The SHL has been on a break with the Karjala Tournament being played in Finland. A few SHL'ers have made their marks in the tournament, and back home, we've seen a couple of signings.
Despite no hockey having been played, there has been a bit of a busy week around the league. In Gävle, Brynäs has brought in a new forward in 19 year old Noel Gunler. Gunler joins the team from rival Luleå and his deal runs through the 2021-22 season. Gunler has one goal and two assists in ten games so far in the season. He has averaged 7:12 minutes of ice time per game.
Frölunda have brought back Christoffer Ehn. The 24 year old forward joins the Gothenburg side from the Detroit Red Wings and has signed a deal through this ongoing season. Ehn joined Frölunda as a junior player back in 2012 and won both a Swedish Championship and two CHL titles before leaving for North America. Ehn scored seven goals and ten assists in 50 games in 2017-18. He has 32 points, eleven of these being goals, in 145 games in the SHL.
In Växjö, there has been a bit of a turnover. Marcus Davidsson has left the team and signed with Västervik in HockeyAllsvenskan. With Pontus Holmberg being injured during a training session with the national team, the Lakers found a replacement in a familiar face: Andrew Calof. Calof has been without a contract since last season, when played for Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL. This will be his fifth season in the SHL. He played for Skellefteå AIK between 2014-2017 and then for the Lakers in 2017-18. In 209 SHL regular season games, Calof has scored 65 goals and 62 assist for 127 points.
As for actual hockey being played this past week, we have to look east to Finland where the Karjala Tournament was played. A few SHL'ers made their mark on the scoresheet. Representing Czech Republic, Jan Ordos of Oskarshamn had one goal in three games. As for the Swedish players, Anton Wedin (HV71) had a goal and two assists, Max Friberg (Frölunda) scored twice and Andreas Wingerli (Skellefteå) had two assist. Leon Bristedt (Rögle) had a goal.
The goalies, Samuel Ersson (Brynäs) and Niklas Rubin (Frölunda), played one and two games respectively. Ersson stopped 34 out of 35 shots, earning a .971 save percentage. Niklas Rubin stopped 37 out of 43 shots, a .865 saves percentage.
The SHL resumes play tomorrow, Tuesday, with six games. One game, Brynäs-HV71, is postponed because of suspected infection of Covid-19 in the HV71 squad.
The red-hot Oskarshamn, with three straight wins and five wins in their last six games, looks to host a Djurgården side who, due to covid, haven't played since October 20th when they lost 3-2 (in OT) against Leksand.
Linköping haven't played in a while either due to Covid. They are looking to play their first game since October 17th when they host a struggling Skellefteå side. Skellefteå pay Linköping a visit with four straight losses, and one point in the bag out of a possible twelve.
Elsewhere, we get a Skåne derby matchup when Malmö plays Rögle. Växjö play host to Örebro. The Lakers are on a five game point streak, with three wins in these past five games. Örebro, on the other hand, bounced back with a 3-2 win against Skellefteå last time around, making it three wins in their past four games.
Färjestad have points in four out of their last five games with three of them being wins. They play Leksand who they lost to back on October 24th (3-2 in OT).
Keeping covid and different dates of play in mind, three players have scored nine points in their last five games heading into the week. Broc Little (Linköping) has five goals and four assists, Johannes Kinnvall (HV71) has three goals and six assists with at least one point per game over the last five. The same goes for Emil Pettersson (Växjö) who has four goals and five assists in that very span.