned the lesson from the last times they were relegated? This time there his been no really spectacular signings even if Mikael Johansson from Färjestad is a strong name that will help the team. Otherwise the signings are quite anonymous. The team has two new goalies in Gistedt and Alsenfelt, who is ready to be a good enough number one for this team? Expectations are surprisingly high on this team who had a preseason with a lot of ups and downs. If the team can get a good start perhaps they can make it.

Örebro is also new in SHL and can play without any expectations. Their promotion was a big surprise. They have a new coaching team as success coach Peter Andersson left for Switzerland. There are 11 new players on the roster, all decent players but it feels like the top players are missing. Perhaps Justin DiBenedetto can fill the role, he made 44 points in EBEL last season. Besides him it will be very interesting to see what soon 38 year old Conny Strömberg can do his second Elitserien season ever after racking up points in lower leagues and leagues around Europe. His discipline has been questioned but now he has the chance to show what he can do at top level. His assists will be needed as Örebro needs to improve the offense that only scored 17 goals in 8 preseason games.

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