PROFILPELAJAR.COM

Växjö Lakers
Växjö Lakers
City	Växjö, Sweden
League	Swedish Hockey League
Founded	1997
Home arena	Vida Arena
Colors
General manager	Henrik Evertsson
Head coach	Jörgen Jönsson
Captain	Erik Josefsson
Website	vaxjolakers.se
Championships
Le Mat Trophy	2015, 2018, 2021, 2023
	Current season

Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often referred to as the Växjö Lakers or VLH) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. The club plays at the Vida Arena and plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, and made its debut there in 2011–12. Since entering the SHL the club has become known as one of the premier SHL clubs, winning the Le Mat Trophy as Swedish national Champions four times in 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023 (the most of any SHL clubs since their promotion).^[1] Forwards Erik Josefsson and Robert Rosén are the only players to be a part of all four Championship-winning teams.

History

The club was founded in 1997, after Växjö HC went bankrupt that year. Växjö Lakers originally played in Växjö Ishall as their home arena, but prior to the 2011–12 season they moved to Vida Arena. The construction of the Vida Arena was finished in summer 2011.

The club began play in the 1997–98 season. Starting in Division 4, four divisions below the Elitserien/SHL, Växjö worked its way to HockeyAllsvenskan within 6 years, being promoted 3 times. With a perfect record in the 2003 HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien, the club qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan. Sensationally, during their debut season in HockeyAllsvenskan, the club acquired Shjon Podein, an NHL-merited North American player who played 699 NHL games and won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. The acquirement was described as "årets värvning" (acquirement of the year) by some people.^[2] During Podein's years in Växjö he became a crowd favorite.^[3] Prior to the following season, the 2004–05 season, the team also acquired Brad DeFauw, another NHL-merited North American player who played 9 NHL games and 154 AHL games. Both Shjon Podein and Brad DeFauw left the team after the 2004–05 season.

The club would spend 8 seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan and, during that time, reach the Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien three times. Växjö did not manage to promote to Elitserien in the 2009 and 2010 respective Kvalserien qualifications, but after winning the 2010–11 HockeyAllsvenskan season for the first time in club history and earning a third consecutive trip to Kvalserien, Växjö secured promotion to the top-tier league Elitserien in the eighth round (of ten) in the 2011 Kvalserien. The team finished the 2011 Kvalserien with 26 points, which is a record in the Kvalserien history.

The team formerly used red, yellow and blue as its colours, both in the team's logo and the team's jerseys. On 18 April 2011 it was announced that the club had changed the colours of their jerseys to blue and orange prior to the 2011–12 season.^[4] At that time it was also announced that the club's logo had been changed to an orange shield containing the name of the club beneath a lion holding a crossbow – an image from the Småland coat of arms.

Elitserien/Swedish Hockey League

The club's first game in the Elitserien league was played on 13 September 2011, losing 0–2 to Frölunda HC in front of an outsold Scandinavium. Two days later, the club historically took their first points in Elitserien, beating Luleå HF on away ice 3–2 in a shootout, despite trailing by two goals in the third period.^[5] Their first home game was played on September 17, against Linköpings HC, in front of an outsold Vida Arena. Linköping won the game 4–2. Former Växjö Lakers crowd favorite Shjon Podein watched the game in the arena.^[6] Their first home points and regulation-time win came on September 27, when the Lakers won 4–1 against Modo Hockey.^[7] The Lakers' first shutout came on away ice when Modo were beaten 2–0 on 25 October 2011.^[8]

Växjö Lakers played the first Småland derby game in Elitserien history, which was on away ice against reigning regular-season champions HV71, on 8 October 2011 in front of an outsold Kinnarps Arena—exactly 7,000 spectators—in Jönköping.^[9] Växjö Lakers came out on top with a 3–2 victory in a shootout. Växjö Lakers forward Mike Iggulden scored three penalty shot goals in the game, two of them counted in the statistics.^[10]

Season-by-season record

Season	Level	Division	Record		Avg. home atnd.	Notes
Season	Level	Division	Position	W-T-L W-OT-L	Avg. home atnd.	Notes
This list features the five most recent completed seasons. For prior seasons, see List of Växjö Lakers seasons.
2017–18	Tier 1	SHL	1st	34–6–2–10	4,658
2017–18	Swedish Championship playoffs		—	12–1	5,629	Won finals, 4–0 vs Skellefteå AIK
2018–19	Tier 1	SHL	7th	22–3–10–17	4,691
	Eighth-finals		—	2–0	4,579	Won 2–0 vs Örebro HK
	Swedish Championship playoffs		—	1–4	5,223	Lost in quarterfinals, 1–4 vs Luleå HF
2019–20	Tier 1	SHL	10th	20–26–4–2	4,835
2019–20	Swedish Championship playoffs		—	—	—	Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21	Tier 1	SHL	1st	34–11–6–1	—
2020–21	Swedish Championship playoffs		—	11–3	—	Won finals, 4–1 vs Rögle BK
2021–22	Tier 1	SHL	5th	28–17–5–2	3,691
2021–22	Swedish Championship playoffs		—	0–4		Lost in quarterfinals 0–4 vs Frölunda HC
2022–23	Tier 1	SHL	1st
2022–23	Swedish Championship playoffs		—			Won finals, 4–1 vs Skellefteå AIK

