Puckarinen

A change of scenery may be exactly what it takes to kick start a career.

For all the champions, beautiful goals, NHL dreams, and shooting stars, there is also that one disappointment. A team that underachieves all season, a player who signed a fat contract isn’t producing, or the prospect that just doesn’t seem to be able to take his game to the next level, after all.

Changes are made to kick start the season. Players get traded, coaches get fired, young kids coming through the club’s system are getting their chances while the veterans get benched. Sometimes, a player wants to make a change, a career move.

In Slapshot, the movie, there’s a scene where the Charlestown Chiefs’ goalie, Denis Lemieux wants out of the team.

Speaking with his agent, he then turns to a teammate:

Denis: “Ned, what's ‘echanger’ in English?”
Ned: “Trade me right [bleep] now.”
Denis to agent: “Trade me right [bleep] now!”
Ned to Denis: “Now hang up”.

Stockholm’s Djurgårdens IF has been on both sides of the fence this season when it about a month ago acquired Andreas Holmqvist from Gothenburg’s Frölunda where the 27-year-old defenseman, Tampa Bay Lightning’s second-round pick in 2001 (61st overall), got fired just seven games into the season, even though he had two years left in his contract with Frölunda.

“I just want to find a team that really believes in me,” Holmqvist said after the news broke out. He quickly found a new team at home in Stockholm, in Djurgården, where he now gets to play with his brother Michael, a center on the team.

Being back in the capital of Sweden seemed to get the Stockholm native back on track. The offensive defenseman collected 1+2=3 points in the seven games with Frölunda and has since picked up 4+7=11 in 15 games with Djurgården.

(At the same time, Frölunda, dead last in the standings after five games is now in the top four, while Djurgården has been in a free fall and is currently 12th. Last, that is.)

Another Stockholm native found himself in a similar situation as Holmqvist, only this time the revolving door was working the other way.

Dick Axelsson, the Detroit Red Wings’ second-round pick (62nd overall) in 2006, had an excellent season in 2007-08. In his first Elitserien season, the then 20-year-old Stockholm native scored 12+13=25 points in 47 games, sixth best in Djurgården. He also played six games with Team Sweden, scoring two goals, even if his season ended in a sour note when he had to leave the World Championship training camp after getting arrested by the police during a night on the town with his friends.

“We just don’t need the negative energy around the team right now,” head coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson said when he announced that Axelsson had been dropped from the roster.

Just a month ago, Axelsson, still with Djurgården, but on a loan from the Red Wings, was back with Team Sweden in the Karjala tournament in Helsinki, picking up an assist in three games. Then, a couple of weeks after the tournament, Axelsson went in and out of the Djurgården lineup, the team first citing problems with his back. Then in a week or so, Axelsson went from third line to fourth line to – practicing with the Djurgården juniors.

“We have certain expectations for our players as far as games and practices are concerned and we don’t think that Dick has met them,” Janne Järlefelt, the club’s director of hockey operations, said in an announcement on Wednesday.

On Friday, Axelsson was gone. Contract with Djurgården terminated, and Färjestad picking up the loan from Detroit.

The NHL club’s European head scout Håkan Andersson was also involved with the talks.

“I’m just thinking about what’s best for Dick. It’s too bad things didn’t work out in Djurgården, hopefully, everything works better in Färjestad,” he told the Swedish media.

In his first game with the new team, Axelsson picked up an assist as Färjestad beat Timrå 3-0.