Lars-Erik Sjöberg

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SwedenSweden  Lars-Erik Sjöberg Ice hockey player
Date of birth May 4, 1944
place of birth Falun , Sweden
date of death October 20, 1987
Place of death Uppsala , Sweden
Nickname Taxis, Professor, Little General
size 173 cm
Weight 75 kg
position defender
Shot hand Left
Career stations
until 1965 Leksands IF
1965-1967 Djurgårdens IF
1967-1969 Leksands IF
1969-1974 Västra Frölunda IF
1974-1980 Winnipeg Jets

Lars-Erik "Taxen" Sjöberg (born May 4, 1944 in Falun ; † October 20, 1987 in Uppsala ) was a Swedish ice hockey player and scout , who in the course of his active career between 1961 and 1980, among other things, 79 games for the Winnipeg Jets in the National Hockey League (NHL) and 347 other games in the World Hockey Association (WHA) on the position of defender . Sjöberg, who was the second team captain in the Jets franchise history , won the WHA Avco World Trophy three times with the team between 1976 and 1979 . In addition, he was with the Swedish national team three times vice world and European champion and led his home club Leksands IF in 1969 as Sweden's player of the year to win the national championship . Sjöberg is considered the best Swedish defender of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Career

Sjöberg, who was born in Falun , spent his junior career in Leksand, about 50 kilometers away . There he went through the youth department of Leksands IF and made his debut in the 1961/62 season at the age of 17 in the men's team, which at that time belonged to the first-class Division 1 . Ultimately, the defender established himself in the first team's regular squad at the beginning of the 1963/64 season , after winning the Swedish championship with the club's U20 team in the preseason. The young player quickly developed into a regular player and spent three full seasons with his home club. Then Sjöberg moved to the league competitor Djurgårdens IF from the state capital Stockholm before the 1965/66 season . He spent two years at the capital club before the defender returned to Leksand.

Back in the service of Leksands IF, Sjöberg played there in the defense again from the 1967/68 season . He led the club in the following season to win the Swedish championship for the first time . He himself was awarded the guldpucken as Sweden's player of the year. Sjöberg left his home club again after this success and moved to Västra Frölunda IF in Gothenburg in the summer of 1969 . There the defensive player acted as team captain for the next five years . During his time at Frölunda, he was awarded the Rinkens riddare in 1973 . He was also elected to the Swedish All-Star Team of the Year in 1974. Due to Sjöberg's high quality offensive and defensive play, the Winnipeg Jets from the World Hockey Association (WHA) became aware of the Swede in the summer of 1974 . The Jets, who signed numerous players from Scandinavia at the time, signed Sjöberg before the 1974/75 season .

In his first season in North America, the defender was able to convince with 60 scorer points . His achievements earned him the appointment of team captain of the Jets before the following season. This made him the first ever Swede to receive this honor in North America. In this position, Sjöberg won the Avco World Trophy with Winnipeg for the first time at the end of the 1975/76 season . The franchise repeated this success in the 1977/78 game year , when the Scandinavian was also awarded the Dennis A. Murphy Trophy as the best defensive player in the league and was appointed to the WHA First All-Star Team . Since he completed only a few games in the following season, he gave the captaincy in the 1978/79 season to Barry Long , but celebrated with the team the third title win within four years. With the dissolution of the WHA and the inclusion of the Winnipeg Jets in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 1979/80 season, Sjöberg - now team captain again - played with the Jets in the NHL. Following the 1979/80 season, he ended his active career at the age of 36.

After the end of his career, Sjöberg returned to his home in Sweden. He settled in Uppsala and entered his professional life successfully as a businessman. He also worked as a scout for the New York Rangers on the European market between 1981 and 1987 . There he discovered Tomas Sandström , Jan Erixon , Kjell Samuelsson , Ulf Dahlén and Raimo Helminen for the North American market. Sjöberg died in October 1987 at the age of 43 in his adopted country of complications from cancer . After his death in 1993 he was posthumously honored as an Honored Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and in 2012 he was inducted into the Swedish Ice Hockey Hall of Fame .

International

For his home country, Sjöberg took part with the Swedish national team in two Olympic Winter Games , five world championships and the first Canada Cup in 1976 .

