Jacob Nilsson (born 12 October 1993) is a Swedish professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) 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. In ice hockey, two o ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

currently playing for

EHC Visp EHC Visp is a Swiss professional ice hockey team based in Visp and competing in the Swiss League (SL). The club was founded in 1939 and became Swiss champion in 1962. Visp has also won the league title in NLB three times; 1960, 2011 and 2014. T ...

in the

Swiss League The Swiss League is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League. The winners of the league each season plays a best-of-seven series against the bottom team of the NL, and if they win, t ...

in Switzerland.

Playing career

Nilsson made his Swedish Hockey League (SHL) debut during the 2017–18 season, playing in 40 games for

Mora IK Mora IK (or Mora Ishockeyklubb) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Mora in northern Dalarna. After failing the 2019 SHL qualifiers, Mora has been relegated for play in the second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan. Mora has previously pl ...

. He made his SHL debut and recorded his first SHL goal on 19 October 2017 against

Frölunda HC Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where ...

. On 25 February, Nilsson was fined 13,000

Swedish krona The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it ...

and suspended three games due to an altercation with

Rögle BK Rögle BK (Rögle Bandyklubb) is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Ängelholm that has been playing in the SHL since the 2015–16 season. Rögle has previously played in the SHL (previously named Elitserien) in 1992–1996, 2008–201 ...

player Linus Sandin. On 23 April, Nilsson was named to Sweden's National Team to compete at the

2018 Sweden Hockey Games The 2018 Sweden Hockey Games was played between 26 and 29 April 2018. The Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team, Czech Republic, Finland men's national ice hockey team, Finland, Sweden men's national ice hockey team, Sweden and Russia men's ...

, but was not selected for the

2018 IIHF World Championship The 2018 IIHF World Championship was an international ice hockey tournament hosted by the Danish cities of Copenhagen and Herning, held from 4–20 May 2018. The IIHF announced the winning bid on 23 May 2014 in Minsk, Belarus. South Korea made ...

. However, due to his success in the SHL and with the Swedish national team, Nilsson created interest from both the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

in North America and the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs b ...

. On 31 May 2018, as a free agent, the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

of the

signed Nilsson to a one-year contract. Nilsson then moved to North American to join the Blackhawks organization. While attending the Blackhawks training camp, Nilsson was assigned to their

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

affiliate, the

Rockford IceHogs The Rockford IceHogs are a professional ice hockey team based in Rockford, Illinois. They are members of the American Hockey League (AHL), having begun play in the League starting in the 2007–08 season. The team plays their home games at the ...

, on 21 September. After playing 31 games for the IceHogs, and earning 14 points, Nilsson was called up to the NHL for the first time on 22 December. He made his NHL debut the following day in a 6–3 loss to the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and initially played their home game ...

. On 19 April 2019, the Blackhawks signed Nilsson to a one-year contract extension. He was subsequently assigned to the Rockford IceHogs and named an assistant captain alongside

Matthew Highmore Matthew Highmore (born February 27, 1996) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player, currently playing with the Belleville Senators in the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League ( ...

and Tyler Sikura. In the 2019–20 season, Nilsson compiled 7 goals and 21 points in 62 regular season contests before the season was cancelled due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. As an impending restricted free agent with the Blackhawks, Nilsson opted to return to Sweden in agreeing to a two-year contract with Färjestad BK of the SHL on 26 April 2020.

Career statistics

References

External links

* 1993 births Living people Chicago Blackhawks players Frölunda HC players Färjestad BK players Mora IK players Rockford IceHogs (AHL) players Swedish ice hockey centres Ice hockey people from Stockholm Tingsryds AIF players Undrafted National Hockey League players {{Sweden-icehockey-centre-stub