Danish winger Joachim Blichfeld has moved from the Växjö Lakers to rival SHL club Rögle BK, the latter club announced on Thursday.
Blichfield had 16 points in 37 games for Växjö this season, but he’d had one point in his last eight games and seen his ice time decline. The club parted ways with him on the same day it signed Marcus Sylvegård.
“We are very happy to bring Joachim here,” said Rögle sports director Hampus Sjöström. “He is a player who has his strengths on offense with a really good shot and a knack for scoring goals. We see that he has qualities that we can benefit greatly from for the rest of the season.”
Blichfeld becomes useful to Rögle as the team is suffering from a rash of injuries, and his signing comes on the same day it was announced that winger Carter Ashton is out for the rest of the season.
Originally from Fredriksavn, Denmark, Blichfeld went where a lot of young Danes go for hockey - Malmö, Sweden, just across the Øresund Strait from Copenhagen. In 2016, Blichfeld was taken in the seventh round, 210th overall, by the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Entry Draft. That same year, he went to North America to play junior hockey for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, where he spent three seasons. In 2018-19, Blichfeld was the WHL’s MVP and scoring champion with 114 points.
Over the next two seasons, Blichfeld played eight NHL games for San Jose, scoring one goal and tallying 14 penalty minutes. He spent most of the time for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
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Blichfeld returned to Sweden in 2022, when he first joined the Lakers and was part of their SHL championship season. In two and a half seasons in Växjö, he tallied 80 points in 163 regular-season and playoff games.
Internationally, Blichfeld has represented Denmark at the 2022 and 2024 IIHF World Championships.
Blichfeld is expected to play for Rögle in Thursday’s home game against the Malmö Redhawks.