Stockholm’s SDE made big moves in the off season in preparation for the 2025-26 SDHL campaign.
Head coach Peter Elander has now had the opportunity to build a roster that fits his playing style. Elander, fans remember, took the SDE reins weeks into the 2024-25 season, inheriting a team that he had no hand in selecting. After scores of personnel changes and a reportedly intense and physically punishing training camp, a rejigged team that aims to establish itself among the SDHL’s best has emerged.
First, the subtractions. Gone are defenders Lotti Odnoga (signed with Skellefteå), Madison Bizal, Alex Cservjacsenko (Merrimack, NCAA), Michelle Löwenhielm (Färjestad), and Dominique Kremer (retired). Emma Bergesen signed with the Ottawa Charge over the summer, and has elected to play with HV71 in the weeks prior to her first PWHL training camp. German forward Emily Nix signed with Frölunda, Mimmi Gill left to greener pastures (or perhaps whiter, snowier pastures) in Luleå, and Liliane Perreault has set off for parts as yet unknown. In all, seven of last season’s top 12 scorers are no longer with the team.
While the departures are many, Elander’s off season additions appear, at least in these early stages of the season, to have made the team stronger, more cohesive, and harder to play against. Veteran Swedish blueliner Josefine Holmgren returns home after a two year sojourn in the Swiss A league. While she’s unlikely to score at the pace she did in Switzerland (51 points in 52 games) she is an experienced shut down D who can play big minutes. Hulking Stockholm native Alva Johnsson is back in the capital after a collegiate career split between Long Island University and Penn State, and a 2024-25 season where she served as an assistant captain on the Frölunda blue line.
At forward, Sam Cogan, a University of Wisconsin grad who played parts of two seasons with PWHL Toronto, brings grit, determination, and a scoring touch. Indeed, that touch was on display on opening night, when she put up a hat trick in SDE’s 6-1 drubbing of Djurgården. Another new addition, right handed centre Gabrielle David, put up 149 points in 135 games for the NCAA’s Clarkson University after a stellar CEGEP career at Limoilou. She’ll be itching to light the lamp again after making limited appearances for the Montreal Victoire last season. Returning captain Mathea Fischer looks poised for a big year – though she missed much of 2024-25 due to injury, she played some of the best hockey of her career late last season, and is off to a great start with three points in two games to open 2025-26. Meanwhile, emerging Czech talent Tereza Pistēková, who signed with SDE over the summer, could just as easily flourish as flounder under a demanding coach like Elander.
SDE’s ace is returner and fan favorite Lisa Johansson. Her game is reminiscent of that of the NHL’s best rat, two-time Stanley Cup champion Brad Marchand. Like Marchand, Johansson plays bigger than her frame and has a distinctive, hunched over skating style. She is clever, hard hitting, tenacious, deceptive, backchecks like a bat out of hell and has registered more than 20 points in eleven straight SDHL seasons. Surrounded by like-minded players, she could put up 15 goals and 20 assists while also being among the team leaders in blocked shots.
SDE’s goaltending has been upgraded as well. Returnees Kassidy Sauvé and Lovisa Berndtsson are joined by Emma Söderberg, who is back in Sweden after a strong college career at Minnesota-Duluth and parts of two seasons with the Boston PWHL franchise. Söderberg will be looking to reestablish herself as a number one goalie after seeing limited playing time with the Fleet. Sauvé, however, won’t likely accept the backup role without a fight – she put up great numbers (.940 save percentage and 1.83 GAA) last year, and played a big role in the team’s first round playoff upset of MoDo.
What will determine SDE’s success this season, is not, of course, simply their personnel. Great teams need to be more than just the sum of their parts. If this group of players can create, develop and buy in to a common culture, one fostered and supported by Elander and his staff, they could find themselves perched in the top third of the league come playoff time.