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 play 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
This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2023) |
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
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
Växjö Lakers played the first
Season-by-season record
Season | Level | Division | Record | Avg. home atnd. |
Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Position | W-T-L W-OT-L | |||||
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 | |
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 | |
Swedish Championship playoffs
|
— | — | — | Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||
2020–21 | Tier 1 | SHL
|
1st | 34–11–6–1 | — | |
Swedish Championship playoffs
|
— | 11–3 | — | Won finals, 4–1 vs Rögle BK | ||
2021–22 | Tier 1 | SHL
|
5th | 28–17–5–2 | 3,691 | |
Swedish Championship playoffs
|
— | 0–4 | Lost in quarterfinals 0–4 vs Frölunda HC | |||
2022–23 | Tier 1 | SHL
|
1st | |||
Swedish Championship playoffs
|
— | Won finals, 4–1 vs Skellefteå AIK |
Players and personnel
Current roster
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
No. | Player | Position | Career | No. retirement |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 | Stefan Nilsson | F | 1990–1991, 1997–2003 | – |
38 | Johan Markusson | RW | 2005–2014 | – |
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
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Växjö Lakers player
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
- 2014–15, 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23
Individual
- Sam Hallam: 2017–18
- Viktor Fasth: 2017–18
- 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.
- Växjö Lakers Hockey. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
- ^ "Växjö Lakers roster" (in Swedish). Växjö Lakers. 2023-03-04. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
- ^ "Eliteprospects.com - Växjö Lakers". Eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
- ^ "Växjö Lakers - All Time SHL leaders". quanthockey.com. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2019-05-31.