Leksands IF

Leksands IF
City Leksand, Sweden
League Swedish Hockey League
Founded 1938 (1938) (1919)
Home arena Tegera Arena
Colours White, blue
         
General manager Tommy Salo
Head coach Andreas Appelgren
Franchise history
Championship wins 4 (1969, 1973, 1974, 1975)
Runners-up 5 (1959, 1964, 1971, 1972, 1989)

Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. After being promoted following the 2015-16 season, the team plays in the Swedish Hockey League. The club's home arena is Tegera Arena, which seats 7,650 spectators.

History

The club was formed in 1919, originally playing bandy and ski competitions. In 1920 they also took up football.

the first hockey game was played in 1938, when they beat Mora IK 11–0, and this sport is now the only sport the club competes in. Despite the fact that the town of Leksand only has 6,000 inhabitants, Leksands IF is one of the most popular teams in Sweden, and the team averages over 6,000 spectators per game in their home arena. Leksand played in the top hockey division in Sweden from 1951 until 2001. The club was very successful between 1969 and 1975, when they became Swedish champions four times (1969, 19731975). Before the current top division, Elitserien (now known as the SHL), was formed prior to the 1975–76 season, they had been the runners-up four times: 1959, 1964, 1971 and 1972. Leksand has never become SHL champions despite winning the SHL's regular season in 1980, 1994 and 1997, and being the runners-up in 1989. In 2001, they were the club with the second most consecutive seasons in the highest division at that point (the record is held by Södertälje SK, with 53 consecutive seasons between 1925–1978).

Following the relegation to HockeyAllsvenskan in April 2001, Leksand commuted between the top and second divisions until 2005–06, when the team was relegated to the second tier again, where they would find themselves until the 2012–13 season.

Leksand players celebrating a victory against arch rivals Mora IK in 2013.

For the 2007–08 season, Leksand signed former NHL goaltender Ed Belfour in an attempt to regain top league status. After winning the second league with relative ease, the team failed in the final qualification stage, Kvalserien, to gain promotion. Ed Belfour retired after the 2007–08 season.

Leksand once again won Allsvenskan in the 2008–09 season, but once again failed to qualify for the Elitserien in the 2009 Kvalserien. The managers Thomas Kempe and Thomas Jonsson were sacked following three straight defeats in the beginning of the Kvalserien. The team finished the 2009 Kvalserien with five wins in the last six games, but still failed to qualify. For the 2009–10 season, Leksand employed Leif Strömberg, who had previously successfully guided Södertälje SK through Kvalserien. The team once again won Allsvenskan and qualified for the 2010 Kvalserien, finishing three points ahead of AIK. In the ninth round of the 2010 Kvalserien, Leksand had a good chance to put them in the driver's seat for promotion to Elitserien, but Leksand failed to beat the Kvalserien's worst ranked team Växjö Lakers and, despite a win in the tenth and final round, Leksand missed Elitserien as both AIK and Rögle BK won their respective games in the final round.

After failing promotion, Leif Strömberg was replaced by ex-Leksand forward Niklas Eriksson, under whom the following season Leksand attempted to reach the Kvalserien for the seventh consecutive season. The team finished fourth in Allsvenskan and missed automatic qualification for the Kvalserien and had to play in a pre-qualification series to reach the Kvalserien, but Leksand finished third and missed the Kvalserien. Before the 2011/12 season, assistant head coach Christer Olsson took over the reins, but was sacked following a defeat at Sundsvall Hockey in late November and replaced by Andreas Appelgren.

After winning the regular season in the 2012–13 season, Leksand once again qualified for play in Kvalserien. In the 2013 Kvalserien, Leksand finally promoted back to the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-tier league, for the first time since the 2005–06 season.

