Kevin Swider

Kevin Swider
Date of birth	17th November 1977
place of birth	Livonia , Michigan , USA
size	178 cm
Weight	81 kg
position	center
Career stations
1994-1995	Compuware Ambassadors
1995-1997	Omaha Lancers
1997-2001	Ferris State University
2001-2002	Rockford IceHogs Asheville Smoke
2002-2003	Knoxville Ice Bears
2003-2004	Miami manatees
2004-2010	Knoxville Ice Bears
2011–2012	Knoxville Ice Bears

Kevin Swider (born November 17, 1977 in Livonia , Michigan ) is a former American ice hockey player , coach and functionary who worked for the Florida Everblades and Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL as well as for the first time in 2010 played for the Knoxville Ice Bears in the Southern Professional Hockey League . From July 2010 he worked as Director of Hockey Operations at the Knoxville Ice Bears. For the 2011/12 season, the striker returned as an active player to the Knoxville Ice Bears in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

Career

Kevin Swider played for the Compuware Ambassadors in the North American Hockey League from 1994 to 1995 . He spent the next two years with the Omaha Lancers in the United States Hockey League . Subsequently, Swider decided to begin studying at Ferris State University and play with the university's ice hockey team in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association . After graduating from university four years later, he began his career as a professional ice hockey player with the Rockford IceHogs of the United Hockey League . There he only made two assists in 13 games and turned his back on the club a short time later when Swider signed a contract with the Asheville Smoke , which also played in the United Hockey League. This change had a positive effect on his athletic performance and the center scored 41 points in 32 games. After the Asheville Smoke missed the playoffs at the end of the 2001/02 season, the franchise was dissolved.

A short time later, Swider was signed by the newly formed Knoxville Ice Bears , who began playing in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League . In the only season of the league, which was dissolved again after the 2002/03 season, Swider was able to convince and ended the regular season with 80 points, the best record of his team. After the dissolution of the ACHL, he first went to the Miami Manatees and played with the team in the World Hockey Association 2 . As the second best scorer of the Manatees, Swider had a good season personally, but the WHA2 was dissolved again after just one season, like the ACHL before. Shortly before the end of the season, he played for the Florida Everblades from the ECHL and returned to the Knoxville Ice Bears. For the 2004/05 season , the franchise was included in the newly formed Southern Professional Hockey League . In his debut season, Swider was elected MVP for the first time and finished the season as the league's top scorer with 106 points from 52 regular season games. In the playoffs, the team failed in the second round against the Columbus Cottonmouths .

A season later under head coach Jim Bermingham , the team made it into the playoff finals and prevailed in four games against the Florida Seals . From 2006 Swider led the Knoxville Ice Bears as team captain on the ice. In the seasons 2007/08 and 2008/09 he won the SPHL championship twice with head coach Scott Hillman and his teammates Mike Craigen , Andrew Gallant , Kevin Harris , BJ Pelkey and Tim Vitek . From 2007 until his temporary career end in 2010, Swider held the position of player and assistant coach . In all of his six seasons in the SPHL to date, he finished the regular season as top scorer and was elected to the league's First All-Star team six times in a row .

In July 2010, he was named Director of Hockey Operations for the Knoxville Ice Bears. The American filled this position for a year before resigning for the 2011/12 season and returning to the Southern Professional Hockey League as an active player for the Knoxville Ice Bears. Swider was once again appointed team captain and ended the 2011/12 season as the most successful points collector in the league, for which the left-wing shooter laid the foundation for the regular season with 65 assists in 56 games - the third-best value in league history to date. In addition, the league honored him for the third time in his career as the most valuable player of the season, which no player had achieved before.

Achievements and Awards

2005 SPHL MVP 2005 SPHL Scoring Leader 2005 SPHL First All-Star Team 2006 President's Cup win with the Knoxville Ice Bears 2006 SPHL Scoring Leader 2006 SPHL First All-Star Team 2007 SPHL Scoring Leader 2007 SPHL First All-Star Team 2008 SPHL Scoring Leader 2008 SPHL MVP

2008 President's Cup win with the Knoxville Ice Bears 2008 SPHL First All-Star Team 2009 SPHL Scoring Leader 2009 President's Cup win with the Knoxville Ice Bears 2009 SPHL First All-Star Team 2010 SPHL Scoring Leader 2010 SPHL First All-Star Team 2012 SPHL Scoring Leader 2012 SPHL MVP

SPHL statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Regular season	7th	375	253	434	687	267
Playoffs	7th	45	16	51	67	28

Individual evidence

1. ↑ knoxnews.com, Ice Bears, Cincinnati reach agreement to share players ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ knoxnews.com, Swider named Ice Bears director of hockey operations ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Kevin Swider at hockeydb.com (English)
• Kevin Swider at eliteprospects.com (English)