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Since the NHL and Swedish ice hockey extended the transition agreement last week, eight players who belonged to Swedish clubs last season have signed NHL contracts.
Each transition gives Swedish ice hockey an average of around $ 300,000, equivalent to around 2.9 million SEK.
But the pandemic crown was about to stop everything.
Forsberg, outgoing union secretary general Tommy Boustedt and SHL sports director Johan Hemlin agreed with the NHL on a new deal last winter when the current one expires. This would give Swedish ice hockey even more money for transitions.
– I finished in connection with the All Star weekend in St. Louis in late January and took care of Gary Bettman (NHL Commissioner) and Bill Daly (Deputy Commissioner). Everything would be printed and we would sign the deal in March in New York, says Forsberg, who for many years has been the union’s manager in contact with the NHL.
“A shock”
But then came the crown crisis.
– It was a shock. I was told that the NHL clubs did not believe it was a new agreement. After all, it is they, the owners, who make the final decision, he says to Forsberg and continues:
– In that situation, there were two options. One was that we would pause the deal and then we would have received nothing. While the NHL could not have taken players the same way, on the other hand, all players have an “exclusion clause” for the NHL, so we would have stayed there without compensation. The second was to extend the old agreement. The NHL agreed.
Last year, about 30 Swedish players moved to the NHL, giving Swedish ice hockey an estimated SEK 93 million. Money that, not least during the crown crisis, means tremendously.
– In these times when the clubs do not know the state of the economy, the sponsors and the public, this money helps a lot for the operation and assures to a certain extent the operation, says Forsberg, who hopes that the agreement that had actually been signed Now, be for next spring. .
Shouldn’t go
A total of 110 Swedes have played in the NHL during the current season and on hiatus. Forsberg believes that 15-20 players sign NHL contracts during the summer. June 15 is the final transition date for hired players, while July 15 is for players selected in the first round of the draft.
There is the next problem. Currently, a virtual draft is rumored in June, while some clubs want the draft to take place only after the NHL season resumes.
– If they start and the draft is in September or October, we agree that they can sign contracts with the players but not take charge of them. So they already play in Sweden. That is what the NHL understands, “says Forsberg.
