Anna Linnea Christina Kjellbin (born 16 March 1994) is a Swedish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

for the

Toronto Sceptres The Toronto Sceptres are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the six charter franchises of the league. The team plays its home games at Coca-Cola Colise ...

of the

Professional Women's Hockey League The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; , LPHF) is a women's professional ice hockey league in North America. The league comprises eight teams, four each from the United States and Canada. The teams play a Season (sports), regular season ...

(PWHL) and a member of

Sweden women's national ice hockey team The Swedish women's national ice hockey team () or Damkronorna ("the Lady Crowns" in Swedish) represents Sweden at the International Ice Hockey Federation's IIHF World Women's Championships. The women's national team is organized by the Swedish ...

. The thirteenth longest-tenured player in

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

(SDHL) history, she has won the SDHL championship twice. Kjellbin represented Sweden at the

IIHF Women's World Championship The IIHF Women's World Championship is the premier international women's tournament in ice hockey. It is governed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The official world competition was first held in 1990, with four more champions ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Playing career

Kjellbin grew up in

Mölndal Mölndal () is the seat and administrative centre of Mölndal Municipality and a part of the Gothenburg urban area on the west coast of Sweden. About 40,000 of the municipality's 60,000 inhabitants live in Mölndal proper. Geography Mölndal is l ...

, in Göteborg, and began skating at age four. As a child, she participated in various sports and games, including golf, swimming, football, and chess. From 2008 to 2010, she split her time between the Hanhals IF women's team and the U16 boys' team. In her

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

Riksserien season, 2009–10, she picked up five assists in 28 games as Hanhals finished second to last. In 2010, she signed with

Linköping HC Dam Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

, choosing the club over an offer from

HV71 Dam HV71 (abbreviated from ) are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Jönköping, in the southern Swedish province of Småland, at Husqvarna Garden. History The club was originally formed ...

. She won the Riksserien championship twice with the club in 2014 and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. In the 2015–16 season, she scored a career-high 21

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

in 36 games. She scored 6 points in 36 games in the 2018–19 season and, before the beginning of the playoffs, announced that she would take a break from hockey for personal reasons. She later revealed that she had sustained concussions in two different games, which caused She joined HV71 in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, after nine seasons with Linköping, seeking a change in environment and because her job outside of hockey was based in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat o ...

. She scored 11 points in 36 games in her first season with HV71, as the club finished in first place during the regular season and made it to the playoff finals against

Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Hockey/MSSK are a semi-professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL). They play in Luleå, a port city in northeastern Sweden, at Coop Norrbotten Arena. The team is the most successful in SDHL history, having b ...

before the season was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden The COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden is a part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , there have been confirmed cumulative cases and deaths with confirmed COVID-19 in Sw ...

. She criticized the league's decision not to award the championship to any team, despite HV71 having won the first and only completed match of the finals, stating that: "Considering the season we had, it feels very empty." She returned to HV71 for the 2020–21 season and was the team's third highest scoring defenseman in the regular season. In June 2021, Kjellbin signed with Luleå HF/MSSK for the 2021–22 SDHL season +1. On 10 June 2024, she was drafted in the sixth round, 35th overall, by

PWHL Montreal The Montreal Victoire () are a professional ice hockey team based in the Greater Montreal area that competes in the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). They are one of the six charter franchises of the league. The team plays its home game ...

in the 2024 PWHL draft. After 18 games with Montreal, she was traded to the

on 13 March 2025, in exchange for Kaitlin Willoughby.

International play

Kjellbin was a member of the Swedish national under-18 ice hockey team at the

2011 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship The 2011 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship was the fourth junior female world ice hockey championships. It was held from 1 January through 8 January 2011, in Stockholm, Sweden. The championship was the Under-18 junior ice hockey edition of the ...

, getting two assists in five games. She represented Sweden again at the

2012 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship The 2012 U18 IIHF Women's World Championship was the fifth IIHF U18 Women's World Championship and was hosted in Zlín and Přerov, Czech Republic. It began on 31 December 2011 with the gold medal game played on 7 January 2012. Canada won the t ...

, getting four points in six games as Sweden won bronze and scoring her first international hat-trick in their group stage match against Russia after being selected to take a penalty shot. She won a gold medal with Sweden at the

2012 Winter Youth Olympics The 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games (), officially known as the I Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG), were an international multi-sport event for youths that took place in Innsbruck, Austria, on 13–22 January 2012. They were the inaugural Wint ...

. Kjellbin represented Sweden at the 2016 and 2017 IIHF Women's World Championships.

Personal life

Outside of hockey, she works as Director of Customer Project Management for Senion, an indoor GPS technology company based in Linköping. She is engaged to Finnish national team defenceman

Ronja Savolainen Ronja Savolainen (born 29 November 1997) is a Finnish ice hockey defenceman for the Ottawa Charge of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and member of the Finnish national ice hockey team. She was drafted eighth overall by the Charge i ...

. Her father, Magnus, played ice hockey professionally in the Swedish

Hockeytvåan Hockeytvåan is the fourth tier of ice hockey in Sweden. It previously operated as the second-level league from 1941 to 1975, and the third-level league from 1975 to 1999. Format The league is divided into 11 regional groups. The top teams in D ...

in the 1970s.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kjellbin, Anna 1994 births Living people Ice hockey people from Gothenburg Swedish women's ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey players at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics Youth Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Linköping HC (women) players HV71 (women) players LGBTQ ice hockey players Swedish lesbian sportswomen Luleå HF/MSSK players 21st-century Swedish LGBTQ people Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics 21st-century Swedish sportswomen