According to several media reports, Rikard Grönborg is becoming the new head coach of Tappara. Grönborg’s current employer, Zurich Lions, confirmed that the Swede will be moving elsewhere. Tappara does not confirm his arrival.
According to several media, the reigning ice hockey SM league champion Tampere Tappara has acquired a Swede as its head coach next season Rikard Grönborgin.
He was the first to tell about the future head coach of Tappara Iltalehti (you switch to another service). In Switzerland, based on its own information, Grönborg’s Tappara contract was first published by a newspaper Blick (you switch to another service). Several Finnish and Swedish media have since reported on Grönborg’s future contract.
The Swedish coach commented For Aftonbladet t (you switch to another service)e-mail Iltalehti’s news.
– I have nothing else to say other than that I have a valid contract here in Zurich and I intend to honor it, Grönborg said according to the Swedish newspaper.
Grönborg has spent the last few years in Switzerland, where he has coached the Zurich Lions, who play in the country’s premier league, since the 2019–20 season.
Zürich, on the other hand, announced on Wednesday that its head coach had received an offer from another ice hockey club and that he had accepted it. The club says that it discussed the extension contract with Grönborg openly, but in mid-October he said that he received a contract offer from “another club”.
Tappara, on the other hand, does not confirm that he had signed a contract with Grönborg.
– In accordance with our general policy, we do not comment on rumours. We will announce the 2023–24 team and coaching after the end of the current season, CEO of Tappara Mika Aro tells Urheilu.
Tapparaa is currently being coached Jussi Tapolawhich previously confirmed (you are switching to another service) that he will give up his duties as head coach at the end of the season.
The Swedish coach would be a top-class takeover from the Tampere club. In recent years, Grönborg has closely belonged to the group of few European coaches who have been strongly rumored to be the head coaches of NHL clubs. Grönborg has both Swedish and American citizenship.
Grönborg’s credit list includes two world championships as Sweden’s head coach in 2017 and 2018, as well as youth World Cup gold in 2012.
A foreign coach would certainly have a lot of pressure to match the traditional Finnish long-term success. Sports expert Top Nättinen however, believes that the situation can be even easier for a foreign coach than for a Finnish one.
– He has certainly found out the background and knows which club it is. It may even be easier for a foreigner to come to Tappara, however, he does not have all the knowledge and history that a Finnish coach would have.
Expectations for Grönborg would certainly be high when it comes to a two-time world champion coach.
– Grönborg has been the head coach of the Swedish national team. The pressure doesn’t get much stronger than that. He has been one of the best paid coaches in Switzerland, so surely the pressure has been dealt with. I think he would take the pressure as a challenge and an opportunity and enjoy it.
According to Nättinen Antti Pennanen after moving to the neighboring Ilves, it would also have been difficult to find a suitable Finnish coach for the position. Nättinen considers Grönborg to be a modern coach with high standards in the sense that small things are taken care of and the mental side is important. The way of playing may be different from what Tappara is used to, but the “Tappara core” would remain, believes Nättinen.
The Swedish head coach would also be an exception in many ways in the Finnish hockey league. There hasn’t been a single foreign head coach in the SM League for more than ten years. Most recently in the SM league, you were the head coach of the Jokers Glen Hanlon in the 2008–09 season. Before Hanlon, in the 2000s, the SM league was coached by foreigners Paul Baxter, Doug Shedden, Bob Francis, Curt Lindstrom and Vaclav Sykora.
It may sound surprising that foreign head coaches have not been seen in the league for such a long time.
– The short answer is that it shows that Finnish coaching is of high quality. On the other hand, the league’s appeal has not been terribly strong in the 2010s. The KHL took the top European coaches because of the money, Nättinen stated.
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