Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman signs with Barys Astana of Kontinental Hockey League
Victor Hedman, a Swedish professional ice hockey player, who used to play for Tampa Bay Lightning in the Southeast division of the Eastern Conference of National Hockey League (NHL) last season, has now signed with Barys Astana in the Kontinental Hockey
League (KHL).
After the lockout of the NHL, Hedman obviously wanted to play in the league where he can play competitive hockey and have some good playing minutes so he chose the Russian hockey league which is one of the best in the world of hockey.
While his agent, Peter Wallen was finding a place for his client to play, he had clearly mentioned that the Swedish international player will go for best place, as he had said,
“He wants to play in the best league there is right now”.
The Astana, Kazakhstan based team, which was formed just 13 years ago, used to play in the Kazakhstan Championship but moved to Russian Supreme League in 2007. They became a part of KHL just four years ago and they are comparatively a newly formed team so
it would be a challenge for Hedman to lift that team up with his performances and use his experience to guide the players.
Örnsköldsvik, Sweden born player started his hockey career at the very young age of 14 in the Junior under-20 Super Elitserien League, J20 SuperElit in 2005-2006 season. First season was not too successful for him but he enjoyed some success in the second
season as he played 34 games and scored 13 goals, 12 assists for total of 25 points.
In 2007-2008 he got a call from Sweden’s senior league Elitserien Hockey League (SEL) but the defenseman could not make the most of it as he scored just 2 goals and 2 assists for total of 4 points.
At the start of 2008-2009 season the 21-year-old player was sent back to junior league but he made a comeback into senior league just after few matches and had a very successful season which resulted into him getting selected second overall in the 2009 NHL
Draft by Tampa Bay Lightning.
Since 2009, Hedman has made 214 NHL appearances, scoring 12 goals and 57 assists for total of 69 points.
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