Håkan Loob

Håkan Per Loob (born 3 July 1960) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player for Färjestad BK of the Elitserien and the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is the head of European Scouting for the Calgary Flames after resigning as president of Hockey Operations for Färjestad.[1] Considered one of the greatest Swedish hockey players of all time, he was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Swedish ice hockey Hall of Fame in 2012. The Elitserien created the Håkan Loob Trophy, awarded to the league's top goal scorer, in his honour in 2005 and Färjestad has retired his jersey number 5.

Håkan Loob
Loob in 2010
Born (1960-07-03) 3 July 1960
Slite, Sweden
Height 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight 176 lb (80 kg; 12 st 8 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shot Right
Played for Färjestad BK
Calgary Flames
National team  Sweden
NHL Draft 181st overall, 1980
Calgary Flames
Playing career 1979–1996

Loob joined Färjestad in 1979 and was a member of the team that won the Swedish championship in 1981. He won the Guldpucken as Swedish player of the year in 1982–83 after setting single-season records of 42 goals and 76 points - which remain SHL records. He moved to North America following that season to join the Flames, who had selected him with a ninth-round pick at the 1980 NHL Entry Draft. Loob was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 1983–84 and in 1987–88 was named a first team All-Star after becoming the first Swedish player to score 50 goals in one NHL season. He won the Stanley Cup with Calgary the following year, after which he chose to return to Sweden.

Rejoining Färjestad in 1989, Loob won consecutive Guldhjälmen awards in 1991 and 1992 as the Elitserien's most valuable player as selected by his fellow players. He retired in 1996 to become the club's general manager. He managed Färjestad to four Elitserien titles in 11 seasons before being elevated to team president. Internationally, Loob represented the Swedish national team on several occasions. He was one of the first three members of the Triple Gold Club, signifying that he has won the Stanley Cup, the World Championship (in 1987 and 1991) and an Olympic gold medal (1994).

Early life

Loob was born on 3 July 1960 in Gotland, where he grew up in the small town of Slite.[2] Loob is of Estonian descent. Loob's grandparents, together with their children, including Loob's father, Paul, fled to Gotland in a small boat across the Baltic sea from the island Kihnu[3] during the German occupation of Estonia in 1944. Loob started playing ice hockey at the age of five, when an artificially frozen rink was constructed near his home.[2] Loob was an active athlete in his youth, involved in tennis, handball, football, and sailing,[2] and was one of Sweden's best table tennis talents,[3] winning the Tommy Sport Cup in 1971 at age eleven.[3] At age 15 Loob made his senior debut for IK Graip,[4] and quit all other sports to focus on hockey.

Playing career

Färjestad BK

Loob began with third division clubs IK Graip Slite and Roma IF Romakloster in 1975–76 and 1976–77 respectively before spending two seasons with second division club Karlskrona IK. He moved up to the Elitserien when he joined Färjestad BK, with whom he scored 15 goals and 19 points in 36 games in 1979–80.[5] He scored 23 goals the following season as Färjestad won its first Le Mat Trophy as Elitserien champion.[6] In 1982–83, Loob set Elitserien records by scoring 42 goals and 76 points.[7] He continues to hold those records today.[8]

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames selected Loob with a ninth-round pick, 181st overall, at the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.[9]: 138  They were not able to convince him to join the club until the 1983–84 NHL season when, after his record setting season in the Elitserien, Flames' General Manager Cliff Fletcher referred to him as the "[Wayne] Gretzky of Sweden".[10] Loob scored 30 goals and 55 points in his first NHL season,[11] and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team.[9]

Loob improved to 37 goals in 1984–85, which was enough to tie him for the team lead with fellow Swede Kent Nilsson.[12] He led the team outright in 1985–86 with 31 goals,[13] and won the Molson Cup as the Flames player with the most three-star selections.[14] Loob struggled the following year due to a shoulder injury that required surgery to fix at the end of the 1986–87 season. He scored only 18 goals while his 44 points were well below the 67 he had scored the previous season.[13]

"I have to realize my family is a big thing in my life. I could probably play another few years, but I'm just happy with the six years I had in Calgary. Cliff Fletcher treated me as well as anybody ever treated me in my whole life. I think Calgary Flames were pretty happy with what I've done for them and I'm certainly very happy with what they've done for me."