Players and personnel

Current roster


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
86	Joachim Blichfeld	RW	R	26	2022	Frederikshavn, Denmark
21	Brian Cooper	D	L	31	2022	Anchorage, Alaska, United States
25	Filip Eriksson	C	L	20	2022	Ljungby, Sweden
8	Zach Giuttari	D	R	28	2023	Warwick, Rhode Island, United States
6	Petter Granberg	D	R	32	2024	Gällivare, Sweden
28	Hugo Gustafsson	C	L	24	2021	Södertälje, Sweden
–	Karl Henriksson	C	L	23	2024	Malmö, Sweden
–	Otto Koivula	LW	L	26	2024	Nokia, Finland
33	Emil Larmi	G	L	28	2021	Lahti, Finland
4	Keegan Lowe (A)	D	L	31	2022	Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
27	Martin Lundberg	F	L	34	2017	Skellefteå, Sweden
64	Eric Martinsson	D	L	32	2023	Klippan, Sweden
–	Dylan McLaughlin		L	29	2023	Lancaster, New York, United States
41	Ludvig Nilsson	LW	L	30	2019	Stockholm, Sweden
94	Joel Persson (C)	D	R	30	2020	Kristianstad, Sweden
40	Dennis Rasmussen	C	L	34	2024	Västerås, Sweden
–	Félix Robert	C	L	25	2024	Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, Canada
36	Elias Rosén	D	L	26	2023	Landshut, Germany
9	Victor Stjernborg	C/LW	L	21	2020	Malmö, Sweden
29	Sebastian Strandberg	C	L	32	2024	Visingsö, Sweden
82	Joel Svensson	LW	R	19	2022	Oskarshamn, Sweden
51	Emil Sylvegård	LW	L	31	2023	Malmö, Sweden
62	Manuel Ågren	LW	L	30	2022	Oskarshamn, Sweden
70	Adam Åhman	G	L	25	2021	Västervik, Sweden

Updated 18 August 2024

Team captains

Mikael Bjerdahl, 2003–04
Torsten Yngvesson, 2004–07
Johan Markusson, 2008–14
Tomi Kallio, 2014–15
Liam Reddox, 2015–19
Erik Josefsson, 2019–Present

Honored members

Växjö Lakers retired numbers
No.	Player	Position	Career	No. retirement
14	Stefan Nilsson	F	1990–1991, 1997–2003	–
38	Johan Markusson	RW	2005–2014	–
85	Liam Reddox	LW	2011-2019	–

Club records and leaders

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers of the Växjö Lakers since their promotion to the SHL in the 2011–12 season. Figures are updated after each completed season.^[11]

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Växjö Lakers player

Points
Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
Robert Rosén	C	386	111	168	279	.72
Liam Reddox	LW	386	72	78	150	.39
Richard Gynge	C	191	72	76	148	.78
Joel Persson	D	203	28	112	140	.69
Erik Josefsson	C	555	68	65	133	.24
Tuomas Kiiskinen	LW	206	58	72	130	.63
Cory Murphy	D	208	28	89	117	.56
Tomi Kallio	RW	204	43	73	116	.57
Emil Pettersson	C	131	41	58	99	.75
Andrew Calof	C	125	43	50	93	.74

Trophies and awards

Team

Le Mat Trophy

2014–15, 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23

Individual

Coach of the Year

Sam Hallam: 2017–18

Honken Trophy

Viktor Fasth: 2017–18

Rookie of the Year

Elias Pettersson: 2017–18

References

^ Anders Feltenmark (24 April 2015). "Växjö Lakers HC svenska mästare" (in Swedish). Swedish Ice Hockey Association. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
^ "Änderson om avund" (in Swedish). LakersLakejer.net. 2003-11-04. Retrieved 2011-06-25.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ "Shjon Podein har landat i Växjö". Sveriges Radio (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio'. 2004-10-19. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
^ "Orange revolution i Växjö Lakers" (in Swedish). Smålandsposten. 2011-04-18. Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
^ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-15). "Kallio fixade historisk vinst" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-15.
^ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-16). "Invigningsöverraskningen: Podein på plats i VIDA Arena" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-09-16.
^ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-09-27). "Första segern i VIDA Arena". Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
^ Jonas Gustavsson (2011-10-25). "Seger – och första nollan" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
^ Bosse Johander (2011-10-08). "Historiskt derby i Småland" (in Swedish). Sveriges Radio. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
^ Per Johansson (2011-10-08). "Iggulden straffade HV71 i smålandsderbyt" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
^ "Växjö Lakers - All Time SHL leaders". quanthockey.com. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2019-05-31.