Swedish Junior Hockey

James Reason, CEO of TargetAid and Board member of Varmdo Hockey and I speak about youth and junior hockey in the Stockholm, Sweden Region and how it is a breading ground for top talent but also breadth.  We talk about lessons learned from an administration standpoint and how it correlate with Swedish Hockey philosophy.  We also talk about the TargetAid fundraising platform that his company partners with sports organizations and provides a good alternative to selling toilet paper?!

Glenn Hefferan and Jacob Dahlin sit down and go in depth (sorry for the length) in USA hockey and do a deep dive into what the numbers are telling us where D1 commits are coming from in USA Hockey.

Anny and Mange Safstrom are partners in life but also have a common goal in helping athletes with both skill development and injury prevention.  They together run Skills & Prehab for individuals and teams involved in mainly hockey but also figure skating in the southern part of Sweden.

Darryl Wolski with 2112 Hockey Agency and College Hockey Family Advisor (CHFA) has been in the hockey business sin 1985 when he worked as an announcer for the Winnipeg Jets and cheering on Swedish players Thomas Steel and Bengt Lundholm.  IN this episode we break down the different junior leagues in Canada and United States and talk about different paths to play junior and college hockey.  We also throw in some anecdotes about players, fishing stories and a lot of other interesting discussion points.  Enjoy!

Alex Houston, goaltender for NCAA D1 Canisius College in Buffalo, NY has already racked up an impressive resume at that age of 20.  As owner of Midwest Knights and while playing juniors he succeeded in recruiting top players to his summer program and established himself through solid relationships and by being not too far removed from the game himself.  He was quickly approached by his junior team Pueblo Bulls to join the staff as Director of Scouting for the new NCDC program in Colorado.  In this podcast we talk about his journey and how NCDC looks as well as some angles into Swedish players of course.

Nick DiLisi with 93 Hockey Services and Jacob Dahlin speaks on the topic of being an agent and family advisor for European players in the US and US players playing in Europe.

Wouter Hazebroek from Holland now lives in Falkenberg on the West Coast of Sweden.  He is the developer of Hockeygymnasium.se website that gives detailed information about everything on Hockey Academy Gymnasium 9-12th grade in Sweden.  In this episode we discuss the differences between NIU and LIU, next year's age group 2007 will be be selected and how SIHF supports and pushes the development of hockey at the youth level.

Johan Eriksson with Avenue Sports Management in Muskoka, ON Canada returns for a second appearance on the podcast to give the Swedish player the detailed information on how to make the transition from Swedish Junior Hockey to US and Canadian Juniors and College. In this episode we break down the different levels of junior hockey in US and Canada as well as the detailed import rules and restrictions for college.  The idea is to give the Swedish player the details they need if they are interested in making the jump across the Atlantic.

Henry Acres from BC, Canada played juniors in the BCHL and eventually found himself on a worldwide journey in Australia, Norway and Sweden playing at variety of levels.  A visit to the local bank in a small town in Northern Sweden changed the path where he met his future wife.  Henry is a coach, mentor, administrator and teacher and uses his platform to form relationships with players in Canada and Sweden.   In this episode we talk about common friends but mostly compare Sweden's juniors and systems with Canada and most of all have a good time.

Alfonso Acevedo with roots in El Salvador grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and his interest and love for hockey has provided a path through various online publications to now being the European Scout for Recruitscouting.com covering Sweden and Finland.   In this episode we talk about the recent world juniors and his view on the Swedish players and also the upcoming draft.