Malmö Redhawks

Malmö Redhawks
2015–16 Malmö Redhawks season
City Malmö, Sweden
League SHL
Founded 28 February 1972 (1972-02-28)
Home arena Malmö Arena
Colors Black, red and white
              
Owner(s) Malmö Redhawks Holding AB
General manager Patrik Sylvegård
Head coach Peter Andersson
Captain Erik Forssell
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, also known simply as Malmö or by their former abbreviation MIF, are a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Malmö. The team is currently playing in Sweden's premier hockey league, the SHL. They play their home games at Malmö Arena. The club has historical roots dating back to 1947 as the ice hockey division of the association football club Malmö FF. In 1972 the team broke loose from Malmö FF and started an independent club known as Malmö IF. The name was changed to MIF Redhawks in 2001, this lasted until 2004 when it was changed to Malmö Redhawks.[1]

Malmö played 18 consecutive seasons of ice hockey in Sweden's top tier, currently named the SHL from 1987 to 2005. They made a brief comeback to the top tier in the 2006–07 season, and returned once again to the SHL for the 2015–16 season. The most successful era in the history of the club occurred during the 1990s, when the team won two Swedish championships, in 1992 and 1994 and the 1993 European Cup.[2]

History

The team was founded on 28 February 1972 as Malmö Ishockeyförening (Malmö Ice Hockey Club, or MIF) when the ice hockey division of Malmö FF became an independent club.[1] The early history of the club was unremarkable, spent in the lower divisions of Swedish hockey. Relegation to Division 2 in 1984 became the spark to a series of events including the departure of Nils Yngvesson who had been chairman of the club since its creation in 1972. The club only played one season in Division 2 before being promoted back to Division 1, where the club made what it refers to as "the biggest investment in Swedish sports history."[3]

The club's campaign to reach the top league failed that season, but in the 1989–90 season, the club finished first in both their autumn Division 1 group, as well as the Allsvenskan in the spring, and then won the Allsvenskan final 3–0 in games against MoDo to secure promotion to Elitserien (today called the SHL) for the first time. They would remain in the top flight for 15 seasons, a period that would bring two name changes (to MIF Redhawks in 1996 and to IF Malmö Redhawks in 2003), as well as two Swedish Championship titles, in 1992 and 1994, and the 1993 European championship.[4]

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 four 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, the 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, the Redhawks moved to the new Malmö Arena, a top-modern sports and entertainment venue. The club originally aimed to be 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 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.[5]

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.[6]

The season started well with a top-three spot in the league after a couple of months, but after falling down to sixth place with 47 points, at that time 10 points away from the third Kvalserien spot, 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.[7][8] 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.[9] In the Playoff round, Malmö finished second due to inferior goal difference than Rögle BK, and Malmö therefore missed the 2012 Kvalserien.

Reorganization, and failures to reach the playoffs

In early 2012, the club owner announced that the financial situation needed to be reviewed. As a result, the Redhawks filed for economic reconstruction on 11 April 2012. The filing was granted the following day. The club re-negotiated the most expensive player contracts in order to reduce the total salary cap from 30 million SEK down to 18 million.[10]

On 17 May 2012 it was announced that the club and Hugo Stenbeck had agreed that Stenbeck would help the club buy out Linus Klasen and Hannu Toivonen due to their expensive contracts.[10]

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.[11][12] 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.

The Malmö Redhawks started the 2012–13 season bad, and after 17 games played, the team had only taken 21 points,[13] 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 Redhawks were located in fifth place in the league by early December. In January, the team began a losing streak and lost eight 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.[14] In Malmö, the season was over on March 2, when the regular season was finished.

Season-by-season record

This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Redhawks. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Malmö Redhawks seasons

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season Regular Season Post–Season Ref.
League GP W L T Pts GF GA Finish Playoffs GP W L T Pts GF GA Finish
2012–13 HockeyAllsvenskan 52 20 24 8 71 151 150 9th Did not qualify — — — — — — — — [15]
2013–14 HockeyAllsvenskan 52 30 12 10 105 160 113 1st SHL qualifiers 10 4 4 2 15 25 27 4th [16][17]
2014–15 HockeyAllsvenskan 52 25 14 13 95 168 122 3rd Playoffs

SHL qualifiers

 5

7

 1

4

 3

2

 1

1

 8

—

 8

23

 13

18

 3rd
Winners
 [18][19]

[20]

2015–16 SHL 52 15 26 11 61 116 153 12th Did not qualify — — — — — — — — [21]
2016–17 SHL 52 23 20 9 81 132 116 8th Playoffs 13 4 5 4 — 35 38 Semi-finals [22]

