The SDHL’s goaltending landscape has changed considerably since last season. Off season signings, injuries, retirements and transfers have meant that eight of the league’s ten teams, including newcomers Färjestad, featured a different opening night starter than the previous year.
HV71 needed an upgrade in net after a tough 2024-25 season, and found it over the summer when they signed reigning SDHL champion Steph Neatby. That Frölunda declined to re-sign the fan favourite was a surprise to many, but opened the door for Neatby to reunite with her former head coach, Thomas Pettersen. Neatby had great success during two seasons in Linköping behind Pettersen’s defensive systems and should add stability to a HV team that allowed an average of 3.31 goals against per game last year.
Neatby was deemed expendable in Frölunda in part due to the emergence of young Maja Helge. The 18-year-old’s stats dipped slightly last season, her second in the league, but stats do not always tell the full story. She has oozed confidence in her two starts this year, and won both, including a shootout victory over SDE last week. Not willing to bet the farm on the teenager just yet, Frölunda added formidable Swiss veteran Andrea Brändli over the summer. Brändli, fresh off being named the 2024-25 SDHL Goaltender of the Year, spent two seasons in MoDo where her absence is already being missed. Brändli’s game sense and rebound control are second to none. She stops the first shot and eliminates the opportunity for a second, a skill coveted in a league where world class defenders are still few and far between. Frölunda’s keepers are capable of backstopping the team to a second straight championship.
In an attempt to fill the void left by Brändli, MoDo signed PWHL reserve keeper Lucy Morgan. Morgan is an interesting get. After a solid NCAA career split between St. Lawrence and the University of Minnesota, the North Dakotan stayed stateside and earned a spot with the Minnesota Frost. Morgan appeared in only one game with the team before signing with the Ottawa Charge where she didn’t see any action at all. MoDo signed her in July, and planned to see her between the pipes on opening day. In a surprise announcement earlier this week, the team announced that she is rehabbing an injury and will not be available for the foreseeable future. In her stead, homegrown teen Lovisa Persson has started all three of MoDo’s games, winning one. The homegrown 19-year-old may be the team’s future, but is not quite ready to shoulder the load on her own. Desperate to find a veteran, MoDo landed on promising Skellefteå product Tindra Holm. Holm had an outstanding NCAA career at Long Island University and UMD, and could seize the opportunity to become a top SDHL starter given the chance.
Rivals Brynäs, meanwhile, boast one of the league’s strongest tandems after adding Czech national team star Klára Peslarová over the summer. Their stable also includes Norwegian national team stalwart Ena Nystrøm, setting up an interesting internal competition between two goalies who play very different games. 28-year-old Peslarová is small and quick. Her skating ability and competitiveness have allowed her to thrive at all levels, including the PWHL, where she posted a .937 save percentage in parts of 4 games with the Boston Fleet. Her athletic style can be both an advantage and a hindrance – she is able to battle through traffic and make saves when all seems lost, but sometimes puts herself in awkward situations when a kick save or an undisciplined blocker punch place rebounds in harm’s way. Nystrøm, in contrast, is tall and controlled, relying on positioning rather than quickness to take away as much net as possible. After four solid seasons at Mercyhurst of the NCAA, where she was twice named CHA Goaltender of the Year, Nystrøm won fifteen games in her rookie SDHL campaign and helped Brynäs to the semifinals. Four games into the 2025-26 season, Peslarová and Nystrøm are nearly tied statistically with two wins and a 1.00 GAA each. The two are seasoned competitors, each accustomed to being the presumed number one. How head coach Filip Eriksson manages their playing time and communicates expectations will undoubtedly impact whether the goalie battle in Gävle proves a boon or a curse as the season progresses.
SDE also made a splash during the off season, signing incumbent Sweden number one Emma Söderberg. Söderberg played parts of the last two seasons with the Boston Fleet, but was unable to earn enough playing time to fully establish herself and prepare for the upcoming Olympics. She will not simply march into the number one role in SDE either. Kassidy Sauvé, who backstopped SDE to an improbable come-from-behind playoff series win against MoDo last spring, will share duties with Söderberg, giving the team a formidable 1-2 punch.
SDHL newcomers Färjestad made a splash in May, signing one of the league’s premier young keepers, Ida Boman. Boman, still only 22 years old, is a veteran of eight SDHL seasons, three senior World Championships and one Olympics. She seemed to single-handedly keep Djurgården afloat at times last year, recording an incredible seven shutouts in 29 starts (24% of her starts ended with a clean sheet) behind a rather porous defense. With Boman manning the crease, upstarts FBK always have a chance to win.
In Boman’s absence, Djurgården brought back a familiar import, signing American Lauren Bench. Bench previously had a successful stint in Sweden with MoDo in 2022-23, when she won 14 games in 26 starts. Her signing seemed a bit odd to fans and commentators alike, many noting that she had not played a minute of hockey in nearly two full years. Despite a shaky preseason, the Minnesota native has looked better of late. She is moving more efficiently and tracking the puck better. Her ability to eliminate second chances will be a key to Djurgården’s survival this season while their young defensive core comes into its own.
Up north, Luleå elected to stick with star veteran Sara Grahn, and allowed promising young backup Frida Axell to walk to Rögle of the second-tier NDHL. Axell was poised to play big minutes this season, after going 18-0 behind the league’s stingiest defense last year in Luleå. In a cruel twist of fate, on the cusp of finally becoming Goalie 1A, Axell was injured in the preseason and will be out for months. Back in Luleå, questions swirl about whether the 36-year-old Grahn, who has not started more than 19 games since 2021, can handle a heavier workload. Her backup, local kid Lovisa Lundström, is loaded with potential, but will need time to develop and adapt to playing against adults.
Fellow Northerners Skellefteå re-signed fan favorite Camryn Drever to a two year extension over the summer, and backup goalie Miranda Dahlgren has returned from injury. The two are an interesting tandem, both capable of winning games, both obviously enjoying themselves, and both willing to put the success of the team first. Drever’s play was a key to newly-promoted Skellefteå earning an unlikely playoff spot last season, even after the team was docked nine points in the standings for dressing too many imports. If the University of Saskatchewan grad can overcome the sophomore jinx, and buddy Dahlgren can stay healthy and contribute some wins of her own, Skellefteå could claw their way into the second round next spring.
In Linköping, Ebba Svensson Träff will continue to shoulder the load. Standing only 5’5, Svensson Träff is not a prototypical Swedish giant goalie, but she plays big. She led the league in Minutes Played (1836) and Shutouts (8) last season, and is intent on challenging for a spot on the Swedish Olympic team in February. Her value is unquestionable. She gives Linköping a chance to win every night and allows the team to reserve its limited import spots for players who can score.
Indeed, imports fill a perhaps surprising number of SDHL goaltending spots – surprising because of Sweden’s ability to produce dozens of top level goalies of both genders over the past 20 years. In the SDHL, where import spots are limited, nearly half of the rostered goalies are not Swedish. It will be interesting to see which goalies, from which countries, perform best as the season progresses.