Peter Popovic

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SwedenSweden  Peter Popovic Ice hockey player
Date of birth February 10, 1968
place of birth Köping , Sweden
Nickname Poppe
size 198 cm
Weight 105 kg
position defender
Shot hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1988 , 5th lap, 93rd position
Canadiens de Montréal
Career stations
until 1993 Västerås IK
1993-1998 Canadiens de Montréal
1998-1999 New York Rangers
1999-2000 Pittsburgh Penguins
2000-2001 Boston Bruins
2001-2005 Södertälje SK
2005-2007 VIK Västerås HK

Peter "Poppe" Popovic ( Serbian Петар Поповић Petar Popović ; born February 10, 1968 in Köping ) is a former Swedish ice hockey player and current coach of Serbian origin, who played 520 games for the Canadiens de Montréal , New York Rangers , Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins have played in the National Hockey League on the position of defender . He has been the assistant coach of the Swedish national team since spring 2011 and won the world championship title with the Tre Kronor in 2013 , 2017 and 2018 .

Career

Player career

Popovic, who was born in Köping , Sweden , but has his roots in today's Serbia , initially spent his junior years at IFK Arboga IK, which is not far from his hometown . The defender later moved to the junior division of Västerås IK . There he last ran in the 1986/87 season as an 18-year-old for the club's U20 team, as he made his debut for the professional team in the second-rate division 1 and matured into a regular player during the season . Already in the season 1987/88 Popovic was together with Tomas Lilja with 20 points scorer the best defensive player of the club and was thus significantly involved in the promotion to the Elitserien . In the subsequent NHL Entry Draft in 1988 , the Swede was selected in the fifth round in 93rd place by the Canadiens de Montréal from the National Hockey League . As a result of the draft, however, he stayed in Västerås and established himself with the team after initial problems over the years in the Elitserien. In the second year, the team succeeded in qualifying for the playoffs for the first time.

After a total of seven professional years with Västerås IK, Popovic ventured into the National Hockey League in the summer of 1993 after receiving a contract offer from the Canadiens de Montréal. During the season, the defender played 47 games for the reigning Stanley Cup winner. Due to the lockout at the beginning of the 1994/95 NHL season , however, he returned to his home club in his Swedish homeland the following summer to bridge the game-free time of collective bargaining in North America. With the resumption of game operations, however, he was again active for the Franco-Canadians. He subsequently became a regular player and remained under contract with the Habs until June 1998 .

Although Montréal had transferred Sébastien Bordeleau to the newly admitted Nashville Predators just a few days earlier as part of the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft so that they would not select the Swedish defender, he was swapped for Sylvain Blouin and a six-round suffrage in late June 1998 in the NHL Entry Draft in 1999 to the New York Rangers made. However, he only spent one season in the " Big Apple " , as he was again part of a transfer deal in September 1999 and was exchanged for Kevin Hatcher by the Pittsburgh Penguins . Since his contract was not renewed at the end of the 1999/2000 season , he did not find a new sporting home in Pittsburgh and changed clubs for the first time in his career as a free agent . In July 2000, he signed a one-year contract with the Boston Bruins , for which the 32-year-old completed his final season in the NHL.

For the 2001/02 season Popovic returned to Sweden and joined the Södertälje SK . During his four years at the club, he played nearly 200 games in the Elitserien. Between 2002 and 2004 he was the team's captain . In the summer of 2005, the defender returned for his last professional season to his home club, which now traded under the name VIK Västerås HK and played again in the second-rate HockeyAllsvenskan . In summer 2006, at the age of 38, he ended his active career.

International

Popovic made his debut in the jersey of the Swedish national team in the 1990/91 game year . He did not play his first major international tournament until the 1993 World Cup in Germany , when the Swedes finished in second place behind eventual world champions Russia . The defender contributed one assist in eight tournament appearances to win the silver medal.

The subsequent move to North America only offered Popovic the opportunity to return to the national team within the framework of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey . He was used in three of the four tournament games and reached third place with the team. Popovic remained pointless. His last games for the Tre Kronor he played during the 2001/02 season.

