Frölunda HC

Frölunda Hockey Club, also known as the Frölunda Indians,[1] is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where they have played for most of the club's existence. They last played in the lower division, the Allsvenskan, in 1995. Frölunda have won the national championship title five times: in 1965, 2003, 2005, 2016 and 2019.

Frölunda HC
2020–21 SHL season
CityGothenburg, Sweden
LeagueSwedish Hockey League
Founded3 February 1938
Home arenaScandinavium
General managerFredrik Sjöström
Head coachRoger Rönnberg
CaptainJoel Lundqvist
Franchise history
1944–1984Västra Frölunda IF
1984–2004Västra Frölunda HC
2004–presentFrölunda HC
Le Mat Trophy(5) (1965, 2003, 2005, 2016, 2019)

The club was founded on 3 February 1938,[2] as an ice hockey section in Västra Frölunda IF and became independent on 29 March 1984.[3] Prior to the 1995/1996 season, the nickname Indians was adopted. This referring to the successful years of the 1960s, when fans started to call them the "Wild West" (Västra Frölunda is West Frölunda in English). But as they didn't want a nickname like cowboys or something with firearms, Indians became the obvious choice. On 16 June 2004, the club shortened the name from Västra Frölunda Hockey Club to Frölunda Hockey Club. Frölunda's home venue is the Scandinavium arena in central Gothenburg, which has a capacity of 12,044 people. Frölundaborg is used when Scandinavium is occupied with other events. Frölunda's average home attendance has been the highest in the league for over a decade.[4]

History

In 2003 Frölunda became the champions after a 38-year hiatus. The final game in Scandinavium on 7 April against Färjestad BK was ended by late season recruit Tomi Kallio in the third overtime period.[5] In the 2004–05 season, the club's 60th anniversary and 20th as independent club, the team won the league title, by having the best record during the regular season, and the Swedish Championship. That particular year was notable because the National Hockey League had a labour stoppage due to negotiations between the league and the players association. Many professional hockey players who could not play in the NHL chose to play in European or North American leagues. The largest number of professional NHL players were in Sweden during the season, including Gothenburg native Daniel Alfredsson, who joined his hometown club for the season. This increased the quality of play and many observers said that Elitserien was the best league in the world during 2004–05.[6]

Frölunda set a new Elitserien record on 6 April 2006, by winning the Elitserien playoff semi-finals against Linköpings HC 4–3 after trailing the series 1–3. The season ended with a 2–4 defeat against Färjestads BK in the finals. The second game in the finals Ronnie Sundin played his 685th game for Frölunda becoming the player with most career games for the club.

Frölunda is the biggest winner of the Champions Hockey League, with four titles in 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 and 2019–20.

Season-by-season results
Fredrik Pettersson playing for Frölunda

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

Season League Regular season[7] Post season results
Finish GP W L T GF GA Pts
2014–15 SHL 2nd 5523151714512097 Won in Quarterfinals, 4–3 (Luleå)
Lost in Semi-finals, 2–4 (Växjö)
2015–16 SHL 2nd 5230157169112104 Won in Quarterfinals, 4–1 (Djurgården)
Won in Semi-finals, 4–2 (Luleå)
Won Swedish Championship, 4–1 (Skellefteå)
2016–17 SHL 3rd 5227151014211497 Won in Quarterfinals, 4–3 (Skellefteå)
Lost in Semi-finals, 3–4 (Brynäs)
2017–18 SHL 3rd 5225151215913794 Lost in Quarterfinals, 2–4 (Malmö)
2018–19 SHL 3rd 5224161215213492 Won in Quarterfinals, 4–1 (Malmö Redhawks)
Won in Semi-finals, 4–1 (Luleå)
Won Swedish Championship, 4–2 (Djurgården)

