Swedish Junior Hockey

Oskar Skiold grew up in the suburbs of Stockholm in a hockey family.  His dad played minor professional hockey in his hometown and Oskar followed his footsteps.  In this episode, we follow the twists and turns from his adolescence into adulthood from Stockholm junior hockey to the US and how he walked on at the University of Wisconsin to now playing minor pro in Sweden.

Oscar Alsenfelt spent 16 seasons as one of the all time great goaltenders of the SHL.  He got hsi big break advancing Vaxjo to the SHL and repeated the same in 13-14 season with Leksand and spent the rest of his career where he played junior hockey in Malmo Redhawks before retiring last season.  Oscar quickly was announced as the General Manager for the SDHL, Sweden's Women's Hockey league and he has quickly made his presence known not only by his fame but his passion and cerebral aspect of growing the game.

Kristian Skarphagen now spends his time as a speaker and motivational coach for businesses in Sweden and Europe.  In this episode we talk about his career as a strength and conditioning coach in Frolunda, KHL and for the Chicago Blackhawks organization and how his experiences in three countries and cultures has shaped his message to motivating both the body and mind of athletes and businesses today.

Jens Brandstrom is in his 19th year as a hockey coach and speaks of the opportunity to use his experience nad knowledge in all levels of coaching in Swedish youth hockey, womens hokey domestically and internationally to make the move to Hungary and now university hockey in Romania.  Jens talks about the similarities and differences of the countries hockey programs and levels and how he is able to use his style of leadership and coaching for success.

Kevin Cunningham the GM, coach and owner of the Norwich Sea Captains in the NA3HL speaks of his journey to starting a new team in the North American 3 Hockey League in Tier 3 of the US Junior System.  From his time in the college coaching to his time in the NAHL he speaks about what it's like to play and succeed in the American junior system at the Tier III level.

Lucas Karlsson is a big Swedish Defenseman, originally from Koping but as he tells it in his conversation, has always been a Leksand fan, grew up playing youth hockey from age 9 to 14 in Leksand, Sweden where his father Joakim was the youth hockey director.  His brother, Jack (previous episode) is 2 years older and was a big influence and both boys competed from a young age together.

When, at the age of 14, the family decided to make a professional move for his fathers job, he ended up in Maryland and eventually with the Washington Jr Capitols organization for a few years playing AAA hockey.

His imposing physical size of 6' 3" and 196 lbs makes Lucas and imposing presence.  He made the move away from home and followed his brothers footsteps to join the NJ Titans organization this year and recently was awarded a NAHL tender with the organization.

We talk about his goals, his experience and how next step is to make the main camp roster and opening day spot for the NAHL NJ Titans.

Daniel Eriksson, player development coach in the HV 71 organization talks about his background both as a general manager, coach and area manager for the Swedish Hockey Federation and how his love of the game has moved him from his full time role as a teacher and principal to now working full time with one of the top organizations in Sweden.  His background paved the way to become an educator in the game of hockey and to grow the game both vertically and horizontally in HV 71.  IN this episode, we talk about the differences between the big and small clubs in Sweden and also how Sweden is focused on the compete part of the game and trying to establish themselves in the absolute top of the hockey world.

After a career ending back injury and 10 months of bedridden recovery from back fusion, Alex made the conscious decision to become a goalie coach.  Alex grew up in St Petersburg, Russia and was one step away from becoming a professional goalie in the Russian system when a back injury almost caused permanent paralysis requiring emergency back surgery.  This episode talk about his journey as a player to coaching and how he made it to become one of the youngest coaches in general and specifically as a goalie coach in the KHL.  Alex has since left Russia and when we recorded this episode temporary lives in Israel and looking for the next step in his hockey and personal journey of life.

Daniel Triesler lives in Copenhagen and certainly has an interesting background.  From playing ACHA DIII college hockey in the US, he went on adventure to play mens D3 and D2 hockey in both Sweden and Denmark and found himself getting entrenched in the coaching life in both Sweden and Denmark.  Daniel talks about how his love of the game has stretched his boundaries geographically as well as as a person and currently has the opportunity to work as a scout for Malmo Redhawks.

Kim Hilmersson, 6'1" and 207 lb powerful forward that grew up playing in Almtuna, Uppsala in Sweden.  He has taken a different path to reach his goal to play collegiate hockey at the division 1 level in the US by playing 3 years at the AAA level for Seacoast Spartans in New Hampshire and now first year player with Maine Nordiques in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) in the US.

Kim speaks about the decision to leave Sweden and his family to billet and take online classes in High School with SPA in NH and the challenge with the language and a new family.

We talk about the difference in levels of play and style between Swedish U16 and US U16 and also J18 elite vs. U18AAA and NAHL.  We also go into his goals of making the Swedish Junior National Team and how that has been some of a sacrifice to play in the US where it is easy to be forgotten from Swedish evaluations.  The goal is still set and for the next two to three years year we will see Kim tear it up in the NAHL or higher.