Sweden swamps UK?

Today there were two new signings and one contract extension in the Eihl.

The EIHL will have more of a Swedish feel to it this year already. Sheffield Steelers have already signed Markus Nilsson and today Coventry Blaze announced the signing of Robin Bergman from Danish team Frederikshavn White Hawks where he was the second highest points scorer. He was twelfth overall in the Metal Ligaen.

“He is a very high paced player that brings that element of excitement to the rink every game,” said coach Danny Stewart. “He has fantastic speed, a great shot and is a guy that makes us more dangerous off the rush. He will be looked upon to score big goals for this club and hopefully a whole lot of them! All that said, he is also another guy that plays with a high compete level and someone that will buy into what we want to accomplish here in Coventry.”

Hot on the heels of this came another Swede, Daniel Ahsberg, the left winger signed for Braehead Clan in Scotland from Lillehamer of the GET Ligaen in Norway. He played much of his career in the Allsvenskan before having a brief spell in France.

Head Coach Ryan Finnerty  said: “Daniel’s a player that has played around some of the top leagues in Europe for a long time and put up some good numbers in his career.

“He’s got a North American touch to his game and Matt Keith played with him in Sweden with Orebro.  In fact, Matt spoke to me about possibly bringing him in last year so it was good to get that deal over the line.

“Daniel’s a good example of a high quality player coming to play in the UK and we’ve seen the door open to more and more Swedes coming here.

“Coventry had a couple, as did Sheffield, who had Fredrik Vestberg and have brought in Jerry Andersson.  The UK is a bit of a gateway for those kinds of players now.

“It seems to be happening more and more and it’s only a positive for us to be able to bring in a player like Daniel.”

The final piece of transfer news is that Cardiff Devils have granted a contract extension to forward Jake |Morissette. He comes back for a fourth season having scored twenty five times last season.

“Even if he isn’t scoring one night, he is playing great defensively, killing penalties, blocking shots.  With the way he plays and the amount of times he puts his body on the line, it is impressive he has played every game for us over the past two seasons.” Said coach Andrew Lord.

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