Players

Current roster

Updated on 9 March 2017.[23][24]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
69 Sweden Alsenfelt, OscarOscar Alsenfelt G L 30 2015 Malmö, Sweden
10 Sweden Alvarez, RobinRobin Alvarez (A) LW L 29 2016 Malmö, Sweden
2 Sweden Andersson, ErikErik Andersson D L 35 2015 Umeå, Sweden
7 Sweden Andersson, NilsNils Andersson (A) D R 25 2014 Umeå, Sweden
3 Canada Benoit, AndréAndré Benoit D L 33 2016 St. Albert, ON, Canada
8 Sweden Bryggman, LarsLars Bryggman LW L 24 2016 Umeå, Sweden
90 Slovakia Fehérváry, MartinMartin Fehérváry D L 17 2016 Bratislava, Slovakia
81 Finland Filppula, IlariIlari Filppula C L 35 2016 Vantaa, Finland
23 Sweden Forsberg, ChristofferChristoffer Forsberg C/LW L 23 2015 Östersund, Sweden
20 Sweden Forssell, ErikErik Forssell (C) C L 35 2016 Skellefteå, Sweden
43 Denmark Hardt, NichlasNichlas Hardt LW L 29 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark
62 Austria Haudum, LukasLukas Haudum C/LW L 20 2016 Lintz, Austria
16 Sweden Häggström, MagnusMagnus Häggström C/RW R 30 2012 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
63 Sweden Händemark, FredrikFredrik Händemark C L 23 2016 Björbo, Sweden
57 Sweden Ivarsson, JohanJohan Ivarsson D L 22 2014 Sweden
61 Sweden Jadeland, NicklasNicklas Jadeland W L 31 2012 Malmö, Sweden
17 Austria Komarek, KonstantinKonstantin Komarek C/LW L 24 2016 Vienna, Austria
14 Sweden Lerby, Carl-JohanCarl-Johan Lerby D L 20 2016
41 Sweden Nihlstorp, CristopherCristopher Nihlstorp G R 33 2016 Malmö, Sweden
28 Sweden Olsson, JensJens Olsson D L 32 2012 Malmö, Sweden
49 United States Rakhshani, RhettRhett Rakhshani RW R 29 2016 Huntington Beach, CA, United States
96 Sweden Rosdahl, KimKim Rosdahl LW R 21 2013 Malmö, Sweden
9 Denmark Storm, FrederikFrederik Storm W L 28 2012 Gentofte, Denmark
54 Sweden Sylvegård, MarcusMarcus Sylvegård RW R 18 2016 Gessie, Sweden
12 Sweden Thuresson, AndreasAndreas Thuresson (A) C/LW R 29 2015 Kristianstad, Sweden
71 Sweden Tjärnqvist, MathiasMathias Tjärnqvist LW L 38 2015 Umeå, Sweden
6 Sweden Warg, StefanStefan Warg D R 27 2014 Stockholm, Sweden
4 United States Welch, NoahNoah Welch D L 34 2016 Boston, MA, United States

Notable players

Retired numbers

Malmö Redhawks retired numbers
No. Player Position Career No. retirement
25 Kaj Olsson Left wing 1975–86 —
18 Patrik Sylvegård Right wing 1987–99 21 September 2000
1 Peter Lindmark Goaltender 1988–97 8 November 2011
5 Roger Nordström Goaltender 1983–98 16 February 2015

Alumni:

All with experience from their respective national teams.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Grundandet". malmoredhawks.com (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Storhetstiden". malmoredhawks.com (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "90-TALSSATSNINGEN". Malmö Redhawks.
  4. ↑ "Malmö". Eliteprospects.com.
  5. ↑ "Hugo Stenbeck köper Redhawks" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  6. ↑ "Linus Klasen klar för Malmö" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
  7. ↑ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-10). "Ny huvudtränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
  8. ↑ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-26). "Patrik Sylvegård ny assisterande tränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  9. ↑ Winnberg, Christian (2012-03-02). "Malmö Redhawks säkrade förkvalserieplatsen" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
  10. 1 2 Martin, Nathalie (2012-05-17). "Hugo Stenbeck och Malmö Redhawks eniga" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  11. ↑ "Ny VD och sportchef för Malmö Redhawks Ishockey AB" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  12. ↑ "Mats Lusth ny tränare för Malmö Redhawks" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  13. ↑ http://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/wennerholm/2012/11/malmo-hetast-av-alla/
  14. ↑ http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sport/ishockey/redhawks/ny-redhawksforlust-1/
  15. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13: HockeyAllsvenskan
  16. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013–14: HockeyAllsvenskan
  17. ↑ "SHL: 2013–14: Kval till SHL". Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
  18. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2014–15: HockeyAllsvenskan
  19. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2014–15: Slutspelsserien
  20. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2014–15: Direktkval till SHL
  21. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2015–16: SHL
  22. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2016–17: SHL
  23. ↑ "Malmö Redhawks roster". Eliteprospects. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  24. ↑ "Truppen". Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  25. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.co.id/hockey-players-on-wall-street-2014-6/20/#.VBdfYlYQuRU
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