IF Björklöven

IF Björklöven
City Umeå, Sweden
League HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded May 15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
Home arena T3 Center
Colours Green, yellow
         
General manager Sweden Daniel Johansson
Head coach Sweden Tommy Jonsson
Captain Sweden Stefan Öhman
Website www.bjorkloven.com
Franchise history
1 Le Mat Trophies
26 Seasons in Sweden's highest division
3 Swedish Championship Finals appearances

IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as Björklöven or Löven) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club in Umeå, Västerbotten, in northern Sweden. The club is currently playing in the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan as of the 2014–15 season, but has played 15 seasons in the top Swedish league Elitserien (1976–77, 1978–79 to 1988–89, 1993–94, 1998–99 and 2000–01).

From 2001 to 2010, Björklöven played in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest ice hockey league for men in Sweden. Although the team finished 12th in the 2009–10 HockeyAllsvenskan season (which meant that the team was set to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season), the club was in big economical problems in March–May 2010. The club went bankrupt in April 2010, but managed to get the bankruptcy allayed a month later. Despite huge further efforts by the club to obtain an elite license to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to give Björklöven an elite license and thus the team was relegated to the third-tier league Division 1 for the 2010–11 season. Björklöven was eventually promoted back to HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2012–13 season.

History

IF Björklöven was formed in 1970 when the ice hockey sections of IFK Umeå and Sandåkerns SK were merged. The IFK Umeå team had already at times been referred to as 'björklöven' (the birch leaves) as a tongue in cheek reference to Canadian hockey and Umeå being known as the 'city of birch trees', and after the merger the nickname became the official team name.

The team was quite successful at the Elitserien (SEL) level, the highest league in Sweden, during the 1980s and won the Swedish championship in 1987. They were, however, relegated only two years later, and since then have not been able to establish themselves permanently in the Elitserien again. Instead, they have mostly played in the second-tier league Allsvenskan, save for a few short stints in the 90s. Some notable players from Björklöven are Calle Johansson, Ulf Dahlén, Tore Öqvist and twins Patrik Sundström and Peter Sundström.

The team has recently had many promising young players, including Alexander Hellström, Alexander Sundström, Patrik Nevalainen, Daniel Rahimi and Kristofer Berglund. Due to lack of funds however, Björklöven lost all of these young players to other teams, although Hellström, Sundström and Nevalainen later rejoined the team.

Season-by-season record

List of Björklöven seasons
Season Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd.		 Notes Ref
Position W-T-L
W-OT-L
For a complete list, see List of IF Björklöven seasons
2012–13 Tier 3 Division 1A 1st of 7 22–0–1–1 2,503 [1]
AllEttan North 1st of 8 13–0–0–1 3,085 Bye to Playoff 3 [2]
Playoff to HA qualifier — 2–0–0–0 4,369 Round 3: Won 2–0 in games vs Olofströms IK [3]
HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers 1st of 6 7–0–0–3 4,747 Increase Promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan [4]
2013–14 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 14th of 14 13–4–3–32 3,641
HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers 2nd of 6 6–0–3–1 3,632
2014–15 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 6th of 14 19–10–4–19 3,552
Playoff to SHL qualifiers 4th of 6 1–2–0–2 5,118
2015–16 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 12th of 14 20–2–9–22 3,472
2016–17 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 11th of 14 20–1–5–26 3,802

Current roster

Updated November 25, 2016.[5]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
57 Sweden Andersson, StefanStefan Andersson (A) D R 34 2012 Sollefteå, Sweden
37 Sweden Andersson, JacobJacob Andersson D L 22 2016 Umeå, Sweden
26 Sweden Boström, LinusLinus Boström LW L 28 2016 Umeå, Sweden
51 Norway Bull, ChristianChristian Bull D L 21 2016 Lørenskog, Norway
16 Sweden Ekeståhl Jonsson, LucasLucas Ekeståhl Jonsson D L 21 2015 Stockholm, Sweden
4 Sweden Emmerdahl, JonasJonas Emmerdahl D L 25 2015 Älvsjö, Sweden
19 United States Farley, AustinAustin Farley LW L 23 2016 Park Ridge, Illinois, United States
55 Sweden Fredriksson, SimonSimon Fredriksson D L 24 2016 Karlstad, Sweden
20 Sweden Granlund, MattiasMattias Granlund LW L 25 2016 Glommersträsk, Sweden
24 Sweden Hage, TobiasTobias Hage C/LW L 25 2016 Stockholm, Sweden
21 Sweden Hetta, FredrikFredrik Hetta RW R 25 2015 Strömsund, Sweden
36 Canada Hamill, ZachZach Hamill C/RW R 28 2016 Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
91 Sweden Högberg, JoakimJoakim Högberg RW R 26 2016 Piteå, Sweden
22 Sweden Johansson, NicklasNicklas Johansson LW/C L 33 2011 Nordmaling, Sweden
33 Sweden Jonsson, MarcusMarcus Jonsson RW R 25 2016 Umeå, Sweden
6 Sweden Karlsson, KimKim Karlsson C L 27 2013 Älvsbyn, Sweden
7 Sweden Lindquist, DavidDavid Lindquist C/LW L 24 2016 Piteå, Sweden
50 Sweden Lundström, NiklasNiklas Lundström G L 24 2016 Värmdö, Sweden
14 United States Murphy, CodyCody Murphy LW L 26 2016 Highwood, Illinois, United States
18 Sweden Ottosson, AxelAxel Ottosson C/LW L 21 2016 Umeå, Sweden
12 Sweden Pavel, NiklasNiklas Pavel D R 24 2016 Gothenburg, Sweden
28 Sweden Sandström, LucasLucas Sandström RW L 27 2013 Fagersta, Sweden
29 Sweden Stenlund Ädelgran, IsakIsak Stenlund Ädelgran RW R 20 2016 Umeå, Sweden
10 Sweden Thörnberg, JesperJesper Thörnberg RW L 26 2014 Jönköping, Sweden
35 Sweden Werner, AdamAdam Werner G L 20 Loan Mariestad, Sweden
42 Sweden Wikström, EmilEmil Wikström D L 22 2015 Skellefteå, Sweden
74 Sweden Öhman, StefanStefan Öhman (C) C L 41 2013 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

Retired numbers

Other notable players

References

  1. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Division 1 A Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  2. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 AllEttan North Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  3. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Playoff till Allsv. Kval
  4. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013 Kvalserien till HockeyAllsvenskan Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  5. ↑ "Björklöven roster" (in Swedish). IF Björklöven.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to IF Björklöven.
Preceded by
Färjestad BK		 Swedish ice hockey champions
1987 		Succeeded by
Färjestad BK
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