—Loob in 1989, explaining his reasoning for leaving Calgary[10]

Returning to the lineup healthy for 1987–88, Loob became the first Swedish player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season.[15] As of the end of 2019–20 NHL season, he is still the only Swede to accomplish the feat. He also set a Flames franchise record by scoring five hat tricks during the season.[16] He finished sixth in league goal scoring, while his 106 points was ninth in that category.[11] Loob was named to the First All-Star team on the right wing,[9] and was the winner of the Viking Award as the top Swedish player in the NHL as voted by his fellow Swedes.[8] Loob scored 27 goals in 1988–89, but added 58 assists for the Flames.[5] He added 8 goals and 17 points in the playoffs to help the Flames win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. In the Cup clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Loob started a quick passing play with Joe Nieuwendyk on a three-on-one rush that set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal and gave the Flames a lead they would not relinquish.[17]

During the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, Loob made it known that he was considering a return to Sweden.[18] He later revealed that he and his wife had made the decision almost a year before and that he declined a large contract offer the team offered to entice him to stay.[16] Loob wanted his children to grow up in Sweden, however, and after the Flames won the Stanley Cup, he announced he was returning to Färjestad for the 1989–90 season.[10]

Return to Färjestad

In his first season back in Sweden, Loob scored 22 goals in 40 games for Färjestad and led the league with 53 points. He improved to 33 goals in 1990–91 while his 66 points again led the Elitserien.[5][8] He won the Guldhjälmen ("Golden Helmet") as the most valuable player of the league as voted by the players. He won a second consecutive Guldhjälmen in 1991–92 and led the league in scoring for a third consecutive season.[19] At 37 goals, Loob also led the league in goal scoring.[20] He played another four seasons with Färjestad, retiring in 1996.[7]

Loob ended his playing career as the Elitserien's all-time leading goal scorer with 305 goals combined between the regular season and playoffs.[19] The league created the Håkan Loob Trophy in his honour and awards it to the leading goal scorer.[7] Färjestad retired his jersey number 5 and named him the team's general manager for the 1996–97 season.[21] He served in the role for 11 seasons, during which the team reached the final of the Elitersien playoffs eight times and won four championships.[22] Two of the titles came in his first two seasons as general manager, 1996–97 and 1997–98. He added a third in 2001–02,[21] and the fourth in 2005–06. Loob was promoted to team president in 2008.[7]

In January 2017, it was announced that he would quit as Färjestads BK's director of sport at the end of the 2016–2017 season.[23]

International
Medal record
Representing  Sweden
Men's ice hockey
World Junior Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Sweden
Bronze medal – third place 1980 Finland
World Championships
Gold medal – first place1987 Austria
Silver medal – second place1990 Switzerland
Gold medal – first place1991 Finland
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place1994 Lillehammer

Internationally, Loob first skated for the Swedish junior team at the European Junior Hockey Championship in 1978.[5] He then won bronze medals with the Swedish team at both the 1979 and 1980 World Junior Championships.[24] He finished third in tournament scoring in 1980 with nine points (seven goals, two assists) and was named an all-star.[25] He debuted with the senior team in 1982, scoring three goals in eight games for the Swedish team that finished fourth in the World Championship,[26] but won a silver medal in the European Championship, which counted results amongst only participating European nations.[8]

Loob appeared in his first best-on-best world tournament at the 1984 Canada Cup, where his ten points in eight games was second in team scoring, one behind Kent Nilsson.[27] He scored two goals and two assists in the two game final series, which Sweden lost to Canada.[28] A shoulder injury prevented Loob from playing in the 1987 Canada Cup,[13] but he did appear at the 1987 World Championship. He scored nine points in eight games to help Sweden win its first World Championship in 25 years.[5] He made two additional world championship appearances, winning a silver medal at the 1990 tournament and a second gold in 1991.[26] In the concurrently held European championships, Loob and the Swedes won gold in 1990 and silver in 1991.[8]

The 1992 Albertville Games marked Loob's first Winter Olympic appearance. He averaged one point per game in eight games, including four goals,[5] for the fifth place Swedes.[8] He returned two years later for the 1994 Winter Olympic tournament at Lillehammer, Norway. Loob scored nine points in eight games,[5] and Sweden met Canada for the gold medal. The game went into overtime tied at 2–2, and after that failed to decide the contest, the gold medal was decided for the first time in Olympic history by a shootout.[29] The shootout went seven rounds, until Peter Forsberg scored the winning goal for Sweden.[30] By virtue of winning the Olympic gold, Loob joined teammates Mats Näslund and Tomas Jonsson to become the first three members of the Triple Gold Club as winners of a Stanley Cup championship, a World championship and an Olympic championship.[31] Loob was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998.[32]

