Paul Eriksson (born April 26, 1991) is a retired

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

professional

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. He played in a number of leagues throughout his career, including the

Elitserien Elitserien (literally, "the Elite League") is the name of several Swedish nationwide sport leagues. In many sports, Elitserien is the highest league, with the second highest named Allsvenskan. Elitserien leagues at present: * Elitserien (badmint ...

Mestis Mestis (from , meaning 'Championship series', stylized as MEST1S) is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division ...

, and the MHL. Since his retirement in 2017, he has been coaching youth hockey.

Early life

Eriksson was born in Gävle, Sweden in 1991. He has a sister. He is half Russian and his father works for

Scania AB Scania AB ( , ), stylised SCANIA in its products, is a major Sweden, Swedish manufacturer headquartered in Södertälje, focusing on commercial vehicles—specifically heavy lorries, trucks and buses. It also manufactures diesel engines for hea ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Youth teams

Eriksson played in the U16 SM (2006—2007), the

J18 Elit The J18 Region, formerly called J18 Elit until 2020, is the highest level of under-18 ice hockey in Sweden. The league was first played in the 1980 season. Färjestad BK has won the most league titles, with seven. At Christmas, the five best team ...

(2006—2008), and the J18 Allsvenskan (2006—2008) for

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, , is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum Skansen, the small resident ...

before transferring to

Södertälje Södertälje ( , ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. It is also a part of Stockholm urban area, Greater Stockholm Metropolitan Area. As of 2020, it has 73,872 inhabitants. Södert� ...

(SSK) and playing in the J18 Elit (2008—2009), J18 Allsvenskan (2008—2009), and

J20 SuperElit J20 Nationell is a junior ice hockey league composed of 20 teams in Sweden. Previously known as the J20 SuperElit, it is the highest-level junior ice hockey league in Sweden. The teams are divided in two groups, or divisions, ''Norra'' (North) ...

(2008—2010). He also played in the J20 SuperElit for Björklöven (2009—2010) and for

Timrå Timrå () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Timrå Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 10,443 inhabitants in 2010. It is located about 13 km north of Sundsvall (a town with a metropolitan area of some 100,00 ...

(2010—2011) before going pro.

Career

Eriksson played in Division 1 for

Lycksele Lycksele (; ; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Lycksele Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland (Sweden), Lapland, Sweden with 8,513 inhabitants in 2010. History Until the 1600s there were no settled ...

during the 2009—2010 season, then in the

for Timrå during 2010-2011. Timrå placed him on loan to Division 1 team

Kovlands IF Kovlands IF is a Swedish football club located in Kovland. Background Kovlands IF currently plays in Division 4 Medelpad which is the sixth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Ånäsvallen in Kovland. The club is affil ...

for the rest of the season. From there, he transferred into the Finnish

league to play for TUTO ( 2011—2012). He moved to Russia to play in the MHL for Olimpiya during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons. He also competed with the Mestis team

HC Keski-Uusimaa HC Keski-Uusimaa known as HCK is a Finnish ice hockey team based in Kerava, Finland. The team was founded in 2008 and began play in the Suomi-sarja, the third level of hockey in Finland, before being promoted to the Mestis for the 2012–13 se ...

during 2012—2013. He was placed on loan to

Hunters Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

in the

Suomi-sarja The Suomi-sarja is Finland's third highest ice hockey league. Suomi-sarja has 14 teams. Suomi-sarja has been played since the 1999–2000 season. Prior to this, Finland's third league had been Division II since 1975 and before that the Provi ...

during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. He started out the 2013—2014 season playing for the VHL team Izhstal after being scouted at an all-star game. In early 2014, a new coach joined the team and reduced Eriksson's playing time. The club went bankrupt following the season. For the 2014—2015 season, he joined

Arystan Temirtau Arystan Hockey Club (, ''Arystan hokkeı klýby''), commonly referred to as Arystan Temirtau, was a professional ice hockey team based in Temirtau, Kazakhstan. They were founded in 2010, and played in the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship until they ...

in the

Kazakhstan Hockey Championship The Pro Hokei Ligasy, commonly referred to as ''Kazakhstan Hockey Championship'', is the highest level of ice hockey in Kazakhstan. Founded in 1992, eleven teams from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan compete to win the Kazakhstan Hockey Cup. Teams ...

, where he competed in the

Kazakhstan Hockey Cup The Kazakhstan Hockey Cup is the national ice hockey cup in Kazakhstan awarded to the winner of the Kazakhstan Hockey Championship playoffs. The trophy was first awarded in 2002. Kazzinc-Torpedo and Arlan Kokshetau have won the most cups with four ...

. He also played

junior hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from t ...

for

Glazov Glazov ( rus, Глазов, p=ˈɡlazəf; ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Udmurt Republic, Russia, located along the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the Cheptsa River. Population: History It was first mentioned in the 17t ...

. During the 2015—2016 season, he returned to

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

team SSK, where he played youth hockey, on a tryout contract before being offered a more permanent position on the team. He played 43 games and scored 8 points. Eriksson signed with

Valbo Valbo is a locality situated in Gävle Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 7,065 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated south-west of Gävle itself and could be considered a suburb of the city. Valbo is known for the large shopping mall Val ...

for the 2016—2017 season, which was planned as his last.

Coaching career

Eriksson was the assistant coach of the Brynäs U16 team in the U16 Elit league in 2017—2018 and was the head coach for

Strömsbro IF Strömsbro IF is a Swedish sports club located in Gävle. Background Strömsbro IF currently plays football in Division 4 Gestrikland which is the sixth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Testebovallens IP in Gävle. T ...

in 2021—2022.

Personal life

Eriksson married his Russian girlfriend Maria on ice during an SSK training session in 2015. After retiring from professional hockey, he attended the

Gävle University College University of Gävle () is a University college (Scandinavia), university college (''högskola'') located in Gävle, Sweden. It uses the name "University of Gävle" in English, although it is officially a 'University College'. The university wa ...

and earned a degree in

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their Enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering uti ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eriksson, Paul 1991 births Living people Timrå IK players Swedish ice hockey defencemen 21st-century Swedish sportsmen TuTo players Ice hockey people from Gävle HC Izhstal players Arystan Temirtau players Södertälje SK players Swedish ice hockey coaches