Sweden's organization governing player agents, SICO, put an immediate stop to North American agents representing players signing in the SDHL. It could be a crushing blow that kills the SDHL, and Swedish women's hockey's ability to compete.
When the PWHL was announced, the SDHL took notice. The league had been growing, attracting more and more talent from North America and across Europe. They'd helped form a club championship that would begin bringing together top teams from across Europe to up the level of competition and partnership. Everything was moving in the right direction for the league, even after the PWHL was announced.
Since then, serious cause for concern has grown, including to whether or not the league will be able to attract any talent from outside Sweden next year, particularly following a recent decision by the Swedish Ice Hockey Central Organization (SICO).
SICO has ousted the ability of North American and European based agents who are not part of their organization to negotiate on behalf of their players hoping to compete in the SDHL. They also reportedly fined teams who signed players represented by these agents last year. It's a decision that given the exodus of talent from the SDHL this year, could spell disaster for the SDHL's standing as a top league in the world.
SICO, a union of player agents in Sweden, makes no mention of women's hockey on their website aside from the four letter acronym - SDHL - beneath SICO Chairman of the Certification Board and SDHL overseer Klara Stenberg's name on the SICO "About Us" page.
To join SICO, North American agents will have the opportunity to take classes, write an exam, and then pay for membership, but it's a process that will not be completed this offseason. The move could be a crushing blow to the SDHL at the hands of an agency group that almost exclusively works with men, and whose membership involves only one woman out of 57 agents.
Next season, the SDHL will lose many players, potentially including Noora Tulus, Lina Ljungblom, Ronja Savolainen, Daniela Pejsova, Klara Peslarova, Anneke Linser, Noemi Neubaurova, Sara Cajanova, Jenniina Nylund, Mathea Fischer, Anna Kjellbin, Kayleigh Hamers, Michelle Lowenhielm, and others who are declaring for the PWHL Draft. That will also grow to include players headed to the NCAA in the coming seasons like Adela Sapovalivova, Mira Jungaker, and Hilda Svensson. The following year, players like Viivi Vainikka and Hanna Olsson are expected to consider the PWHL, and Maja Nylen Persson could also go this year or next.
With that group already declaring their intent to leave the SDHL, the timing for SICO to put up an unnecessary roadblock restricting agents who have been sending North American and European players to the SDHL for years, could be catastrophic to Sweden's women's hockey systems. The nation has made significant gains in recent years, but this move from SICO could threaten that continued growth. The calibre of the SDHL will take a marked step backward next year, and the only way to temper that is through providing a home for PWHL bubble players, and recent NCAA and USports graduates. Expecting these players to negotiate directly with SDHL general managers without the representation of their contracted agents is an anti-labour move that puts players at risk. It also puts the long term success of the SDHL and women's hockey in Sweden at risk. If that's SICO's intent, they're succeeding.
Already, international players are looking elsewhere, most notably to Switzerland. The SWHL in Switzerland could quickly become Europe's top loop based on this SICO's move to restrict international participation in the SDHL, and many teams unwillingness to include out clauses for players exploring the PWHL. This week already, stars from Finland's Naisten Liiga including Michaela Pejslova, Clara Rozier, and Julia Liikala, and All-Canadian USports grad Maggy Burbidge have chosen Switzerland.
Sweden's SDHL may quickly turn into a league dominated by only Swedish players, and a handful of others, a model similar to Finland's Naisten Liiga or Germany's DFEL. The problem is, the calibre of these leagues is far below the SDHL, but perhaps not for long.
SICO's decision to force players who wish to compete in their league to be represented by agents within their organization, is not dissimilar to the NHL and NHLPA certified agents, but to do it without warning, without any clear communication that SICO even deals with women's hockey, and above all else, now, when their league is in need of talent, is a heavy blow. It's near sabotage from within from an agency designed to protect players in Sweden.