Växjö Lakers

Växjö Lakers Hockey
2016–17 Växjö Lakers season
City Växjö, Sweden
League Swedish Hockey League
Founded 1997
Home arena Vida Arena
Colors Blue, orange, white
              
General manager Henrik Evertsson
Head coach Sam Hallam
Captain Liam Reddox
Le Mat Trophy 2015

Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often referred to as the Växjö Lakers or VLH) is an ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. The club plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, and made its debut there in 2011–12. They play their home games in the Vida Arena. The club won the Swedish national championship in 2015.[1]

History

The club was founded in 1997, after Växjö HC went bankrupt that year. Växjö Lakers originally played in Växjö Ishall as their home arena, but prior to the 2011–12 season they moved to Vida Arena. The construction of the Vida Arena was finished in summer 2011.

The club began play in the 1997–98 season. Starting in Division 4, four divisions below the Elitserien/SHL, Växjö worked its way to HockeyAllsvenskan within 6 years, being promoted 3 times. With a perfect record in the 2002 HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien, the club qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan. Sensationally, during their debut season in HockeyAllsvenskan, the club acquired Shjon Podein, an NHL-merited North American player who played 699 NHL games and won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. The acquirement was described as "årets värvning" (acquirement of the year) by some people.[2] During Podein's years in Växjö he became a crowd favorite.[3] Prior to the following season, the 2004–05 season, the team also acquired Brad DeFauw, another NHL-merited North American player who played 9 NHL games and 154 AHL games. Both Shjon Podein and Brad DeFauw left the team after the 2004–05 season.

The club would spend 8 seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan and, during that time, reach the Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien three times. Växjö did not manage to promote to Elitserien in the 2009 and 2010 respective Kvalserien qualifications, but after winning the 2010–11 HockeyAllsvenskan season for the first time in club history and earning a third consecutive trip to Kvalserien, Växjö secured promotion to the top-tier league Elitserien in the eighth round (of ten) in the 2011 Kvalserien. The team finished the 2011 Kvalserien with 26 points, which is a record in the Kvalserien history.

The team's former logo

The team formerly used red, yellow and blue as its colours, both in the team's logo and the team's jerseys. On 18 April 2011 it was announced that the club had changed the colours of their jerseys to blue and orange prior to the 2011–12 season.[4] At that time it was also announced that the club's logo had been changed to an orange shield containing the name of the club beneath a lion holding a crossbow – an image from the Småland coat of arms.

Games in Elitserien

The club's first game in the Elitserien league was played on 13 September 2011, losing 0–2 to Frölunda HC in front of an outsold Scandinavium. Two days later, the club historically took their first points in Elitserien, beating Luleå HF on away ice 3–2 in a shootout, despite trailing by two goals in the third period.[5] Their first home game was played on September 17, against Linköpings HC, in front of an outsold Vida Arena. Linköping won the game 4–2. Former Växjö Lakers crowd favorite Shjon Podein watched the game in the arena.[6] Their first home points and regulation-time win came on September 27, when the Lakers won 4–1 against Modo Hockey.[7] The Lakers' first shutout came on away ice when Modo were beaten 2–0 on 25 October 2011.[8]

Växjö Lakers played the first Småland derby game in Elitserien history, which was on away ice against reigning regular-season champions HV71, on 8 October 2011 in front of an outsold Kinnarps Arena—exactly 7,000 spectators—in Jönköping.[9] Växjö Lakers came out on top with a 3–2 victory in a shootout. Växjö Lakers forward Mike Iggulden scored three penalty shot goals in the game, two of them counted in the statistics.[10]

Season history

Season Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd.		 Notes
Position W-T-L
W-OT-L
This list features the five most recent completed seasons. For prior seasons, see List of Växjö Lakers seasons.
2011–12 Tier 1 Elitserien 9th 18–8–7–22 5,099
2012–13 Tier 1 Elitserien 10th 14–7–8–26 5,042
2013–14 Tier 1 SHL 3rd 23–7–11–14 5,021
Swedish Championship playoffs — 6–8 5,619 Lost in semifinals, 2-4 vs Färjestad BK
2014–15 Tier 1 SHL 3rd 24–9–6–16 4,980
Swedish Championship playoffs — 12–6 5,629 Won finals, 4-2 vs Skellefteå AIK
2015–16 Tier 1 SHL 6th 25–4–4–19 4,947
Swedish Championship playoffs — 7–6 5,529 Lost in semifinals, 3-4 vs Skellefteå AIK

