Yesterday Steelers announced the signing of Andreas Jämtin, who fills the void left by Juha Koivisto's return to Finland. First of it all it's a warm welcome from everyone here to Andreas, and we hope you enjoy your time as a Steeler. So what we do know about the new guy?
Well like the departing Koivisto, Jämtin is in his mid-thirties and also like Koivisto - he's a very experienced guy to have around the locker room. He has almost 700 games (regular and post-season) under his proverbial belt in the SHL and that's something you've got to respect. You certainly don't play that many games in the top flight of Swedish hockey without being a bit good. Agree with us on that one?
He's also twice a SHL Champion, winning that in 2003-04 and 2007-08 with our good friends at HV71, and also in 2012-13 won a World Championship Gold Medal with Tre Kronor (Swedish National team if you didn't know). Amongst his HV71 team-mates were the late and dearly missed Stefan Liv as well as current captain Martin Thörnberg, whilst he was alongside a clutch of NHL stars like the Sedin twins, and also Henrik Lundqvist's twin brother Joel for example.
Another thing that might surprise some is that he's not your typical Swedish player. Most expect Sweden to be full of flair and panache, Jämtin isn't. He's from what I've watched clips of, more like a Swedish version of Tylor Michel and he was a rink rat and a half wasn't it? Hopefully Andreas will do a fair of the same too. I've also spoken with our Swedish friend Tim Larsson, one of the many HV71 Steelers as we could call them, and asked him for a few thoughts:
"He was really bad last season but that was in a bad team. About 5-6 years ago he was an outstanding grit player. He's a probably better version of (Yared) Hagos to be honest. That said, the media here were saying he was in better shape than ever a few weeks ago. So I think he can do well in EIHL."
Thanks for them Tim, always good to have an insight on Swedish hockey from you. It certainly sounds like Andreas could be a good fit for us, but we will have to see. He makes his debut tonight in the NIC and his home bow on Sunday when we entertain the Braehead Clan.
Our new signing Andreas Jämtin, looks a bit mean doesn't he?
Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on Twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-
@FrozenSteelBlog@FrozenSteelMNL
@FrozenSteelJr
@BTI_Podcast
@hockeybhoy
@Disgu15ed
@SedgyFergus
@georgefbarber
Check out Breaking The Ice Available to listen and download on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Or Email the team at Frozen Steel
You can also get involved in Steelers related discussions by joining the forums at Steel Talk
No comments:
Post a Comment