Malmö Redhawks

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Malmö Redhawks
2013–14 Malmö Redhawks season
City Malmö, Sweden
League HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded 1972 (1972)
Home arena Malmö Arena
Colors Black, red and white
              
Owner(s) Malmö Redhawks Holding AB
General manager Patrik Sylvegård
Head coach Mats Lusth
Captain Tomas Kollar
Franchise history
1947–1972 Malmö FF Ishockey
1972–2001 Malmö IF
2001–2004 MIF Redhawks
2004–present IF Malmö Redhawks
Le Mat Trophy 1992, 1994

The Malmö Redhawks are an ice hockey club from Malmö, Sweden. The team is currently playing in the second highest league in Sweden, HockeyAllsvenskan. Malmö has played 16 seasons in the top Swedish league Elitserien (1990–91 to 2004–05 and 2006–07).

History

The team was founded on 28 February 1972 when the ice hockey section of the Swedish sports club Malmö FF became an own club. The Malmö Redhawks played in the Elitserien from 1990–91 to 2004–05. They were the Swedish champions in 1992 and 1994 and European champions in 1992.

The Redhawks, previously known as "MIF" became famous in Sweden when they started buying very talented players to an anonymous team in the late eighties. They signed players such as Peter "Pekka" Lindmark, one of the greatest goaltenders all-time, Daniel Rydmark and Raimo Helminen and basically brought money into the sport in Sweden.

Decline by 2005

At the end of the 2004–05 season, the Redhawks played in the qualification series to stay in Elitserien, lost and were relegated. Thus, as of the 2005–06 season, they played in the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second division hockey league in Sweden; at the end of the season, the top 4 teams played the qualification series with the bottom two teams of Elitserien. Malmö won the qualification round and played in Elitserien during the 2006–07 season with limited success. Finishing the season as 12th (last) meant playing Kvalserien in order to avoid relegation for the second time in three years. On 1 April 2007, the Redhawks finished third in 2008-09 Kvalserien and was relegated to the Allsvenskan league.

Failed qualification efforts in 2007 and 2008

In 2007, Malmö Redhawks participated in a qualification series (Kvalserien) consisting of the top four teams of HockeyAllsvenskan and the bottom two teams from Elitserien, having finished 12th in the 2007–08 Elitserien season. Malmö were considered favourites alongside the second team from Elitserien, Skellefteå AIK, but failed to re-qualify for Elitserien, falling two points behind Södertälje SK. In 2008 the team once again managed to reach Kvalserien, and had a golden opportunity to advance to Elitserien, leading the series during a majority of rounds. The Redhawks, however, lost in overtime of the final round while their arch rivals, Rögle BK, claimed the Elitserien spot with a margin of two points by scoring twice in the last minute of play. The Redhawks only managed to get 2 points in the 2008 Kvalserien's last four rounds, despite having gotten 15 points after the first six games.

New arena and financial issues in 2009

During the 2008–09 season, Malmö Redhawks moved to the new Malmö Arena, a top-modern sports and entertainment venue. The club originally aimed on being back in Elitserien before the premiere.

On 29 January 2009, while still playing in HockeyAllsvenskan, the team released all its contracted players due to financial debt and to avoid bankruptcy. The players were made free to find and sign with new clubs. By then the Redhawks were ranked 10th in the league with only one month of games remaining to play, instead of the top three or seven required for Kvalserien and possible Elitserien qualification. The team finished 8th and thus missed the playoffs, although the team was just one point short from reaching the playoffs.

Failures to reach Kvalserien and started efforts

Malmö Redhawks finished fifth in HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2009–10 season and thus reached the playoffs, which was an improvement over last season. The Redhawks started the playoffs by knocking out Bofors IK in two straight games, and the Redhawks were now set to face Almtuna IS for a series that would decide which team would be HockeyAllsvenskan's fourth one in Kvalserien. The Redhawks beat Almtuna 2–1 at home in the first game, but lost the two following games (which the Redhawks played on away ice) and thus were eliminated from the playoffs. In the 2010–11 season, things went worse as the Redhawks failed to reach the playoffs, finishing 8th and four points short from a playoff spot.

