James Reason, CEO of TargetAid and Board member of Varmdo Hockey and I speak about youth and junior hockey in the Stockholm, Sweden Region and how it is a breading ground for top talent but also breadth. We talk about lessons learned from an administration standpoint and how it correlate with Swedish Hockey philosophy. We also talk about the TargetAid fundraising platform that his company partners with sports organizations and provides a good alternative to selling toilet paper?!
May 01, 2023•1 hr 14 min
Glenn Hefferan and Jacob Dahlin sit down and go in depth (sorry for the length) in USA hockey and do a deep dive into what the numbers are telling us where D1 commits are coming from in USA Hockey.
Apr 24, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Anny and Mange Safstrom are partners in life but also have a common goal in helping athletes with both skill development and injury prevention. They together run Skills & Prehab for individuals and teams involved in mainly hockey but also figure skating in the southern part of Sweden.
Apr 17, 2023•46 min
Darryl Wolski with 2112 Hockey Agency and College Hockey Family Advisor (CHFA) has been in the hockey business sin 1985 when he worked as an announcer for the Winnipeg Jets and cheering on Swedish players Thomas Steel and Bengt Lundholm. IN this episode we break down the different junior leagues in Canada and United States and talk about different paths to play junior and college hockey. We also throw in some anecdotes about players, fishing stories and a lot of other interesting discussion poin...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Alex Houston, goaltender for NCAA D1 Canisius College in Buffalo, NY has already racked up an impressive resume at that age of 20. As owner of Midwest Knights and while playing juniors he succeeded in recruiting top players to his summer program and established himself through solid relationships and by being not too far removed from the game himself. He was quickly approached by his junior team Pueblo Bulls to join the staff as Director of Scouting for the new NCDC program in Colorado. In this ...
Apr 03, 2023•40 min
Nick DiLisi with 93 Hockey Services and Jacob Dahlin speaks on the topic of being an agent and family advisor for European players in the US and US players playing in Europe.
Mar 27, 2023•36 min
Wouter Hazebroek from Holland now lives in Falkenberg on the West Coast of Sweden. He is the developer of Hockeygymnasium.se website that gives detailed information about everything on Hockey Academy Gymnasium 9-12th grade in Sweden. In this episode we discuss the differences between NIU and LIU, next year's age group 2007 will be be selected and how SIHF supports and pushes the development of hockey at the youth level.
Mar 20, 2023•50 min
Johan Eriksson with Avenue Sports Management in Muskoka, ON Canada returns for a second appearance on the podcast to give the Swedish player the detailed information on how to make the transition from Swedish Junior Hockey to US and Canadian Juniors and College. In this episode we break down the different levels of junior hockey in US and Canada as well as the detailed import rules and restrictions for college. The idea is to give the Swedish player the details they need if they are interested i...
Mar 13, 2023•54 min
Henry Acres from BC, Canada played juniors in the BCHL and eventually found himself on a worldwide journey in Australia, Norway and Sweden playing at variety of levels. A visit to the local bank in a small town in Northern Sweden changed the path where he met his future wife. Henry is a coach, mentor, administrator and teacher and uses his platform to form relationships with players in Canada and Sweden. In this episode we talk about common friends but mostly compare Sweden's juniors and systems...
Mar 06, 2023•46 min
Alfonso Acevedo with roots in El Salvador grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and his interest and love for hockey has provided a path through various online publications to now being the European Scout for Recruitscouting.com covering Sweden and Finland. In this episode we talk about the recent world juniors and his view on the Swedish players and also the upcoming draft.
Feb 27, 2023•32 min
Jacob Rhodin - big scorer from Karlstad, Sweden via hockey gymnasium and juniors in Leksand sought a restart in the Canadian junior leagues and have found his own path with the goal of playing college hockey in the US. Jacob shares his experience and challenges along the journey, how to get cut and persevere, how to compete with fellow draft picks and finding his own path and success.
Feb 20, 2023•38 min
Mike Bloome is the Director of Player Personnel with Lone Star Brahmas in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). IN this episode we break down the steps for being noticed by scouts and GM's in the NAHL, how the rules work for transfers and imports as well as how NAHL teams recruit and eventually sign players to their roster.
