Hardy Nilsson (born 23 June 1947) is a Swedish retired

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 ...

player and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

. During his playing career he mainly played for

Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå AIK is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Skellefteå. They currently play In the Swedish Hockey League. They play their home games in Skellefteå Kraft Arena, which seats 6,001 spectators. The team has won the Swedish Ch ...

where he won the Swedish championships in 1978. In 1978 Nilsson moved to the German team

Kölner Haie The Kölner Haie (English: ''Cologne Sharks'') are an ice hockey club based in Cologne, Germany, that plays in the professional Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). The team was one of the founding members of the DEL. The ''Kölner Haie'' play their ho ...

where he was very successful, scoring 21 goals and 102 points in 45 games. He ended his playing career in

Örebro IK Örebro IK was an ice hockey team from Örebro, Sweden that was founded in 1972.Eliteprospects.comÖrebro IK Retrieved 2013-07-04. The team filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated in 1999, after many years of playing elite-level hockey. Today, Ör ...

Coaching career

Nilsson started his coaching career in 1982 in

Bofors IK BIK Karlskoga is a Swedish ice hockey club based in Karlskoga, Sweden. They are currently playing in the second highest league in Sweden, the HockeyAllsvenskan. In 1963, the club IFK Bofors was merged with Karlskoga IF and formed KB 63 (formally IF ...

before moving on to

Modo Hockey Modo Hockey (or MoDo with uppercase letters) is a professional ice hockey club in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The team currently plays in Sweden's second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan after losing to HV71 after the play out following the 2024/25 se ...

which he coached for two seasons. He moved on to his former team

for the 1985-86 season winning three German championships in a row 1986–88. He coached the team to third place in the 1989 European cup and runners-up in the bundesliga in 1991 before leaving Kölner in 1992. Nilsson stayed in Germany to coach

EC Hedos München EC or ec may refer to: Arts and entertainment * EC Comics, an American publisher of comic books * ''Electric Circus'', a Canadian television program * Eric Clapton Stratocaster, signature model guitars by Fender Businesses and organisations Gove ...

. He led the team to become German champions during the 1993–94 season. Nilsson began his international coaching career when he coached Team Switzerland for one season. He coached another German team,

Düsseldorfer EG Düsseldorfer Eislauf-Gemeinschaft or Düsseldorfer EG (short DEG) is a German professional ice hockey team in Düsseldorf. It was Germany's most successful hockey club for a long time and had many international players. The famous Eisstadion at th ...

which he led to win the German championship in 1996. He then took a break from hockey until 1999 when he signed on for

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

for two seasons. Both seasons ended with Djurgården being Swedish champions. During the time he coached Djurgården, he implemented the torpedo hockey system. While coaching Djurgården, Nilsson was also head coach for Team Sweden, a position he kept until 2004. He moved to Austria to coach

EC Salzburg EC Red Bull Salzburg is a professional ice hockey team based in Salzburg, Austria, that plays in the ICE Hockey League. The club plays their home games at the Eisarena Salzburg. History In their first season, 1977–78, HC Salzburg took third p ...

in 2005. His contract ended in 2009 and he returned to Djurgården on May 1. He worked for Djurgården for another three years and left the club in January 2012 after three Swedish Championships with them as a coach.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Hardy 1947 births Living people Skellefteå AIK players Ice hockey people from Skellefteå Sweden men's national ice hockey team coaches Swedish ice hockey coaches Swedish ice hockey forwards Swedish expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Austria Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Djurgårdens IF (men's hockey) coaches Swedish Hockey League coaches Expatriate sports coaches