Players

Current roster

Updated September 24, 2016.[11][12]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
45 Sweden Andrén, ViktorViktor Andrén G L 23 2015 Mariestad, Sweden
3 Sweden Bohm, OliverOliver Bohm D L 25 2016 Karlstad, Sweden
88 Sweden Brodecki, AdamAdam Brodecki RW R 22 2016 Stockholm, Sweden
30 Sweden Eriksson, JoacimJoacim Eriksson G R 27 2016 Gävle, Sweden
18 Sweden Everberg, DennisDennis Everberg LW L 25 2016 Västerås, Sweden
67 Sweden Fröberg, LinusLinus Fröberg C L 24 2015 Karlstad, Sweden
9 United States Hennessy, JoshJosh Hennessy C L 32 2014 Brockton, Massachusetts, United States
24 Sweden Hillding, JoakimJoakim Hillding C L 29 2015 Ängelholm, Sweden
25 Sweden Holm, PhilipPhilip Holm D L 25 2016 Stockholm, Sweden
6 Sweden Högberg, LinusLinus Högberg D L 18 2015 Stockholm, Sweden
60 Sweden Josefsson, ErikErik Josefsson (A) C L 30 2008 Gislaved, Sweden
19 Finland Kiiskinen, TuomasTuomas Kiiskinen (A) RW L 30 2014 Kuopio, Finland
2 Finland Laakso, TeemuTeemu Laakso D R 29 2014 Tuusula, Finland
23 Finland Leino, VilleVille Leino LW L 33 2016 Savonlinna, Finland
52 Sweden Lundberg, ArvidArvid Lundberg D L 23 2016 Skellefteå, Sweden
93 Sweden Marklund, SamSam Marklund C L 24 2016 Skellefteå, Sweden
64 Sweden Martinsson, EricEric Martinsson D L 24 2014 Klippan, Sweden
21 Canada Murphy, CoryCory Murphy D R 39 2013 Kanata, Ontario, Canada
77 Sweden Netterberg, PontusPontus Netterberg RW R 25 2016 Varberg, Sweden
34 Finland Palola, OlliOlli Palola RW R 29 2016 Oulu, Finland
16 Belarus Platt, GeoffGeoff Platt LW L 32 2016 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
85 Canada Reddox, LiamLiam Reddox (C) LW/C L 31 2011 Whitby, Ontario, Canada
39 Sweden Rosén, CalleCalle Rosén D L 23 2014 Växjö, Sweden
87 Sweden Rosén, RobertRobert Rosén C R 30 2012 Alvesta, Sweden
15 Sweden Storm, AlbinAlbin Storm C L 20 2014 Lidköping, Sweden

References

  1. ↑ Anders Feltenmark (24 April 2015). "Växjö Lakers HC svenska mästare" (in Swedish). Swedish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Änderson om avund" (in Swedish). Lakers Lakejer. 2003-11-04. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  3. ↑ "Shjon Podein har landat i Växjö" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. 2004-10-19. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  4. ↑ "Orange revolution i Växjö Lakers" (in Swedish). Smålandsposten. 2011-04-18. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  5. ↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-15). "Kallio fixade historisk vinst" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-15.
  6. ↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-16). "Invigningsöverraskningen: Podein på plats i VIDA Arena" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
  7. ↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-27). "Första segern i VIDA Arena". Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  8. ↑ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-10-25). "Seger – och första nollan" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
  9. ↑ Bosse Johander (2011-10-08). "Historiskt derby i Småland" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  10. ↑ Per Johansson (2011-10-08). "Iggulden straffade HV71 i smålandsderbyt" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  11. ↑ "A-Lag - Spelartrupp 16/17" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
  12. ↑ "Eliteprospects.com - Växjö Lakers". Eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2015-01-21.
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