On 28 January 2011, during the 2010–11 season, the Redhawks announced that they had agreed to a 3-year 70-million SEK ($10.6 million USD) deal with businessman Hugo Stenbeck. The goal with the 3-year-long deal is to get Malmö Redhawks back in Elitserien.[1]

Malmö's efforts to reach Elitserien started immediately prior to the 2011–12 season. Several players from higher divisions, including Hannu Toivonen, Daniel Josefsson, J. D. Forrest, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and Linus Klasen, joined the club. When Linus Klasen joined the team on 17 May 2011, he was immediately appointed the team's captain. Linus Klasen's three-year contract with the club included an annual salary of 4 million SEK ($0.6 million USD), which made Klasen the best paid ice hockey player in Sweden at that time.[2]

The season started well with a top 3 spot in the league after a couple of months, but after falling down to sixth place with 47 points, at that time ten points away from the third Kvalserien spot, the Redhawks' then head coach Leif Strömberg was fired on 10 December 2011. He was replaced by the team's then assistant coach Ulf Taavola. Patrik Sylvegård was acquired as the team's new assistant coach.[3][4] After continued struggling throughout January, the Malmö Redhawks improved sharply in February, and managed to squeeze out a seventh-place finish in the league, which was enough for at least a playoff spot.[5] In the Playoff round, Malmö finished second due to inferior goal difference than Rögle BK, and Malmö therefore missed the 2012 Kvalserien.

Reorganization, continued financial issues and failures to reach the playoffs

In early 2012, club owner Hugo Stenbeck announced that he would not spend any more money on the Malmö Redhawks. As a result, the Redhawks filed for economic reconstruction on 11 April 2012 for the second time in three years. The filing was granted the following day. The club would also re-negotiate the most expensive player contracts in order to reduce the total salary cap from 30 million SEK down to 18 million.[6][7]

On 17 May 2012 it was announced that the club had reached an agreement with Hugo Stenbeck. The agreement said, among other things, that Stenbeck would help the club buy out Linus Klasen and Hannu Toivonen due to their expensive contracts.[8]

After the 2011–12 season, Patrik Sylvegård was appointed CEO and sports director, and Redhawks profile Mats Lusth was acquired as the new assistant coach. A Sports Committee was also created, which includes people with strong connection to Malmö Redhawks.[9][10] Ulf Taavola continued as head coach like the previous season when he took over Leif Strömberg. Malmö Redhawks had to sign a lot of new players. The players who remained from last season were Pontus Sjögren, Emil Carnestad, Stefan Lassen, Alexander Ribbenstrand, Robin Alvarez, Lukas Eriksson, Magnus Häggström, Tomas Kollar and Roger Olsson.

Malmö Redhawks started the 2012–13 season bad, and after 17 games played, the team had only taken 21 points,[11] which was far from even a playoff spot towards Kvalserien. Eventually, the team began a massive boost, which went through the month of November without a single loss after regulation time, and took a total of 24 out of 27 points that month. As a result of the great effort in November, the Malmö Redhawks were located in fifth place in the league by early December. In January, the team began a losing streak and lost 8 games in a row. The team finished in ninth place, which was the worst placing the team had since the large investments during the late 1980s.[12] In Malmö, the season was over on March 2, when the regular season was finished.