Playing style

Standing five-foot, nine inches tall, and weighing 170 pounds, Loob arrived in Calgary facing skepticism about his ability to cope with the rougher style and smaller ice surface of the NHL compared to what he was used to in the Elitserien.[16] Opinion around the NHL in the early 1980s was that Swedish players were "soft"; teammate Colin Patterson credited Loob with changing that perception. He was a vocal leader, unafraid to speak to his teammates when he felt it necessary.[7] He was a strong skater with "dazzling technique",[8] and former Calgary linemate Joe Nieuwendyk said Loob was a key reason for his own early success in the NHL: "He just had such a great amount of skill. He could do things none of the rest of us could. The luckiest thing that happened to me was getting put on Hakan Loob’s line my first full year in Calgary. He helped me so much, starting my career the right way. A big reason why I scored 50." Nieuwendyk added that Loob could "put pucks into areas, make plays, nobody else would dream of".[7]

Personal life

Loob's older brother Peter was also a hockey player. The brothers played together briefly with Färjestad and Peter appeared in eight NHL games with the Quebec Nordiques.[21] Håkan and his wife Marie have three children, Henrik, Niclas, and Isabelle. Their children are why the family chose to return to Sweden in 1989.[16] Loob always intended to return home following his playing days, but felt that Henrik's assimilation into North American culture was problematic.[10] He wanted his family to grow up in Sweden.[18]

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1975–76 IK Graip SWE.3 22 12 2 14 — — — — — —
1976–77 Roma IF SWE.3 20 19 12 31 — — — — — —
1977–78 Karlskrona AIK SWE.2 25 15 4 19 37 5 3 2 5 0
1978–79 Karlskrona AIK SWE.2 23 23 9 32 8 — — — — —
1979–80 Färjestads BK SEL 36 15 4 19 20 — — — — —
1980–81 Färjestads BK SEL 36 23 6 29 14 7 5 3 8 6
1981–82 Färjestads BK SEL 36 26 15 41 28 2 1 0 1 0
1982–83 Färjestads BK SEL 36 42 34 76 26 8 10 4 14 6
1983–84 Calgary Flames NHL 77 30 25 55 22 11 2 3 5 2
1984–85 Calgary Flames NHL 78 37 35 72 14 4 3 3 6 0
1985–86 Calgary Flames NHL 68 31 36 67 36 22 4 10 14 6
1986–87 Calgary Flames NHL 68 18 26 44 26 5 1 2 3 0
1987–88 Calgary Flames NHL 80 50 56 106 47 9 8 1 9 4
1988–89 Calgary Flames NHL 79 27 58 85 44 22 8 9 17 4
1989–90 Färjestads BK SEL 40 22 31 53 24 10 9 5 14 2
1990–91 Färjestads BK SEL 40 33 25 58 16 8 6 4 10 8
1991–92 Färjestads BK SEL 40 37 29 66 14 6 2 2 4 2
1992–93 Färjestads BK SEL 40 25 26 51 28 3 4 1 5 0
1993–94 Färjestads BK SEL 22 9 11 20 12 — — — — —
1994–95 Färjestads BK SEL 39 13 25 38 58 4 2 0 2 2
1995–96 Färjestads BK SEL 40 17 32 49 62 8 4 4 8 2
SEL totals 405 262 238 501 304 56 43 23 65 28
NHL totals 450 193 236 429 189 73 26 28 54 16

International
Year Team Comp   GP G A Pts PIM
1978 Sweden EJC 5 3 1 4 2
1979 Sweden WJC 6 0 2 2 0
1980 Sweden WJC 5 7 2 9 2
1982 Sweden WC 8 3 1 4 6
1984 Sweden CC 8 6 4 10 2
1987 Sweden WC 8 5 4 9 4
1990 Sweden WC 10 4 7 11 10
1991 Sweden WC 10 2 7 9 6
1992 Sweden OG 8 4 4 8 0
1994 Sweden OG 8 4 5 9 2
Junior totals 16 10 5 15 4
Senior totals 60 28 32 60 30

Awards and honours
Award Year
International
IIHF World U20 Championship Tournament All-Star 1980 [33]
International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame 1998 [34]
Elitserien/Sweden
Guldpucken
Player of the year		 1982–83 [5]
Guldhjälmen
Most Valuable Player as voted by the players		 1990–91
1991–92
Swedish World All-Star team 1982–83
1984–85
1989–90
1990–91
1991–92		 [5]
National Hockey League
All-Rookie Team 1983–84 [9]: 26 
First team All-Star 1987–88 [9]
Viking Award
Top Swedish player in the NHL		 1987–88 [8]
Stanley Cup 1989
Calgary Flames team awards
Molson Cup
Most three star selections		 1985–86 [14]

