SHL SPOTLIGHT: VICTOR STJERNBORG

In a couple of weeks, Victor Stjernborg can close the books on his fifth season with the Växjö Lakers. His accent however reveals that he is not a Småland native. He was still in primary school when he left his home town Malmö to join the Lakers program.

”I’ve always had a dream of moving away from home to play hockey”, the 19 year old says. ”I had a friend whose dad was best friends with Janne Karlsson (former general manager for the Växjö Lakers youth hockey program) so that opened up a chance for me to move to Växjö before beginning ninth grade. It was a perfect opportunity to try living by myself and still not risking a wasted year of high school if I disliked it.”

Lived in the coach’s basement

Moving away from home as a 15 year old kid is sure a big step, and looking back now Victor Stjernborg himself can see that maybe he wasn’t as mature and grown up as he thought he was back then.

”Haha, no I wasn’t, but fortunately they had a good setup for me, as I could live in a small apartment in the basement of Janne Karlssons house together with Theodor Johnsson who also moved to Växjö from Malmö. So the first year we lived there and Janne made us dinner and helped out with practical things. It was a good transition on our way to living completely on our own.”

Things also seemed to click on the ice for Victor Stjernborg, who got to play with the Växjö J20 team already as a 16 year old. After turning 17 he also got to start practicing with the men’s team.

”The covid restrictions hit in mars 2020 and all practice with the juniors was cancelled so I moved back home to Malmö and trained by myseld”, Victor recalls. ”When I got back to Växjö by the summer I got to practice with the men’s team and also played a couple of pre season games which was really fun, but also really nervous”, he admits with laughter.

Victor Stjernborg in a battle in front of the net in his SHL debut against Brynäs.

A lot of first’s against Brynäs

Later that fall he also got to dress for his SHL debut against Brynäs away. It was against the very same opposition he scored his first SHL goal in january 2021.

”My line got on the ice for a faceoff in the neutral zone with 15 seconds left of the first period. We won the faceoff and managed to dump the puck in the o-zone. Fredrik Karlström won a battle against the boards and passed me the puck. I just remember shooting it, but didn’t see it go in. Since there was no crowd I heard a ring from the post and then a rassle in the net. It was a really cool feeling. It added to it that only three seconds remained of the period.”

Speaking of cool feelings, Victor Stjernborg got to experience what it is like to win the cup when Växjö beat Rögle in the finals in may 2021.

”I could never have dreamed about that. My goal coming in to that season was to have a solid season with J20 and maybe get to try a couple of SHL games. Winning with that group was so much fun and looking back now I only have positive memories from that season.”

The glamorous draft moment

The icing on the 2020/21 season cake happened in the summer, when Victor Stjernborg was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks.

”It felt really cool, being drafted by an original six team, one of the big ones. I was in Plymouth with Juniorkronorna for the Summer Showcase and the TV was on when we had lunch. I remember hearing my name when I scraped my plate so it wasn’t a very glamorous moment”, Victor says and laughs.

Up until then, Victor Stjernborgs carreer contained no setbacks. But that was all about to change in october 2021.

”It was a game against Linköping where I skated towards the boards along with Max Lindroth. Somehow I ended up sweeping his leg so he fell over me and I crashed into the boards. I felt a twinge but had so much adrenaline that I hoped it was just a sprain. Later I went to the hospital for an x-ray and they said I had a spiral fracture on the fibula.”

The first forecasts predicted a season long absence from hockey, but luckily reality was more gentle. He returned to the SHL in february and had a bitter sweet end to the season.

”I ended the season on loan with Troja/Ljungby in Hockeyallsvenskan. It was a really good group of guys, but we were in a tough spot, heading into relegation playoffs. For me personally it went really well, but obviously it sucked that we got relegated. All in all it was a valuable experience and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Troja/Ljungby as they’re playing for promotion right now.”

Born with leadership qualities

Throughout his short carreer, Victor Stjernborg has often been one of the captains on his teams. When asked about him, Växjö GM Henrik Evertsson praised his leadership qualities in the podcast Hockeypuls with hockey journalist Adam Johansson at Expressen.

”I’m a really social guy and hope I bring a positive vibe. It’s really encouraging to hear those words about me from people in the organization, it means they believe in me and that makes me relax on the ice”, Victor says.

A special moment. Victor Stjernborg has just scored the game winner against Finland.

One display of Victor Stjernborg’s leadership qualities came at the most recent World Juniors, where he captained the team that was 39 seconds away from reaching the gold medal game. Before that, Victor Stjernborg himself scored the game winner in the quarter finals against Finland, an iconic shorthanded goal.

”That goal is definately a highlight of my carreer”, he admits. ”When I scored I was so excited that I almost blacked out. I have to watch it on Youtube to remember it. Still it was a couple of minutes left so I couldn’t throw my gloves or celebrate to hard”, he says with a grin.

Will battle for the cup

Heading into this season a lot of experts raised a question mark regarding Växjö Lakers as long term coach Sam Hallam left for Tre Kronor. Those question marks have now turned into exclamation marks as his successor Jörgen Jönsson has taken the team to yet another finals, starting this Saturday.

”We’ve kept a firm belief in our system and stayed with it even if we’ve played a few bad games. We play a tight hockey and keep pushing throughout 60 minutes, that’s proven to be effective over the course of the season”, Victor says.

The last obstacle on Växjö Lakers path to glory is Skellefteå, a team Victor has a lot of respect for.

”They’re a good team and we’ve been chasing eachother in the standings in the regular season. They have been in a lot of finals the last ten years and I’ve watched them a lot when I was younger. It’s going to be extremely fun to play them and here in Växjö they have good memories from the 2015 finals against Skellefteå”, Victor Stjernborg says with a smile.