Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish

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 ...

team from the town of Leksand in the region of

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norway i ...

. The team plays in the top-tier league, SHL, after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus earning promotion to the SHL. The club's home arena is

Tegera Arena Tegera Arena is an arena in Leksand, Sweden primarily used for ice hockey. It was opened in October 2005, and is the home arena of Leksands IF. It holds 7,650 people. History Construction of a new arena, replacing the former Leksands ishall ...

, which seats 7,650 spectators.

History

The club was formed on 13 August 1919, originally playing

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

and ski competitions. In 1920 they also took up football. The first hockey game was played in 1938, when they beat Mora IK 11–0, and this sport is now the only sport the club competes in. Despite the fact that the town of Leksand only has 6,000 inhabitants, Leksands IF is one of the most popular teams in Sweden, and the team averages over 4,000 spectators per game in their home arena despite playing in the second tier. Leksand played in the top hockey division in Sweden from 1951 until 2001. The club was very successful between 1969 and 1975, when they became Swedish champions four times ( 1969,

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

–

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

). Before the current top division, Elitserien (now known as the SHL), was formed prior to the 1975–76 season, they had been the runners-up four times:

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

and 1972. Leksand has never become SHL champions despite winning the SHL's regular season in 1980,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, and being the runners-up in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

. In 2001, they were the club with the second most consecutive seasons in the highest division at that point (the record is held by

Södertälje SK Södertälje Sportklubb, also known as Södertälje SK and often referred to as SSK, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club playing in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest level of pro hockey in Sweden. Södertälje were charter members of El ...

, with 53 consecutive seasons between 1925 and 1978). Following the relegation to

HockeyAllsvenskan HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the second-highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system (after the SHL). Since the 2009–10 season, the league consists of fourteen teams ...

in April 2001, Leksand commuted between the top and second divisions until 2005–06, when the team was relegated to the second tier again, where they would find themselves until the 2012–13 season. Mora IK vs Leksand in Stockholm 2013-01-05 05

Mora IK vs Leksand in Stockholm 2013-01-05 05

For the 2007–08 season, Leksand signed former

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

goaltender Ed Belfour in an attempt to regain top league status. After winning the second league with relative ease, the team failed in the final qualification stage, Kvalserien, to gain promotion. Ed Belfour retired after the 2007–08 season. Leksand once again won Allsvenskan in the 2008–09 season, but once again failed to qualify for the Elitserien in the

2009 Kvalserien The 2009 Kvalserien was the 35th Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien, played between 13 March and 9 April 2009. The 2009 Kvalserien included six teams. In this year's Kvalserien, Södertälje and Rögle, who both came from Elitserien, qualifie ...

. The managers Thomas Kempe and

Thomas Jonsson Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas th ...

were sacked following three straight defeats in the beginning of the Kvalserien. The team finished the 2009 Kvalserien with five wins in the last six games, but still failed to qualify. For the 2009–10 season, Leksand employed Leif Strömberg, who had previously successfully guided

through Kvalserien. The team once again won Allsvenskan and qualified for the

2010 Kvalserien The 2010 Kvalserien was the 36th Kvalserien, played between 21 March and 11 April 2010. Södertälje and AIK, who finished 1st and 2nd respectively, qualified for the 2010–11 Elitserien season. Rögle were relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan. This ...

, finishing three points ahead of AIK. In the ninth round of the 2010 Kvalserien, Leksand had a good chance to put them in the driver's seat for promotion to Elitserien, but Leksand failed to beat the Kvalserien's worst ranked team

Växjö Lakers Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often referred to as the Växjö Lakers or VLH) is a Swedish ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. The club plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, a ...

and, despite a win in the tenth and final round, Leksand missed Elitserien as both AIK and Rögle BK won their respective games in the final round. After failing promotion, Leif Strömberg was replaced by ex-Leksand forward

Niklas Eriksson Niklas Urban Eriksson (born February 17, 1969) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player, continuing as an ice hockey coach. He won a gold medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Eriksson played most of his years in Leksands IF, and has ...

, under whom the following season Leksand attempted to reach the Kvalserien for the seventh consecutive season. The team finished fourth in Allsvenskan and missed automatic qualification for the Kvalserien and had to play in a pre-qualification series to reach the Kvalserien, but Leksand finished third and missed the Kvalserien. Before the 2011/12 season, assistant head coach Christer Olsson took over the reins, but was sacked following a defeat at

Sundsvall Hockey IF Sundsvall Hockey is a Swedish ice hockey club based in Sundsvall. The club currently competes in Hockeyettan, the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden. Sundsvall plays their home matches at Gärdehov, with a capacity of 2,500. History The cl ...

in late November and replaced by

Andreas Appelgren Andreas Appelgren (born July 23, 1967) is a Swedish ice hockey coach. He is currently the head coach for Leksands IF of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Appelgren joined the Leksands IF organization with the 2011–12 season as an assistant coa ...

. After winning the regular season in the 2012–13 season, Leksand once again qualified for play in Kvalserien. In the

2013 Kvalserien The 2013 Kvalserien was the 39th Kvalserien, consisting of two Elitserien (SHL) teams and four HockeyAllsvenskan teams. It began on 14 March 2013 and ended on 5 April 2013. The 2013 Kvalserien determined which two teams of the participating ones wo ...

, Leksand finally promoted back to the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-tier league, for the first time since the 2005–06 season.

Season-by-season record

''This is a partial list, featuring the five most recent completed seasons. For a more complete list, see List of Leksands IF seasons.''

Players and personnel

Current roster

Retired numbers

Åke Lassas Åke Erik Lassas (21 August 1924 – 16 April 2009) was a Swedish ice hockey player. He competed at the 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics and finished in third and fourth place, respectively. He played club hockey for Leksands IF and won the inaugur ...

*18 Jonas Bergqvist

Honored numbers

Christer Abris Kurt Christer Abrahamsson (born 8 April 1947), also known as Christer Abris, is a Swedish former ice hockey goaltender and coach. Abrahamsson played for Leksands IF in two stints (1965–1974 and 1977–1982) winning the Swedish championship i ...

Tomas Jonsson Alf Tomas Jonsson (born 12 April 1960) is a former ice hockey player from Sweden. He is assistant coach for the Danish national ice hockey team. Jonsson was drafted by the New York Islanders in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft in the ...

*3 Vilgot Larsson *6 Thommy Abrahamsson *8 Magnus Svensson *12 Mats Åhlberg *15

Dan Söderström Dan Söderström (born 5 April 1948) is a Swedish retired pr