IF Björklöven

IF Björklöven
City Umeå, Sweden
League HockeyAllsvenskan
Founded May 15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
Home arena A3 Arena
Colours Green, yellow
         
General manager Sweden Fredrik Grönberg
Head coach Sweden Joakim Fagervall
Captain Sweden Fredric Andersson
Website www.bjorkloven.com
Franchise history
1 Le Mat Trophies
26 Seasons in Sweden's highest division
3 Swedish Championship Finals appearances

IF Björklöven (often simply referred to as Björklöven or Löven) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club in Umeå, Västerbotten, in northern Sweden. The club is currently playing in the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan as of the 2014–15 season, but has played 15 seasons in the top Swedish league Elitserien (1976–77, 1978–79 to 1988–89, 1993–94, 1998–99 and 2000–01).

From 2001 to 2010, Björklöven played in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest ice hockey league for men in Sweden. Although the team finished 12th in the 2009–10 HockeyAllsvenskan season (which meant that the team was set to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season), the club was in big economical problems in March–May 2010. The club went bankrupt in April 2010, but got the bankruptcy allayed a month later. Despite huge further efforts by the club to obtain an elite license to play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA) decided not to give Björklöven an elite license and thus the team was relegated to the third-tier league Division 1 for the 2010–11 season. Björklöven was eventually promoted back to HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2012–13 season.

History

IF Björklöven was formed in 1970 when the ice hockey sections of IFK Umeå and Sandåkerns SK were merged. The IFK Umeå team had already at times been referred to as 'björklöven' (the birch leaves) as a tongue in cheek reference to Canadian hockey and Umeå being known as the 'city of birch trees', and after the merger the nickname became the official team name.

The team was quite successful at the Elitserien (SEL) level, the highest league in Sweden, during the 1980s and won the Swedish championship in 1987. They were, however, relegated only two years later, and since then have not been able to establish themselves permanently in the Elitserien again. Instead, they have mostly played in the second-tier league Allsvenskan, save for a few short stints in the 90s. Some notable players from Björklöven are Calle Johansson, Ulf Dahlén, Tore Öqvist and twins Patrik Sundström and Peter Sundström.

The team has recently had many promising young players, including Alexander Hellström, Alexander Sundström, Patrik Nevalainen, Daniel Rahimi and Kristofer Berglund. Due to lack of funds however, Björklöven lost all of these young players to other teams, although Hellström, Sundström and Nevalainen later rejoined the team.

Season-by-season record

List of Björklöven seasons
Season Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd.		 Notes Ref
Position W-T-L
W-OT-L
For a complete list, see List of IF Björklöven seasons
2012–13 Tier 3 Division 1A 1st of 7 22–0–1–1 2,503 [1]
AllEttan North 1st of 8 13–0–0–1 3,085 Bye to Playoff 3 [2]
Playoff to HA qualifier — 2–0–0–0 4,369 Round 3: Won 2–0 in games vs Olofströms IK [3]
HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers 1st of 6 7–0–0–3 4,747 Increase Promoted to HockeyAllsvenskan [4]
2013–14 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 14th of 14 13–4–3–32 3,641
HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers 2nd of 6 6–0–3–1 3,632
2014–15 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 6th of 14 19–10–4–19 3,552
Playoff to SHL qualifiers 4th of 6 1–2–0–2 5,118
2015–16 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 12th of 14 20–2–9–22 3,472
2016–17 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 11th of 14 20–1–5–26 3,802
2017–18 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 5th of 14 20–6–8–18 3,902
Playoff to SHL qualifiers 3rd of 6 2–2–0–1 4,028

Current roster

Updated February 18, 2018.[5]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
13 Sweden Fredric Andersson (C) C L 30 2017 Gnesta, Sweden
37 Sweden Jacob Andersson D L 23 2016 Umeå, Sweden
57 Sweden Stefan Andersson D R 35 2012 Sollefteå, Sweden
49 Finland Simon Backman D L 34 2017 Jakobstad, Finland
4 Sweden Jonas Emmerdahl D L 26 2015 Älvsjö, Sweden
19 United States Austin Farley LW L 24 2016 Park Ridge, Illinois, United States
20 Sweden Mattias Granlund LW L 26 2016 Glommersträsk, Sweden
24 Sweden Tobias Hage (A) C/LW L 27 2016 Stockholm, Sweden
90 Canada Alex Hutchings C/RW R 27 2017 Burlington, Ontario, Canada
22 Sweden Nicklas Johansson LW/C L 34 2011 Nordmaling, Sweden
33 Sweden Marcus Jonsson (A) RW R 26 2016 Umeå, Sweden
7 Sweden David Lindquist C/LW L 25 2016 Piteå, Sweden
31 Sweden Oscar Masiello G R 21 Loan Strömstad, Sweden
14 United States Cody Murphy LW L 27 2016 Highwood, Illinois, United States
10 Sweden Emil Norberg RW L 19 2017 Umeå, Sweden
18 Sweden Axel Ottosson C/LW L 22 2016 Umeå, Sweden
12 Sweden Niklas Pavel D R 25 2016 Gothenburg, Sweden
8 Finland Mikko Pukka (A) D L 36 2017 Suodenniemi, Finland
21 Sweden Erik Rainersson RW R 19 2017 Umeå, Sweden
42 Finland Filip Riska C L 33 2018 Jakobstad, Finland
29 Sweden Isak Stenlund Ädelgran RW R 21 2016 Umeå, Sweden
16 Finland Roope Talaja LW L 30 2017 Kuopio, Finland
Canada Brock Trotter RW/C R 31 2018 Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
11 Sweden Andreas Vikström RW/C L 21 2017 Kalix, Sweden
26 Sweden Jakob Stenqvist D R 20 Loan Mora, Sweden
35 Sweden Adam Werner G L 21 Loan Mariestad, Sweden
28 Sweden Simon Åkerström D L 23 2017 Boden, Sweden
39 Sweden Filiph Åström LW L 17 2017 Umeå, Sweden

Retired numbers

Other notable players

References

  • "Retired Numbers". European Hockey.net. Retrieved January 23, 2007.
  1. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Division 1 A Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  2. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 AllEttan North Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  3. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13 Playoff till Allsv. Kval
  4. ↑ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013 Kvalserien till HockeyAllsvenskan Archived 2013-07-15 at WebCite
  5. ↑ "Björklöven roster" (in Swedish). IF Björklöven.
Preceded by
Färjestad BK		 Swedish ice hockey champions
1987		 Succeeded by
Färjestad BK
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