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HNIB Executive Director Lance LoFaro has announced that invitations to two top-flight Jr. A programs in Finland and Sweden have been accepted and they will participate in HNIB's historic 35th Annual Summer Showcase.
An elite divison of six teams (including Finland and Sweden) will be created to augment HNIB's 2009 Major Showcase teams (20 in all) as Hockey Night celebrates its 35th Annual event. The tournament is from Sunday, July 26th to Sunday, August 2nd.
High-powered coaches from three of the Northeast's top junior programs have agreed to coach the three East Coast-based HNIB elite teams. NH Junior Monarchs head coach Sean Tremblay, Junior Bruins head coach Peter Masters (both of the highly-regarded EJHL) will be joined by Mike Addesa (Jr. Bulldogs - AJHL) in selecting the 20-man rosters for the event.
Each team will play 6-8 games (2 25-minute halves) over a four-day period. Sweden and Finland will also play two exhibition games vs. the Major Showcase All Stars on Sunday, August 2nd before departing home.
The Finnish team will come from the HIFK program. The team general manager is Tom Nybondas, who says his players will be thrilled to come to the Boston area.
"They are really excited," said Nybondas. "We certainly will bring over a bunch of talented hockey players. I expect several of them within 2-3 years to be on our pro team."
Nybondas took similar clubs to DesMoines in 2005 for the USHL's Buc Bowl, and to Moncton, New Brunswick to play some teams from the Quebec Major Junior League, and they more than held their own.
Players who have come through the HIFK program include Niclas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild, the Ruutu brothers (Jarko of the Ottawa Senators and Tomas of the Carolina Hurricanes) and former NHL great Esa Tikkanen, who played on the great Edmonton teams of the 1980s.
Sweden's team at HNIB will come from the Djurgardens IF program, which has teams all the way from six-year-olds up to a professional club in the Swedish pro league. The organization fields junior clubs at both the Under-20 and Under-18 levels.
KG Stoppel, the development manager for the club's junior programs, will put the team together that will come to Boston. It will be a top-notch club that will have scouts watching.
"Several of the players that will be coming will be on various National teams in Sweden," said Stoppel. "We will have a team that will be well-organized, that plays well together. We have some good-skilled players and some good skaters."
Some players that have come through the Djurgardens IF program include long-time NHL star Mats Sundin (now with Vancouver), Niklas Kornwall of the Detroit Red Wings and Mikael Tellqvist of the Buffalo Sabres.
"We are really interested to come to Boston and play." Stoppel said. "It will be interesting to play a different style of hockey. It will be a new experience for some of the kids to play on smaller rinks. All our rinks are Olympic-size."
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