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Malmö Redhawks

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Malmö Redhawks
CityMalmö, Sweden
LeagueHockeyAllsvenskan
Founded1972 (1972)
Home arenaMalmö Arena
ColorsBlack, red and white
     
Owner(s)Malmö Redhawks Holding AB
General managerPatrik Sylvegård
Head coachMats Lusth
CaptainHenrik Hetta
Franchise history
1947–1972Malmö FF Ishockey
1972–2001Malmö IF
2001–2004MIF Redhawks
2004–presentIF Malmö Redhawks
Championships
Le Mat Trophy1992, 1994
Current season

The Malmö Redhawks are an ice hockey franchise situated in the city of Malmö Malmö, Sweden. The team is currently playing in the second highest league in Sweden, HockeyAllsvenskan. Malmö has previously played 19 seasons of ice hockey in Sweden's top division from 1987 to 2005 in addition to the 2006–07 season.

History

The team was founded on 28 February 1972 as Malmö Ishockeyförening (Malmö Ice Hockey Club, or MIF) when the ice hockey section of Malmö FF became an independent club. The early history of the club was unremarkable, spent in the lower divisions of Swedish hockey.[1] Relegation to Division 2 in 1984 became the spark to a series of events including the departure of Nils Yngvesson who had been chairman of the club since its creation in 1972. The club only played one season in Division 2 before being promoted back to Division 1, where the club made what it refers to as "the biggest investment in Swedish sports history."[2]

The club's campaign to reach the top league failed that season, but in the 1989–90 season, the club finished first in both their autumn Division 1 group, as well as the Allsvenskan in the spring, and then won the Allsvenskan final 3–0 in games against MoDo to secure promotion to Elitserien (today called the SHL) for the first time. They would remain in the top flight for 15 seasons, a period that would bring two name changes (to MIF Redhawks in 1996 and to IF Malmö Redhawks in 2003), as well as two Swedish Championship titles, in 1992 and 1994.[3]

Decline by 2005

At the end of the 2004–05 season, the Redhawks played in the qualification series to stay in Elitserien, lost and were relegated. Thus, as of the 2005–06 season, they played in the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second division hockey league in Sweden; at the end of the season, the top 4 teams played the qualification series with the bottom two teams of Elitserien. Malmö won the qualification round and played in Elitserien during the 2006–07 season with limited success. Finishing the season as 12th (last) meant playing Kvalserien in order to avoid relegation for the second time in three years. On 1 April 2007, the Redhawks finished third in 2008-09 Kvalserien and was relegated to the Allsvenskan league.

Failed qualification efforts in 2007 and 2008

In 2007, Malmö Redhawks participated in a qualification series (Kvalserien) consisting of the top four teams of HockeyAllsvenskan and the bottom two teams from Elitserien, having finished 12th in the 2007–08 Elitserien season. Malmö were considered favourites alongside the second team from Elitserien, Skellefteå AIK, but failed to re-qualify for Elitserien, falling two points behind Södertälje SK. In 2008 the team once again managed to reach Kvalserien, and had a golden opportunity to advance to Elitserien, leading the series during a majority of rounds. The Redhawks, however, lost in overtime of the final round while their arch rivals, Rögle BK, claimed the Elitserien spot with a margin of two points by scoring twice in the last minute of play. The Redhawks only managed to get 2 points in the 2008 Kvalserien's last four rounds, despite having gotten 15 points after the first six games.[citation needed]

New arena and financial issues in 2009

During the 2008–09 season, Malmö Redhawks moved to the new Malmö Arena, a top-modern sports and entertainment venue. The club originally aimed to be back in Elitserien before the premiere.[citation needed]

On 29 January 2009, while still playing in HockeyAllsvenskan, the team released all its contracted players due to financial debt and to avoid bankruptcy.[citation needed] The players were made free to find and sign with new clubs. By then the Redhawks were ranked 10th in the league with only one month of games remaining to play, instead of the top three or seven required for Kvalserien and possible Elitserien qualification. The team finished 8th and thus missed the playoffs, although the team was just one point short from reaching the playoffs.

Failures to reach Kvalserien and started efforts

Malmö Redhawks finished fifth in HockeyAllsvenskan in the 2009–10 season and thus reached the playoffs, which was an improvement over last season. The Redhawks started the playoffs by knocking out Bofors IK in two straight games, and the Redhawks were now set to face Almtuna IS for a series that would decide which team would be HockeyAllsvenskan's fourth one in Kvalserien. The Redhawks beat Almtuna 2–1 at home in the first game, but lost the two following games (which the Redhawks played on away ice) and thus were eliminated from the playoffs. In the 2010–11 season, things went worse as the Redhawks failed to reach the playoffs, finishing 8th and four points short from a playoff spot.[citation needed]

On 28 January 2011, during the 2010–11 season, the Redhawks announced that they had agreed to a 3-year 70-million SEK ($10.6 million USD) deal with businessman Hugo Stenbeck. The goal with the 3-year-long deal is to get Malmö Redhawks back in Elitserien.[4]

Malmö's efforts to reach Elitserien started immediately prior to the 2011–12 season. Several players from higher divisions, including Hannu Toivonen, Daniel Josefsson, J. D. Forrest, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and Linus Klasen, joined the club[citation needed]. When Linus Klasen joined the team on 17 May 2011, he was immediately appointed the team's captain. Linus Klasen's three-year contract with the club included an annual salary of 4 million SEK ($0.6 million USD), which made Klasen the best paid ice hockey player in Sweden at that time.[5]

The season started well with a top 3 spot in the league after a couple of months, but after falling down to sixth place with 47 points, at that time ten points away from the third Kvalserien spot, the Redhawks' then head coach Leif Strömberg was fired on 10 December 2011. He was replaced by the team's then assistant coach Ulf Taavola. Patrik Sylvegård was acquired as the team's new assistant coach.[6][7] After continued struggling throughout January, the Malmö Redhawks improved sharply in February, and managed to squeeze out a seventh-place finish in the league, which was enough for at least a playoff spot.[8] In the Playoff round, Malmö finished second due to inferior goal difference than Rögle BK, and Malmö therefore missed the 2012 Kvalserien.