Coaching career

Popovic (front row, 2nd from right) with the other eleven coaches of the Elitserien (2011)
SwedenSweden  Peter Popovic
Peter Popovic
Coaching stations
2008-2009 VIK Västerås HK (assistant coach)
2009-2011 Södertälje SK
since 2011 Sweden (assistant coach)

After Popovic had taken a two-year hiatus after the end of his career, he was hired by his home club VIK Västerås HK as an assistant coach before the 2008/09 season . During the season he initially worked under head coach Johan Tornberg , who was replaced by Lars Ivarsson after a few games . Despite the change of coach, the team finished third in the main round, but did not make it into the Elitserien in the Kvalserien .

For the following season Popovic left Västerås and received a contract with Södertälje SK , which in the previous season had only secured itself to remain in the Swedish ice hockey upper house in those kval series. With Popovic as head coach, the team was only able to improve marginally in the 2009/10 season , but managed to stay up in the Kval series again. In his second year in Södertälje he did not come back with the team beyond the penultimate place in the main round. When participating in the relegation round again, the team did not make it into the two best-scoring teams this time and thus had to accept relegation to the second division. Popovic had to leave the club after the sporting disappointment.

However, he did not remain without an employer for long and was signed by Svenska Ishockeyförbundet before the 2011 World Cup . There he acted alongside Rikard Grönborg and Roger Rönnberg as assistant coach of the Swedish national team under head coach Pär Mårts . At the end of the tournament the silver medal was won. Popovic remained Mårts' assistant in the following years and won his first world championship title at the 2013 World Cup. Other medal successes during Pär Mårts' tenure were winning the silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the bronze medal at the World Cup in the same year .

Even after Mårts was succeeded in 2016 by his long-time assistant Rikard Grönborg as national coach, Popovic remained active in the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation. In 2017 and 2018 he won two more world titles with the Tre Kronor .

Achievements and Awards

As a player

As a trainer

Career statistics

Regular season Play-offs
season team league Sp T V Pt SM Sp T V Pt SM
1986/87 Västerås IK J20 Junior series 10 0 1 1 2 - - - - -
1986/87 Västerås IK Division 1 24 1 2 3 10 12 2 8th 10 6th
1987/88 Västerås IK Division 1 28 3 17th 20th 16 15th 1 4th 5 20th
1988/89 Västerås IK Elitserien 22nd 1 4th 5 32 - - - - -
1988/89 Västerås IK Allsvenskan 17th 2 3 5 20th 5 1 0 1 1 16
1989/90 Västerås IK Elitserien 30th 2 10 12 24 2 0 1 1 2
1990/91 Västerås IK Elitserien 40 3 2 5 54 4th 0 0 0 4th
1991/92 Västerås IK Elitserien 34 7th 10 17th 30th - - - - -
1992/93 Västerås IK Elitserien 39 6th 10 16 46 3 0 1 1 2
1993/94 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 47 2 12 14th 26th 6th 0 1 1 0
1994/95 Västerås IK Elitserien 11 0 3 3 10 - - - - -
1994/95 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 33 0 5 5 8th - - - - -
1995/96 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 79 2 12 14th 69 6th 0 2 2 4th
1996/97 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 78 1 13 14th 32 - - - - -
1997/98 Canadiens de Montréal NHL 69 2 6th 8th 38 10 1 1 2 2
1998/99 New York Rangers NHL 68 1 4th 5 40 - - - - -
1999/00 Pittsburgh Penguins NHL 54 1 5 6th 30th 10 0 0 0 10
2000/01 Boston Bruins NHL 60 1 6th 7th 48 - - - - -
2001/02 Södertälje SK Elitserien 50 3 18th 21st 52 - - - - -
2002/03 Södertälje SK Elitserien 50 3 9 12 52 - - - - -
2003/04 Södertälje SK Elitserien 49 1 9 10 61 - - - - -
2004/05 Södertälje SK Elitserien 36 1 4th 5 34 10 0 0 0 8th
2005/06 VIK Västerås HK HockeyAllsvenskan 34 3 8th 11 34 - - - - -
Division 1 / Allsvenskan total 69 6th 22nd 28 46 32 3 13 16 42
Elitserien total 361 27 79 106 395 19th 0 2 2 16
NHL overall 488 10 63 73 291 32 1 4th 5 16

International

Represented Sweden at:

year team event result Sp T V Pt SM
1993 Sweden WM 2nd place, silver 8th 0 1 1 2
1996 Sweden World cup 3rd place 3 0 0 0 2
Men overall 11 0 1 1 4th

( 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

Commons : Peter Popovic  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Popovic, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Popović, Peter; Poppe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish ice hockey player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Köping , Sweden