References
  1. Johnson, George (17 June 2018). "WELCOME BACK, HAKAN!". NHL.com. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  2. Hansen, Maria (1 July 2010). "För att lyckas måste man ha en liten djävul i sig". Värmlands Folkblad (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  3. Mårtensson, Per (2 July 2010). "50-firande Håkan Loob går ner i spagat". Nya Wermlands-Tidningen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 3 September 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  4. Johansson, Ronnie (20 April 2008). "Old School - Håkan Loob" (in Swedish). Hockeysverige.se. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
  5. "Hakan Loob profile". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  6. Podnieks, Andrew, ed. (2011). IIHF Guide & Record Book 2012. International Ice Hockey Federation. p. 377. ISBN 978-0-7710-9598-6.
  7. Johnson, George (2 October 2008). "Going out on top". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on 15 June 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  8. "Håkan Loob". Swedish Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  9. Hanlon, Peter; Kelso, Sean; Ahrens, Janette; Buer, Greg (2011). 2011–12 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club.
  10. Duhatschek, Eric (26 May 1989). "Loob bows from NHL on winning note". Calgary Herald. p. C2.
  11. "Hakan Loob statistics". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  12. Ornest, Leo, ed. (1987). 1987–88 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club. p. 95.
  13. Ornest, Leo, ed. (1987). 1987–88 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club. p. 24.
  14. Hanlon, Peter; Kelso, Sean; Ahrens, Janette; Buer, Greg (2011). 2011–12 Calgary Flames Media Guide. Calgary Flames Hockey Club. p. 167.
  15. "Wings' Zetterberg anxious to join Loob in elite club". Regina Leader-Post. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  16. Cruickshank, Scott (2006). Zurowski, Monica (ed.). The Fire Inside: Celebrating 25 years of Calgary Flames Spirit and Hockey History. Toronto: CanWest Books Inc. p. 116. ISBN 1-897229-01-1.
  17. Duhatschek, Eric (26 May 1989). "Stanley Cup: Ours at last". Calgary Herald. p. A1.
  18. "Flames' Suter can't grin, but he bears it". The Record-Journal (Merriden, Conn.). 14 May 1989. p. D2. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  19. "Loob invald i Hockey Hall of Fame" (in Swedish). Färjestad BK Hockey Club. 11 February 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  20. von Konow, Gregor. "Målkungarnas säsongsinledningar" (in Swedish). hockeyligan.se. Archived from the original on 31 October 2006. Retrieved 8 March 2007.
  21. Podnieks, Andrew (2003). Players: The ultimate A–Z guide of everyone who has ever played in the NHL. Toronto: Doubleday Canada. p. 508. ISBN 0-385-25999-9.
  22. Rydenholm, Pär (11 February 2012). "Håkan Loob i Hall of fame" (in Swedish). helagotland.se. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  23. "Loob lämnar Färjestad". Dagens nyheter (in Swedish). 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  24. Podnieks, Andrew, ed. (2011). IIHF Guide & Record Book 2012. International Ice Hockey Federation. p. 493. ISBN 978-0-7710-9598-6.
  25. "WJHC history: 1977–1981". The Sports Network. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  26. Podnieks, Andrew, ed. (2011). IIHF Guide & Record Book 2012. International Ice Hockey Federation. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7710-9598-6.
  27. Pelletier, Joe; Houda, Patrick (2003). The World Cup of Hockey. Toronto: Warwick Publishing. p. 140. ISBN 1-894622-17-0.
  28. Pelletier, Joe; Houda, Patrick (2003). The World Cup of Hockey. Toronto: Warwick Publishing. pp. 134–136. ISBN 1-894622-17-0.
  29. Podnieks, Andrew (9 October 2011). "The Shootout: From Boy to Man". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  30. Podnieks, Andrew (2009). Canada's Olympic Hockey History 1920–2010. Toronto: Fenn Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-55168-323-2.
  31. "Triple Gold Club". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  32. "IIHF Hall of Fame". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  33. Podnieks, Andrew, ed. (2011). IIHF Guide & Record Book 2012. International Ice Hockey Federation. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7710-9598-6.
  34. "Håkan Loob". Swedish Olympic Committee (in Swedish). 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
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