The wizard from Nor eludes the experts

Thomas Fröberg is one of the reasons why the tips about Oskarshamn have been wrong for four years now.

It’s a bit like the bumblebee can’t really fly. That a club from a municipality with 27,000 inhabitants and the series’ smallest home arena (3,275 in audience capacity) plays in the SHL should not be possible.

Thomas Fröberg, who came in in the middle of the first SHL season, is one of the keys to making the impossible possible.

You would think that Oskarshamn’s sporting director is constantly walking around with a magic wand in his pocket.

For the 56-year-old Värmlander from Nor, a signing never seems to fail.

Instead, it usually ends up being a huge success.

As with Patrik Karlkvist, Antti Suomela (named the SHL’s best player last year), Fredrik Olofsson and Tyler Kelleher.

Of course, it’s not all Fröberg’s merit, the successful coach Martin Filander obviously has a big part to play.

Want to get better

Last year, Oskarshamn finished seventh in the regular season – the best position so far. However, the playoffs were a setback with an exit in the round of 16, compared to the quarterfinals the season before.

TT: What is the goal this year?

— We always want to get better, that’s the goal every day. We want that this year too, says Fröberg.

In that case, it would mean that Oskarshamn will be top six in the regular season.

Fröberg snorts a little when he is asked what he thinks about his team being tipped for defeat despite them constantly proving the opposite.

— It was like when we got complaints on our backside when we started here and I thought it was good. Then I stopped reading and listening to podcasts, says Fröberg.

Oskarshamn’s coach Martin Filander.

He and Martin Filander always go through planned new additions together.

— We might look at the players in a different way. Most of the time it’s me who picks out the names, then it’s Filander too, he’s passionate about everything. Then we both look and we have disagreed many times and then we don’t take the player, says Fröberg.

Little mistake

Recruiting a player to Oskarshamn is a challenge. The Småland city is remote, the arena is small and worn, and thus the financial resources are not infinite.

— In a sense, everything is a little wrong. The arena sucks. But it’s a lot that the rumor spreads, we have good coaches, good physic and a good system. I think we have been involved in training players so that they become better, they take steps and it spreads in Europe, says Fröberg.

TT: Has it gotten easier over the years?

— Yes, of course. Now that we brought in (Dalibor) Dvorsky, he believes that we have good coaches. We might not have been there otherwise, he says of the 18-year-old Slovak talent from AIK who is on loan from the NHL club St Louis.

“At the same time, it is always the salary envelope that applies in the end when it is a good and established player,” adds Fröberg.

Biggest signing

That tough national team defender and own product Oscar Engsund, 30, is now returning home from Luleå and has signed a five-year contract says something about where Oskarshamn is in the hierarchy ahead of his fifth season in the SHL.

“It’s one of the biggest signings we’ve made, he’s a leader, he’s good on the ice, he’s good at everything,” says Fröberg.

Oskarshamn successful forward Patrik Karlkvist. Archive image

When TT asks Fröberg to name his three best signings in Oskarshamn, we get four names.

— Suomela (who moved to Lausanne) can’t be removed, Karlkvist of course, and someone who came almost out of nowhere is Ahti Oksanen. He came from the Czech league and entered the SHL like a whirlwind. That’s the entire first chain (of last season). Then I also want to say Max Veronneau (now in Leksand), says Fröberg.