| Johan Fransson | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 18, 1985 Kalix, Sweden |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Weight | 187 lb (85 kg; 13 st 5 lb) |
| Position | Defence |
| Shoots | Left |
| NHL team (P) Cur. team Former teams |
Los Angeles Kings SKA St. Petersburg (KHL) Luleå HF Frölunda HC Ässät Linköpings HC HC Lugano |
| National team | Sweden |
| NHL Draft | 34th overall, 2004 Dallas Stars |
| Playing career | 2002–present |
Johan Fransson (born February 18, 1985) is a Swedish professional ice hockey defenceman, playing with Luleå HF of Elitserien.
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Fransson was born in Kalix, Sweden, where he in his youth played bandy,[1] winning the Swedish Championship for 13-year old's in 1998.[2] Fransson attributes his good skating ability to having played bandy.[1] In 2000–01 he represented Norrbotten in TV-pucken, and as a 15-year old played senior hockey for Kalix HF in Division 1 (Sweden's third tier).
For the 2001–02 season Fransson signed with Luleå HF to play junior hockey. He made his Elitserien debut for Luleå in 2002–03, but only played three games due to a groin injury which ruined most of the season for him.[3] In 2003–04 Fransson became a regular on Luleå's roster, he had a successful season and was nominated as the Rookie of the Year in Elitserien.[4] In his first playoff game at senior level Fransson suffered a concussion after being checked by Färjestads BK's Peter Nordström during the first game of the quarterfinal series.[3][5] Fransson returned to play one more game in the series, as Luleå were eliminated in his comeback. After the season Fransson was predicted to have bright future ahead of him,[6] and he continued playing well but not up to the highly set expectations during the 2004–05 season,[3] and the following season Fransson's progress came to a halt as he struggled majorly during the course of the season.[6] Luleå chose not to resigning him and Fransson decided to follow his Luleå teammate Karl Fabricius and sign with Frölunda HC, where he hoped to get his career back on track.
Fransson began the 2006–07 season well despite that his team struggled, but after a coaching change from Stephan Lundh to Per Bäckman Fransson saw less and less ice time. Fransson was loaned from Frölunda to Ässät in the Finnish SM-liiga,[7] and eventually dealt from Frölunda to Linköpings HC in exchange for Oscar Ackeström.[8] Fransson played eight regular season games and fifteen playoffs games without recording a point, as Linköping reached the Swedish Championship finals where they lost to Modo Hockey. After a few tough seasons for Fransson he rebounded in 2007–08 as he scored a then career high five goals and fourteen points, and made his debut for Tre Kronor. Fransson helped Linköping reach the Swedish Championship finals for the second year in a row, there they lost a 2–0 series lead to HV71 who won four consecutive games to win the Swedish Championships. In 2008–09 Fransson could not sustain his success from the preceding season and in January he was released by Linköping and signed with HC Lugano of the Swiss National League A for the remainder of the season,[9] recording two goals and a total of five points in seven regular season games, and two goals in four playoff games.
Fransson returned to Luleå for the 2009–10 season, many wondered why they welcomed him back after several unsuccessful season,[6] but by mid-December Fransson had already surpassed his previous record for most goals and points in a season, and by the end of the season he had scored eleven goals and thirty points—More than twice as much as his previous record. After the season Fransson signed a five-year contract to play for Luleå,[10] but shortly after used a contract clause to sign for Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL),[11] and a few weeks later Fransson signed his third contract of the off-season when he was contracted by the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL).[12][13]
He was loaned to SKA St. Petersburg by the Los Angeles Kings on October 13, 2010.[14]
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 2002–03 | Luleå HF | SEL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2003–04 | Lulea HF | SEL | 44 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 2004–05 | Luleå HF | SEL | 43 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 30 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2005–06 | Luleå HF | SEL | 50 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 74 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 2006–07 | Frölunda HC | SEL | 35 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2006–07 | Ässät | FNL | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2006–07 | Linköpings HC | SEL | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2007–08 | Linköpings HC | SEL | 48 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 24 | 16 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 16 | ||
| 2008–09 | Linköpings HC | SEL | 40 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2008–09 | HC Lugano | NLA | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 2009–10 | Luleå HF | SEL | 54 | 11 | 19 | 30 | 26 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2010–11 | SKA St. Petersburg | KHL | 38 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 22 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| SEL totals | 325 | 26 | 55 | 81 | 228 | 42 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 28 | ||||
| Year | Team | Event | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Sweden Jr. | WJC | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 2005 | Sweden Jr. | WJC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| Junior int' totals | 40 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 57 | ||
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