Frolunda HC of the SHL, a.k.a. the former Frolunda Indians, were the “Red Wings East” for a couple of seasons, but a series of hockey moves have yielded a new team with that title in Rogle BK, Moritz Seider’s alma mater.
Swedish prospects Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder migrated to Rogle from other teams this past season, and Austrian-born top prospect Marco Kasper chose to play for the Angleholm-based team, which is run by the brothers Cam (coach) and Chris (the GM) Abbott, because it’s considered one of the best teams in all of Europe.
This morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff writes about the team from Skane (Southern Sweden), noting that Niederbach left Frolunda as a free agent to sign with Rogle for more playing time’s sake, and that Wallinder comes to Frolunda from MODO Hockey of the Swedish Allsvenskan (the Swedish version of the AHL):
“I wanted to try something new,” Niederbach said of his move to Rogle. “Frolunda is a good club and I learned a lot from them but I felt I wanted to try something new. I know Rogle is a good team. Both Wallinder and Seider have been there and had huge development there. I know that I will come to a great club.”
One thing Rogle has going for it is on-ice success. In 2020-21, the club played in the SHL final. Last season, Rogle won the European Champions League title, beating Frolunda in the semifinals of that competition.
Last season, Wallinder was the player making the move to Rogle. He left MoDo, ending up playing top-four minutes on the back end for Rogle.
“It went just the way I wanted it to,” Wallinder said. “I got my game going, my defensive game started to work out. I’m in the right direction.”
Niederbach is hoping for a similar boost coming into his career by moving to Rogle. Last season, while logging ice time as a bottom-six at Frolunda, he still was able to be firing home nine goals in 51 games. He’s hoping to get the chance to play center with Rogle after toiling on the wing at Frolunda.
“I have to prove myself that I can play center but I think the chance is good to get a chance to play center,” Niederbach said. “But I have to prove myself that I can play center at SHL level.”
I have great fondness for Frolunda because it’s providing the Wings with Simon Edvinsson and Elmer Soderblom this season, and still has Liam Dower Nilsson as a full-time contributor this season, but I can’t deny that Rogle’s games will pique my interest this upcoming season.
Frolunda has a sort of sports science program running which develops players like a massive developmental machine, so it’s been a perennial superpower in the SHL, but the Abbott brothers’ arrival in Angleholm really sparked a developmental revolution for Rogle.
They now compete with Frolunda and the other top Swedish teams for Europe’s most eligible free agent players, and Rogle’s developmental program has become particularly strong.
Regarding their status as the Wings’ developmental arm, Rogle’s YouTube channel posted a video of the “Gront & Vitt” (green and white) boys taking part in an outdoor training race on Thursday.
You’ll see Kasper taking part as a member of the first team participating in the race, and it’s particularly convenient that Cam Abbott coaches the team by speaking to the boys in English:
The European teams are very big on dry-land training, and it can be a real pain in the ass for North Americans, because the European-based teams really expect their players to start showing up as soon as they sign (usually in May, June or July, prior to the new season) and remain with their European-based teams to train on a supervised basis all summer long.
It’s not like North American pro hockey, where players are given a wide berth by their respective rights-holders, and, with most teams, players aren’t really expected to show up until mid-August for preseason skates and workouts.
Most players tend to work out at private gyms and training facilities, and in Metro Detroit, both Red Wings players and prospects work out with hockey trainers like Mike Barwis in Plymouth.
The Red Wings have begun to really encourage their top prospects to spend the summer in Detroit, where the Wings’ training facilities and practice rink at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena are always open for player use.
As the Red Wings’ captain, Dylan Larkin, happens to be a “rink rat,” players like Michael Rasmussen and Givani Smith have started to join the Red Wings’ Michigan-based players (right now that’s Larkin, Dearborn Heights’ Jordan Oesterle, Ann Arbor’s Andrew Copp, and Ohioan-turned-Michigander Alex Nedeljkovic) in training at LCA, in addition to working out at the local gyms of their choice.
By mid-July, they’re already starting to skate either at the BELFOR, or at the Sports Center in Troy (most of the Wings’ players still tend to live in Birmingham and Troy) or at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth (most of the Wings’ Swedes and management live in the Novi and Northville area, and, again, Barwis Methods happens to be in Plymouth). Players often take part in informal games in Steven Oleksy’s Eastside Elite Hockey League, in Mt. Clemens, too.
When the BELFOR isn’t available, more and more players (not just Red Wings ones) have been using the training facilities and ice at USA Hockey Arena for informal “summer skates” because they have a private practice rink there.
The informal “Captain’s Skates” start in late July and early August, and while the coaches and managerial staff aren’t formally allowed to coach players until training camp begins, you can bet that they conveniently happen to be around semi-regularly when their players happen to be training and skating (though summer hockey tournaments like the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup keep Kris Draper and Steve Yzerman busy in early August).
By late August, more and more players are filtering back into town, with the Europeans who are already settled in Detroit usually last to arrive, but it’s informally expected that those who are in the Metro Detroit area engage in some sort of player-organized practices starting this month.
Pro camps in East Lansing and Ann Arbor attract Michigan State University and University of Michigan alumni, respectively, and players really ramp up their on-ice activities.
By late August and early September, the players are essentially running their own practices, and just prior to training camp, there are teams on the ice, getting up to speed with skates and informal scrimmages.
Nothing the players participate in on the ice runs at 100% NHL pace until training camp begins, of course, but it’s amusing to know that, at least as far as the Red Wings’ players and prospects are concerned, their informal training and on-ice sessions have more and more begun to resemble the calendars of their European counterparts.
Sorry for rambling a bit, but I hope that my blather has been useful.