The defender completed his first major international tournament at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble , France , in which the Swedes finished fourth and thus missed a medal. The 24-year-old was used in all seven tournament games. Before that, he had been on the U18, U20 and B national team from 1960 . In the year after the Olympic Games, he completed his first of five world championships, all of which he was able to conclude with a medal. At the world championships in 1969 , 1970 and 1973 , the Tre Kronor won the silver medal in both the world and simultaneously played European championships . In 1972 and 1974 he won the bronze medal in both competitions. In total, Sjöberg completed 48 World Cup games, in which he scored seven goals and prepared six more. In the 1973 and 1974 world championships, Sjöberg led the Swedish squad as team captain . He also received the award for the best defender of the tournament in 1974 and was appointed to the All-Star Team.

Between the five world championship appearances, the defender played the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo , Japan , which, like four years earlier, ended in fourth place in the final ranking. The last time Sjöberg was on the ice for the Swedish national team was the first Canada Cup in 1976. There they also ranked fourth at the end of the tournament. In total, he completed 134 appearances for the national team in the course of his career.

Achievements and Awards

International

  • 1973 silver medal at the world championship
    • Silver medal at the European Championship
  • 1974 bronze medal at the world championship
    • Bronze medal at the European Championship
  • 1974 World Cup best defender
  • 1974 World Championship All-Star Team

Career statistics

Regular season Playoffs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1961/62 Leksands IF Division 1 3 0 1 1 0 - - - - -
1962/63 Leksands IF Division 1 9 1 0 1 0 - - - - -
1963/64 Leksands IF Division 1 18th 1 3 4th 2 7th 1 1 2 0
1964/65 Leksands IF Division 1 28 0 2 2 8th - - - - -
1965/66 Djurgårdens IF Division 1 20th 1 5 6th 0 3 0 1 1 0
1966/67 Djurgårdens IF Division 1 20th 4th 7th 11 2 3 0 1 1 0
1967/68 Leksands IF Division 1 21st 3 3 6th 6th 7th 1 3 4th 2
1968/69 Leksands IF Division 1 19th 6th 2 8th 2 7th 0 1 1 0
1969/70 Västra Frölunda IF Division 1 14th 2 1 3 10 - - - - -
1970/71 Västra Frölunda IF Division 1 27 12 8th 20th 4th - - - - -
1971/72 Västra Frölunda IF Division 1 27 4th 11 15th 4th - - - - -
1972/73 Västra Frölunda IF Division 1 14th 1 6th 7th 0 - - - - -
1973/74 Västra Frölunda IF Division 1 14th 0 4th 4th 4th - - - - -
1974/75 Winnipeg Jets WHA 75 7th 53 60 30th - - - - -
1975/76 Winnipeg Jets WHA 81 5 36 41 12 13 0 5 5 12
1976/77 Winnipeg Jets WHA 52 2 38 40 31 20th 0 6th 6th 22nd
1977/78 Winnipeg Jets WHA 78 11 39 50 72 9 0 9 9 4th
1978/79 Winnipeg Jets WHA 9 0 3 3 2 10 1 2 3 4th
1979/80 Winnipeg Jets NHL 79 7th 27 34 48 - - - - -
Division 1 total 234 35 53 88 52 27 2 7th 9 2
WHA total 295 25th 169 194 147 52 1 22nd 23 42

International

Represented Sweden at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
1968 Sweden Olympia 4th Place 7th 0 0 0 2
1969 Sweden WM 2nd place, silver 9 3 2 5 2
1970 Sweden WM 2nd place, silver 10 1 1 2 0
1972 Sweden Olympia 4th Place 6th 1 1 2 2
1972 Sweden WM 3rd place, bronze 10 1 1 2 0
1973 Sweden WM 2nd place, silver 10 1 2 3 2
1974 Sweden WM 3rd place, bronze 9 1 0 1 2
1976 Sweden Canada Cup 4th Place 5 0 3 3 6th
Men overall 66 8th 10 18th 16

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lars-Erik Sjoberg. In: nytimes.com. New York Times , October 21, 1987, accessed May 17, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Sjöberg, Lars-Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sjoberg, Lars-Erik; Taxis (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish ice hockey player and scout
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Falun , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1987
Place of death Uppsala , Sweden