Reorganization, continued financial issues and failures to reach the playoffs

In early 2012, club owner Hugo Stenbeck announced that he would not spend any more money on the Malmö Redhawks. As a result, the Redhawks filed for economic reconstruction on 11 April 2012 for the second time in three years. The filing was granted the following day. The club would also re-negotiate the most expensive player contracts in order to reduce the total salary cap from 30 million SEK down to 18 million.[9][10]

On 17 May 2012 it was announced that the club had reached an agreement with Hugo Stenbeck. The agreement said, among other things, that Stenbeck would help the club buy out Linus Klasen and Hannu Toivonen due to their expensive contracts.[11]

After the 2011–12 season, Patrik Sylvegård was appointed CEO and sports director, and Redhawks profile Mats Lusth was acquired as the new assistant coach. A Sports Committee was also created, which includes people with strong connection to Malmö Redhawks.[12][13] Ulf Taavola continued as head coach like the previous season when he took over Leif Strömberg. Malmö Redhawks had to sign a lot of new players. The players who remained from last season were Pontus Sjögren, Emil Carnestad, Stefan Lassen, Alexander Ribbenstrand, Robin Alvarez, Lukas Eriksson, Magnus Häggström, Tomas Kollar and Roger Olsson.

Malmö Redhawks started the 2012–13 season bad, and after 17 games played, the team had only taken 21 points,[14] which was far from even a playoff spot towards Kvalserien. Eventually, the team began a massive boost, which went through the month of November without a single loss after regulation time, and took a total of 24 out of 27 points that month. As a result of the great effort in November, the Malmö Redhawks were located in fifth place in the league by early December. In January, the team began a losing streak and lost 8 games in a row. The team finished in ninth place, which was the worst placing the team had since the large investments during the late 1980s.[15] In Malmö, the season was over on March 2, when the regular season was finished.

Season-by-season

Season Level Division Record Avg.
home
atnd. 		Notes Ref.
Position W-T-L
W-OT-L
For a complete list, see List of Malmö Redhawks seasons.
2009–10 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 5th 25–6–5–16 5,592 [16]
Playoff to Elitserien qualifier Round 1
Round 2 		2–0
1–2 		6,037 vs Bofors IK
vs Almtuna IS
2010–11 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 8th 21–4–9–18 4,437 [16]
2011–12 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 7th 22–6–3–21 6,114 [16]
Pre-qualifier 2nd 4–0–0–2 6,267
2012–13 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 9th 20–3–5–24 5,794 [17]
2013–14 Tier 2 HockeyAllsvenskan 1st 30–5–5–12 5,667 [18]
SHL qualifier 4th 4–1–1–4 9,275 [19]

Current roster

Template:Malmö Redhawks roster

Notable players

Retired numbers

Alumni:

All with experience from their respective national teams.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "GRUNDANDET". Malmö Redhakws.
  2. ^ "90-TALSSATSNINGEN". Malmö Redhawks.
  3. ^ "Malmö". Eliteprospects.com.
  4. ^ "Hugo Stenbeck köper Redhawks" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan. 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2011-05-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ "Linus Klasen klar för Malmö" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-17. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-10). "Ny huvudtränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
  7. ^ Martin, Nathalie (2011-12-26). "Patrik Sylvegård ny assisterande tränare" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
  8. ^ Winnberg, Christian (2012-03-02). "Malmö Redhawks säkrade förkvalserieplatsen" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
  9. ^ Karlsson, Emil (2012-04-11). "Stenbeck ska jagas till världens ände". Sportbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  10. ^ Pileby, Axel (2012-04-11). "Så ska Malmö klara sig ur den svåra krisen". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 2012-04-11.
  11. ^ Martin, Nathalie (2012-05-17). "Hugo Stenbeck och Malmö Redhawks eniga" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
  12. ^ "Ny VD och sportchef för Malmö Redhawks Ishockey AB" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  13. ^ "Mats Lusth ny tränare för Malmö Redhawks" (in Swedish). Malmö Redhawks. 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  14. ^ http://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/wennerholm/2012/11/malmo-hetast-av-alla/
  15. ^ http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sport/ishockey/redhawks/ny-redhawksforlust-1/
  16. ^ a b c "Historical Stats". Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
  17. ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2012–13: HockeyAllsvenskan
  18. ^ Swedish Ice Hockey Association: 2013–14: HockeyAllsvenskan
  19. ^ "SHL: 2013–14: Kval till SHL". Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
  20. ^ http://www.businessinsider.co.id/hockey-players-on-wall-street-2014-6/20/#.VBdfYlYQuRU
Preceded by Swedish ice hockey champions
1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Swedish ice hockey champions
1994 		Succeeded by
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