Feb 13, 2023•51 min
Larissa Mills from London, Ontario, CAN grew up as a multi sport athlete and earned her education in education with a focus on behavioral management. Today, she spends her time helping athletes, families and individual focusing on the mental game and wellness. In this episode we dive into the need to work on the mental game and how to separate yourself as an athlete, individual, coach or organization by a strategic approach to mental wellness. We talk about the pit falls of the digital age and t...
Feb 06, 2023•38 min
Urban Omark is the first returning guest on the Swedish Jr Hockey Podcast. We dive right into the strengths and weaknesses about the Swedish Junior Hockey system, how different clubs have it and compare Swedish clubs internally as well as vs. National Development Program in the US. Urban speaks from experience from working with some of the best athletes in the northern Swedish area in Orkoldsvik and MODO Hockey.
Jan 30, 2023•45 min
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.
Jan 23, 2023•50 min
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 growin...
Jan 16, 2023•51 min
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.
Jan 09, 2023•46 min
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.
Jan 02, 2023•31 min
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.
Dec 26, 2022•38 min
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 Marylan...
Dec 19, 2022•31 min
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 ...
Dec 12, 2022•41 min
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 ...
Dec 05, 2022•43 min
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.
Nov 28, 2022•31 min
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 ...
Nov 21, 2022•31 min
Daniel Franck, CEO of Sportway, the developer of svenskhockey.tv or Swedish Hockey TV that all teams in Sweden uses to watch games at the U12 through juniors. Daniel talks about the partnership with Swedish Hockey Federation and the penetration of participants across the footprint of rinks in Sweden and how this partnership has been crucial in getting traction with the technology. Sportway has similar partnership in Finland, Norway and Denmark and is in the middle of installing 2,000 systems in ...
Nov 14, 2022•34 min
Ludwig grew up playing youth hockey in Huddinge, a suburb of Stockholm and at the age 13 change to powerhouse Djurgarden until U16 when he and teammates and current SHL and NHL stars such as Timashow, Kempe, Kyllington, Lundin and Englund won the U16 National Championship. He then accepted the opportunity to go to academy (gymnasium) at the NIU level and play at BIK Karlskoga and received his degree as an electrician in 3 years. He moved back home to Stockholm after graduation and played Divisio...
Nov 08, 2022•41 min
Ludvig Steenberg was not selected for the Stockholm TV puck tournament and did not get a chance to play at the NIU Gymnasium in Hockey but worked hard and took his own path to continue to play. After a year at SDE J18 Elite and 2 years in gymnasium (Swedish High School) he signed up to go play prep hockey at the National Sports Academy in Lake Placid, NY an. d did his senior and a post grad year there before graduating. His goal was to play college hockey in the US and joined the Connecticut Oil...
Oct 31, 2022•59 min
Alec Roberson, a hockey player, fan and writer for Beyond The Glass Hockey is the guest of today's episode of the Swedish Jr Hockey Podcast. Alec grew up in NC and found hockey later in his youth and fell in love with the game. During his undergrad at UNC WIlmington he played with the club team and turned heads during Friday lunch pick ups at the Greensboro Ice House during his law school days at Wake Forest University. Alec has a passion for educating and informing the reader of details of spec...
Oct 24, 2022•17 min
Tomi Stahlhammar, currently the head coach of Jokerit U16 youth hockey team in Helsinki, Finland. Tomi started out his career in Espoo, Finland and enjoyed a strong youth to junior career and had several seasons in the finish junior national team before moving with his family to the US and a year with Cedar Rapids in the USHL. Tomi shares his journey and how his experience has groomed him for a future as a young coach in the finish juniors.
Oct 17, 2022•51 min
Kari Ellsworth, part owner of the NAHL Anchorage Wolverines and executive director of the new hockey documentary Year One. Year One follows the inaugural season of the Anchorage Wolverines in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) following the trend of sports documentaries such as Last Chance U on Amazon Prime and Cheer on Netflix. For the Swedish audience, this is the American version of Rinkside or Eagles and Beartown. Kari explains the origin for the idea of creating the documentary, her ba...
Oct 10, 2022•21 min
