Frölunda Hockey Club, previously 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.
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 did not want a nickname like cowboys or something with firearms, Indians was selected.
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
Frölunda's earlier crest to the right which was replaced in 2022.
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.
On 2 February 2022, Frölunda Hockey Club presented their new logo. According to the club, the new logo represents the city of Gothenburg, Västra Frölunda, gentleness and excitement. The logo visualizes two F's, two hands and the letter H which stands for hockey. The proposed redesign received negative feedback from fans and media due to similarities of the Nazi Party flag. The previous logo was announced in 1995 and represented the club for 27 years.[7] On April 20, 2022, Frölunda updated their logo, which had been accepted by members of the fan club.[8]
Team captain and playing coachLars-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 retired the numbers of four players, all on March 3, 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 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. Since then an additional four players have had their numbers retired; number 14 a second time for Patrik Carnbäck on October 4, 2014. Number 23 for Ronnie Sundin on October 15, 2016. Number 24 for Niklas Andersson on October 21, 2017. And number 5 for Christian Bäckman on January 27, 2024.
Five former 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.[11] 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.[11]Ville Peltonen played the 1997–98 season for Frölunda, where he was both the team's and the league's leading scorer, he was inducted in 2016.[12]Daniel Alfredsson played a total of four seasons for Frölunda, winning the Swedish Championships with Frölunda during the 2004–05 season. In 2006 he was a member of Sweden's gold medal-winning team at the Winter Olympics, he was inducted in 2018.[13]Petteri Nummelin played two seasons for Frölunda between 1995 and 1997, he was inducted in 2024.[14]
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