Current roster

Updated on 24 January 2014.[13][14]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
10 Sweden Álvarez, RobinRobin Álvarez LW L 26 2004 Malmö, Sweden
57 Sweden Andersson, CalleCalle Andersson D R 19 2008 Malmö, Sweden
75 Sweden Andersson, RasmusRasmus Andersson D R 17 2012 Malmö, Sweden
14 Sweden Blomberg, PatrikPatrik Blomberg D L 20 2012 Sweden
5 Sweden Björk, JohanJohan Björk D L 29 2012 Malmö, Sweden
4 Denmark Bødker, MadsMads Bødker D L 26 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark
67 Sweden Ericsson, TobiasTobias Ericsson RW L 26 2013 Stockholm, Sweden
16 Sweden Häggström, MagnusMagnus Häggström W R 27 2012 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
20 Sweden Hetta, HenrikHenrik Hetta LW L 24 2012 Strömsund, Sweden
61 Sweden Jadeland, NicklasNicklas Jadeland LW L 27 2012 Malmö, Sweden
3 Sweden Karlsson, BjörnBjörn Karlsson (A) D L 25 2013 Rävemåla, Sweden
55 Finland Kesä, TeemuTeemu Kesä D R 32 2013 Helsinki, Finland
29 Sweden Kollar, TomasTomas Kollar (C) W L 31 2011 Stockholm, Sweden
36 Canada Liffiton, DavidDavid Liffiton D L 29 2013 Windsor, Ontario, Canada
13 Sweden Meijer, SebastianSebastian Meijer C L 29 2012 Ulricehamn, Sweden
28 Sweden Olsson, JensJens Olsson D L 29 2012 Malmö, Sweden
90 Sweden Persson, MattiasMattias Persson W L 28 2012 Bohus-Malmön, Sweden
30 Sweden Rahm, RobinRobin Rahm G L 27 2014 Torsby, Sweden
79 Sweden Rensfeldt, LudvigLudvig Rensfeldt W L 22 2012 Gävle, Sweden
39 Sweden Rosdahl, KimKim Rosdahl LW R 17 2011 Sweden
40 Sweden Sjögren, PontusPontus Sjögren G L 28 2011 Stockholm, Sweden
9 Denmark Storm, FrederikFrederik Storm LW L 24 2012 Gentofte, Denmark
91 Sweden Svensson, BjörnBjörn Svensson LW L 27 2013 Ljungby, Sweden
11 Canada Tenute, JoeyJoey Tenute C/LW L 30 2013 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
17 Sweden Viksten, DanielDaniel Viksten RW L 24 2013 Mora, Sweden
2 Sweden Wallberg, OlleOlle Wallberg G L 20 2010 Sweden

Notable players

Retired numbers

Alumni:

All with experience from their respective national teams.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "Hugo Stenbeck köper Redhawks" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2011-05-17. 
  2. ↑ "Linus Klasen klar för Malmö" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-17. 
  3. ↑ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-10). "Ny huvudtränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-10. 
  4. ↑ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-26). "Patrik Sylvegård ny assisterande tränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-27. 
  5. ↑ Winnberg, Christian (2012-03-02). "Malmö Redhawks säkrade förkvalserieplatsen" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-03-02. 
  6. ↑ Karlsson, Emil (2012-04-11). "Stenbeck ska jagas till världens ände". Sportbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2012-04-11. 
  7. ↑ Pileby, Axel (2012-04-11). "Så ska Malmö klara sig ur den svåra krisen". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 2012-04-11. 
  8. ↑ Martin, Nathalie (2012-05-17). "Hugo Stenbeck och Malmö Redhawks eniga" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-05-18. 
  9. ↑ "Ny VD och sportchef för Malmö Redhawks Ishockey AB" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-03-14. 
  10. ↑ "Mats Lusth ny tränare för Malmö Redhawks" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-03-25. 
  11. ↑ http://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/wennerholm/2012/11/malmo-hetast-av-alla/
  12. ↑ http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sport/ishockey/redhawks/ny-redhawksforlust-1/
  13. ↑ "Malmö Redhawks roster". Eliteprospects. Retrieved 2013-12-02. 
  14. ↑ "A laget". Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2013-12-02. 

External links

Preceded by
Djurgårdens IF		 Swedish ice hockey champions
1992 		Succeeded by
Brynäs IF
Preceded by
Brynäs IF		 Swedish ice hockey champions
1994 		Succeeded by
HV71
Teams
Arenas
Allsvenskan seasons
HockeyAllsvenskan Seasons
Related topics
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