Brynäs IF is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), promoted from the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden, following the 2023–24 season. The club played in the top-tier Swedish league from 1960 to 2023 (1960-75 called Division I, 1975-2023 called the SHL), a total of 63 seasons, longer than any other Swedish club, before suffering relegation for the first time in franchise history at the conclusion of the 2022–23 season. They have won the Swedish championship 13 times, second only to Djurgården with 16 wins. In the 2023/2024 Hockeyallsvenskan season Brynäs won promotion back to the SHL after beeting Djurgården 4-0 in the final

Brynäs IF
CityGävle, Sweden
LeagueSHL
Founded12 May 1912; 112 years ago (1912-05-12)
Home arenaMonitor ERP Arena
Colors     
General managerJohan Alcén
Head coachNiklas Gällstedt
CaptainJohan Larsson
Websitebrynas.se
Championships
Le Mat Trophy(13) (1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1993, 1999, 2012)
Current season

History

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Brynäs IF was formed by Nils Norin, Ferdinand Blomkvist, and Thure Ternström on 12 May 1912[1] and began to play ice hockey in 1939. The club has also competed in soccer, athletics, bandy, swimming, and water polo.[citation needed] The team has played in the hockey league's top flight since 1960 and has won the Swedish championship 13 times, most recently in 2012.

Brynäs IF became the world's first ice hockey club to collaborate with the United Nations Program UNICEF, after signing a five-year contract with the organisation on 20 November 2013 (expiring in 2018).[2] On 3 June 2014, the club also signed a five-year contract with Gävle Municipality (expiring after the 2018–19 season). The municipality acquired the naming rights for the club's home arena and renamed it Gavlerinken Arena.[3] The latter collaboration also meant the municipality would pay the club to play with ad-free jerseys, starting in the 2014–15 season, as the only SHL team.[4] The arena is since September 2019 named Monitor ERP Arena.

In 2021, after finishing 13th (out of 14 teams) in the regular season, the team was forced to defend its SHL status for the first time since 2008, playing a best-of-seven series against the last-placed team, HV71, with home advantage. At the conclusion of the 2022–23 season, Brynäs was relegated from the SHL for the first time in franchise history, after losing the relegation playout series, 1–4, to the Malmö Redhawks.[5] They returned to the SHL after the 2023-24 season.

Season-by-season

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This is a partial list, featuring the five most recent completed seasons. For a more complete list, see List of Brynäs IF seasons.

SeasonLevelDivisionRecordAttendanceNotes
PositionW–OTW–OTL–L
2018–19Tier 1SHL11th17–2–14–195,231
2019–20Tier 1SHL12th13–8–5–266,104
2020–21Tier 1SHL13th14–4–7–27150
Play Out2–1Won 4–1 vs HV71
2021–22Tier 1SHL10th17–6–6–234,544
Eighth-finals1–25,374Lost 1–2 vs Örebro HK
2022–23Tier 1SHL13th16–4–6–266,357
Play Out1–47,050Lost 1–4 vs Malmö Redhawks
Relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan

Players and personnel

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Current roster

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No.NatPlayerPosS/GAgeAcquiredBirthplace
15 Simon Bertilsson (A)DL332020Karlskoga, Sweden
44 Jacob BlomqvistCR372022Hedesunda, Sweden
2 Anton JohannessonDL222023Gnosjö, Sweden
28 Johannes KinnvallDR262022Gävle, Sweden
Erik KällgrenGL272024Stockholm, Sweden
76 Oskar KvistLWL232019Gävle, Sweden
22 Kasper LarsenDL212023Rødovre, Denmark
10 Johan Larsson (C)CL312022Lau, Sweden
24 Linus LindblomLWL212022Gävle, Sweden
23 Oskar LindblomLWL272024Gävle, Sweden
4 Theo LindsteinDL192021Gävle, Sweden
43 Noel NordhLWL192022Söderhamn, Sweden
40 Anton OhlssonCL192022Gävle, Sweden
36 Linus OlundCL272019Gävle, Sweden
18 Anton Rödin (A)LWL332019Stockholm, Sweden
41 Greg ScottCR362019Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Jakob SilfverbergRWR332024Gävle, Sweden

Updated 8 May 2024[6][7]

Team captains

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Head coaches

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Club records and leaders

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Individual season records

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Scoring leaders

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These are the top-ten point-scorers in SHL history. Figures are updated after each completed SHL regular season.[8][9]

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game;   = current Brynäs IF player

Points
PlayerPosGPGAPtsP/G
Lars-Göran NilssonF4252732575301.25
Håkan WickbergF3632532414941.36
Tord LundströmF3672612324931.34
Ove MolinRW772192295487.63
Jan LarssonC598189281470.79
Stefan KarlssonF428252140392.92
Anders HussC574189183372.65
Andreas DackellRW524132217349.67
Tommy SjödinD681117198315.46
Hans LindbergF2462091053141.28

Trophies and awards

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Team

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Le Mat Trophy

  • 1963–64, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1971–72, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1992–93, 1998–99, 2011–12

Individual

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Coach of the Year

Guldhjälmen

Guldpucken

Håkan Loob Trophy

Honken Trophy

Rinkens Riddare

Rookie of the Year

References

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  1. ^ Martin Alsiö (April 2004). "De allsvenska klubbarnas födelsedagar" (PDF) (in Swedish). Bolletinen. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  2. ^ "Brynäs IF och UNICEF i unikt samarbete" (in Swedish). Brynäs IF. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  3. ^ "Gävle kommun går in som huvudpartner till Brynäs IF" (in Swedish). Brynäs IF. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
  4. ^ "Brynäs spelar med reklamfria ställ" (in Swedish). Gefle Dagblad. 6 June 2014. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  5. ^ Emil Eiman Roslund, Nils Rahm (23 March 2023). "Brynäs åker ur SHL" (in Swedish). SVT Sport. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  6. ^ "A-laget > Spelartrupp" (in Swedish). www.brynas.se. 8 May 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  7. ^ "Eliteprospects.com - Brynäs". www.eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Brynäs ‑ All-Time SHL Leaders". QuantHockey.com. 22 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  9. ^ "All-Time Stats for Brynäs". eliteprospects.com. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
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