Per-Erik "Pelle" Eklund (born 22 March 1963) is a Swedish former 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 ...

winger. He played nine seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) with the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

and

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The Stars ...

from 1985 to 1994 and nine seasons in the Swedish

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 ...

(SEL) with AIK and

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, Swedish Hockey League (SHL), after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus ...

from 1981 to 1985 and 1994 to 1999. Internationally Eklund played for the Swedish national team at several

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, winning gold in

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and silver in both

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, and the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian language, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, Serbian Cyrillic: ; ) and commonly known as Sarajevo '84 (Serbian Cy ...

, winning a bronze medal.

Playing career

Eklund played as a Bantam for Stocksund in team 63 where he was the captain of the team. Eklund played for AIK of the Elitserien between 1981 and 1985, winning the league championship in 1984. He won the Golden Puck as Sweden's top player in 1984 at the age of 21. He came to the NHL in 1985, joining the

who had selected him 161st overall in the

1983 NHL Entry Draft The 1983 NHL entry draft was the 21st NHL entry draft. It was held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec, on June 8, 1983. The NHL entry draft is the primary means by which players arrive in the National Hockey League. The St. Louis Blues ...

. He led all rookies in assists with 51 and finishing third in overall rookie scoring (behind Kjell Dahlin and

Gary Suter Gary Lee Suter (born June 24, 1964) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1985 and 2002. He was a ninth round selection of the Calgary Flames, 180th ove ...

) in the 1985–86 season. Over the next nine seasons, Eklund topped the 50 assist mark on three occasions. In the 1987 playoffs, he helped carry Philadelphia to the

1987 Stanley Cup Finals The 1987 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) , and the culmination of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Edmonton Oilers and the Philadelphia Flyers in a rematch of the Final ...

, as his 27 points were fourth in overall scoring and his 20 assists were second to only

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

. Eklund recorded only one goal and 18 points in 48 games for the Flyers during 1993–94 season. At the trade deadline, he was dealt to the

, where he had a brief stint to finish his NHL career. Eklund then returned to Sweden to play for

for the 1994–95 season. He led the SEL in assists and points and was named league MVP. He played four more seasons for Leksand before retiring in 1999 at age 36. In 2005–2006, he served as an assistant coach for Leksand. He served as a scout for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

until fired on 31 May 2010. Currently he is an amateur scout with the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

International

Eklund played 126 international games for the Swedish national team. He played in six

and was on the gold medal Swedish team of 1991. He played in the

on the bronze medal team and in the

1984 Canada Cup The 1984 Labatt Canada Cup was a professional international ice hockey tournament played during the first three weeks of September 1984. The best-of-three final took place between Canada and Sweden, with Canada winning a two game sweep. Canadia ...

, in which Sweden made the finals. He was also on the European Championships gold-medal team in 1990.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards

* Guldpucken Award ( Golden Puck) as Sweden's player of the year in 1983–84 * Guldhjalmen Award ( Golden Helmet) as the Most Valuable Player in the Elitserien in 1994–95 * 1984 Elitserien All-Star Team * Top scorer in 1984 Elitserien playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eklund, Pelle 1963 births Living people AIK IF players Dallas Stars players Edmonton Oilers scouts Ice hockey people from Stockholm County Ice hockey players at the 1984 Winter Olympics Leksands IF players Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Montreal Canadiens scouts Olympic bronze medalists for Sweden Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Olympic medalists in ice hockey Sportspeople from Solna Municipality Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Philadelphia Flyers players Seattle Kraken scouts Swedish ice hockey forwards