Recent seasons

Year Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd.
Notes
Position W-OTW-OTL-L
For seasons prior to 2008–09, see List of Leksands IF seasons
2008–09 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 1st 30–5–1–9 5,300
2009 Elitserien qualifier 4th 4–1–0–5 6,917
2009–10 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 1st 31–4–6–11 4,785
2010 Elitserien qualifier 4th 4–2–0–4 7,093
2010–11 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 4th 23–7–7–15 4,842
Pre-qualifier 3rd 2–1–0–3 2,445
2011–12 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 2nd 27–7–5–13 4,820
2012 Elitserien qualifier 4th 3–1–1–5 7,002
2012–13 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 1st 31–5–6–10 5,000
2013 Elitserien qualifier 2nd 7–0–1–2 7,396 Increase Promoted to Elitserien (renamed SHL later that year)
2013–14 Tier 1 SHL 7th 23–5–4–23 6,574
"Play-in" 1–0–0–2 6,240 Eliminated in playoff qualifier 1–2 in games vs HV71
2014–15 Tier 1 SHL 11th 23–5–4–23 6,574
"Direktkval till SHL" 2–1–0–4 (best of 7) 6,240 Decrease Relegated from the SHL by Malmö Redhawks
2015–16 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 4th 24-3-7-18 TBD Increase Promoted to SHL by defeating Modo in promotion playoffs

Team name

The letter combination "IF" is short for "idrottsförening", which is the Swedish word for sports association. This is a commonly used abbreviation among Swedish sports teams.

Current roster

Updated January 20, 2015.[1][2]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
69 Sweden Alsenfelt, OscarOscar Alsenfelt G L 29 2013 Malmö, Sweden
89 Sweden Åslin, DavidDavid Åslin  LW L 27 2014 Mora, Sweden
32 Sweden Bergenström, JensJens Bergenström LW L 36 2006 Borlänge, Sweden
96 Sweden Brunnström, FabianFabian Brunnström LW L 31 2013 Jonstorp, Sweden
10 United States Connelly, BrianBrian Connelly D L 30 2014 Bloomington, Minnesota, USA
19 Sweden Forsberg, TobiasTobias Forsberg RW R 28 2011 Piteå, Sweden
24 Sweden Frögren, JonasJonas Frögren (A) D L 36 2014 Ludvika, Sweden
4 Sweden Gartner, RobinRobin Gartner D L 28 2014 Nacka, Sweden
22 Sweden Grönberg, MartinMartin Grönberg LW L 22 2009 Falun, Sweden
44 Sweden Guter, MattiasMattias Guter RW R 28 2015 Stockholm, Sweden
63 Sweden Händemark, FredrikFredrik Händemark C L 23 2008 Björbo, Sweden
3 Sweden Hultström, LinusLinus Hultström D R 23 2014 Vimmerby, Sweden
23 Sweden Josefsson, DanielDaniel Josefsson D L 35 2014 Tranås, Sweden
85 Finland Kähkönen, ToniToni Kähkönen RW L 30 2014 Vaasa, Finland
51 United States Kapstad, KevinKevin Kapstad D L 30 2012 Boxborough, Massachusetts, USA
13 Sweden Knuts, JonJon Knuts LW L 25 2014 Malung, Sweden
84 Sweden Lundström, JoakimJoakim Lundström G L 32 2014 Gävle, Sweden
27 Sweden Mårtensson, ViktorViktor Mårtensson W L 27 2014 Borlänge, Sweden
21 Sweden Ritola, MattiasMattias Ritola C L 29 2014 Borlänge, Sweden
29 Finland Rönnberg, JoonasJoonas Rönnberg D L 33 2011 Vantaa, Finland
20 Canada Russell, RyanRyan Russell LW L 29 2013 Caroline, Alberta, Canada
61 Sweden Ryno, JohanJohan Ryno (C) C L 30 2011 Örebro, Sweden
40 Finland Sallinen, TomiTomi Sallinen C L 27 2014 Espoo, Finland
7 Sweden Svedberg, JohanJohan Svedberg (A) D L 36 2010 Kalix, Norrbotten

Honored players

Retired numbers

Honored numbers

Hockey Hall of Famers

References

  1. "Leksands IF - Laget" (in Swedish). leksandsif.se. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
  2. "Leksand - Team Roster". Eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2015-01-20.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leksands IF.
Preceded by
Brynäs IF
Swedish ice hockey champions
1969
Succeeded by
Brynäs IF
Preceded by
Brynäs IF
Swedish ice hockey champions
1973, 1974, 1975
Succeeded by
Brynäs IF
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