Mikael Håkanson makes history

23 Sep 2011 | Henrik Lundqvist

Linköping's Mikael "Musse" Håkanson made history yesterday when he played his 912th game in the Swedish top league Elitserien (Regular season + playoffs). No one has played more games.

Thursday's game between Linköping and Skellefteå ended with a 4-0 loss for the home team, but the game will primarily be mentioned in history books as the game when Mikael "Musse" Håkanson made his 912th appearance in the Elitserien. This means that Håkanson now is the player with most games played ever. The former record holder Roger Åkerström, who now is assistant coach of Luleå, was listed for 911 games.

Håkanson began his league career in the Djurgården where he played his first game in the season 1992/1993. After 84 games over two seasons he moved to Örnskoldsvik to play in Modo for two seasons (85 games). For the season 1996/1997 "Musse" was back in Stockholm and Djurgården, where he remained for six seasons, and another 276 games. He played for Djurgarden when the club won the gold 1999/2000.

For the 2000/2001 season Håkanson crossed the Atlantic Ocean to play in the NHL, but he never got to play there. Instead he spent the season with St. John's Maple Leafs in AHL (50points in 64 games).

When Håkanson returned to Elitserien 2001/2002 he played another season for Djurgården before he moved to Linköping HC which has played for since. It is now his 10th season with Linköping.

This season Håkanson has played three games and still waits for his first point. In the European Trophy Håkanson scored 9 points in the 8 games of the first stage which gives him a 9th place on the scoring list.