News

Swedish winger boost for Phoenix

Tweet

With under a month to the start of the 2006/07 Elite League season, Phoenix coach Tony Hand has added proven quality to his roster with the signing of Swedish winger Johan Molin.

 Hand moved quickly to sign the 29-year old Swede as clubs around the UK and elsewhere all look to finalise their squads and he noted, “Johan has excellent credentials and actually spent a short spell in the UK earlier in his career so coming to Britain isn’t a new experience for him. He had a very good junior career and has played not only in the Swedish Elitserien but the top leagues in Germany, Austria and Italy as well. He’s both talented and a hard worker, and you don’t get to play in Europe’s top leagues without both those attributes.”

 Commenting on his game, the right shot winger said, “I started out very offensively like most youngsters, I wanted to score goals. I’ve been around and as you get older, you learn the game needs to be played in both ends of the ice and so I worked hard on my defensive game to improve my two-way skills.” Laughing he added, “I still like to score goals though so I guess I’m more offensive than defensive.”

 Originally from Nacka, Molin (pronounced Mo-leen) stands 5ft 7in and tips the scales around 13 stone but, plays bigger than his size would indicate. Coming up through the Hammarby system, he also iced for Vasteras and Brynas in his homelands’ top league before a short spell in Scotland with Ayr. A stellar year in Austria with Innsbruck preceded a year with Dusseldorf in Germany and last season he iced in Italy with Fassa.

 Now though he’s looking forward to another chance to play in Britain as he said, “I was only in Ayr for about three months and enjoyed it a lot. A new team in a new rink in Manchester is a great opportunity for my family and me. It’s an exciting move for me, I’m really looking forward to coming to play there and help the team be successful.”

Player Profile

• Profile for Johan Molin