Players and personnel

Current roster

Updated 19 November 2019.[8]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
4 Gustav Berglund D R 20 2019 Huskvarna, Sweden
63 Julius Bergman D R 25 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
72 Patrik Carlsson C/LW L 33 2018 Kungälv, Sweden
8 Viktor Ekbom D L 31 2018 Falköping, Sweden
11 Samuel Fagemo RW R 20 2017 Göteborg, Sweden
12 Max Friberg LW R 28 2017 Skövde, Sweden
36 Brandon Gormley D L 28 2019 Murray River, Prince Edward Island, Canada
15 Anders Grönlund D L 32 2018 Piteå, Sweden
59 Simon Hjalmarsson (A) LW L 32 2016 Gislaved, Sweden
81 Ryan Lasch RW R 34 2017 Lake Forest, California, United States
31 Nicklas Lasu (A) C L 31 2019 Mölndal, Sweden
34 Theodor Lennström D L 26 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
20 Joel Lundqvist (C) C L 38 2009 Åre, Sweden
33 Johan Mattsson G L 28 2017 Huddinge, Sweden
3 Jacob Moverare D R 22 2018 Östersund, Sweden
40 Joel Mustonen C L 28 2017 Oulu, Finland
55 David Printz D L 40 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
49 Rhett Rakhshani RW R 32 2018 Orange, California, United States
18 Lucas Raymond RW R 18 2018 Göteborg, Sweden
51 Mats Rosseli Olsen RW L 29 2012 Oslo, Norway
41 Niklas Rubin G L 25 2019 Stockholm, Sweden
17 Sebastian Stålberg C/RW R 30 2015 Lerum, Sweden
7 Karl Stollery D L 33 2019 Camrose, Alberta, Canada
28 Johan Sundström RW R 28 2019 Gothenburg, Sweden

Team captains

Head coaches

Honored members
Team captain and playing coach Lars-Eric Lundvall hoisting the Le Mat Trophy when Frölunda won the Swedish Championship in 1965. Lundvall's jersey number 13 is retired by Frölunda.

Frölunda Hockey have retired the numbers of four players, all on 3 March 2002. The number retired were; the number 13 worn by Lars Erik Lundvall, who spent eight seasons with Frölunda, all of them serving as team captain. The number 14 worn by Ronald "Sura Pelle" Pettersson, who spent seven seasons with Frölunda before suffering a career-ending injury on 14 December 1967. The duo of Lundvall and Pettersson was one of the reason behind Frölunda's success in the 60's and secured that hockey got a strong foothold in Gothenburg. The number 19 worn by Jörgen Pettersson during his two stints with Frölunda. Pettersson joined the club in 1970 and played ten seasons for the club before joining the St. Louis Blues of the NHL. After five seasons in the NHL he returned and played another three seasons for the club. The number 29 worn by Stefan Larsson during his sixteen seasons with Frölunda. With the exception of two seasons, Larsson played for Frölunda his entire professional career.

Two Frölunda players have been inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame. Forward Ulf Sterner, played three seasons for Frölunda before becoming the first European-trained player to play in the NHL during his short sojourn with the New York Rangers during the 1964–65 NHL season; he was inducted in 2001.[9] Forward Ronald "Sura Pelle" Pettersson, represented team Sweden in three olympic games and ten IIHF World Championships, totaling 252 games played for the national team; he was inducted in 2004.[9] In 2003, former Frölunda players Christian Ruuttu and Jorma Salmi were inducted to the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame.[10]

Franchise records and leaders

Career

Regular season

Playoffs

Team
  • Most points in a season: 112 (2004–05)
  • Most wins in a season: 33 (2004–05)
  • Most goals in a season: 181 (2001–02)
  • Fewest goals against in a season: 96 (2004–05)

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers of Frölunda HC since the 1975–76 season. Figures are updated after each completed regular season.[12]

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game;   = current Frölunda HC player

Points
PlayerPosGPGAPtsP/G
Niklas AnderssonLW5481762974730.86
Joel LundqvistC7271512524030.55
Jonas JohnsonC5131561963520.68
Tomi KallioRW4331681803480.80
Magnus KahnbergRW5871691683370.57
Patrik CarnbäckLW3791331793120.82
Peter StrömF472861272130.45
Ronnie SundinD705631412040.28
Ove KarlssonC294103871900.64
Stefan LarssonD463831011840.39

References
  1. "Facts". Frölunda HC. Archived from the original on 24 May 2006. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
  2. Szemberg, Szymon. Västra Frölunda 50 År. p. 12.
  3. Szemberg, Szymon. Västra Frölunda 50 År. p. 170.
  4. "Official Statistics". Swedish Ice Hockey Federation.
  5. Szemberg, Szymon (1994). Västra Frölunda 50 År (in Swedish). Sweden: Sportförlaget. ISBN 978-91-88540-34-8.
  6. "Elitserien världens bästa hockeyliga" (PDF) (in Swedish). Pro Hockey. 27 April 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 25 January 2007.
  7. Code explanation; GP—Games played, W—Wins, L—Losses, T—Tied games, GF—Goals for, GA—Goals against, Pts—Points
  8. "Frölunda HC current roster" (in Swedish). Frölunda HC. 19 May 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  9. "Complete list of IIHF Hall of Fame Inductees from 1997 to 2006". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 11 December 2006. Retrieved 28 February 2007.
  10. "Finnish Hall of Fame – Honoured Members". Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 20 March 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2007.
  11. http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=43584
  12. "Frolunda HC – All Time SHL leaders". quanthockey.com. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
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