It was an intense few hours before the deadline for transfers in NHL ice hockey on Friday evening, Swedish time.
There has long been speculation that John Klingberg, double WC gold medalist with Tre Kronor, would be replaced.
Klingberg had to leave Dallas after last season and signed a one-year contract, worth just over SEK 73 million.
But it hasn’t gone well for Anaheim or Klingberg – 8 goals and 24 points in 50 games – and a move to a better team finally happened.
Minnesota, second in the Central division, thus receives a back reinforcement before the final match of the regular season and a presumed playoff.
Minnesota sends guard Andrej Sustr and center Nikita Nesterenko and a fourth-round draft pick in the 2025 draft to Anaheim for Klingberg.
Minnesota has changed a lot of Swedes recently.
The club also signed two-time Stanley Cup winner Oskar Sundqvist, Detroit, and earlier this week Gustav Nyquist, Columbus, and Marcus Johansson, Washington.
From before, there is also the goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson, the defender Jonas Brodin and the center Joel Eriksson Ek.
However, superback Erik Karlsson will remain in bottom team San Jose. His sky-high salary, SEK 120 million per season, obviously made it impossible for any top club to fit him under the salary cap.
Other Swedes who are allowed to change clubs in the NHL:
+ Two forwards who played WC for Tre Kronor last year are allowed to move. Rasmus Asplund is traded from Buffalo to Nashville and Jacob Peterson has to leave the top team Dallas for the bottom team San Jose.
+ Anton Blidh trades Stanley Cup champion Colorado for the New York Rangers and Gustav Rydahl goes in the opposite direction. Both players have mostly played in their clubs’ farm teams.