Swedish Ice Hockey Association appoints new head coach for 2021 World Juniors

On Friday, the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation announced its coaching replacements ahead of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships.

30-year old Joel Ronnmark will take over the reigns as head coach, while Anders Eriksen, who joined the team at selection camp this week, will be the assistant coach. Additionally, Jason Pietrzykowski, who works for the Edmonton Oilers, will join team Sweden as their video coach.

The coaching changes come in the wake of multiple members of the Swedish team testing positive for COVID-19, including nearly their entire original coaching staff. Head coach Tomas Monten, assistant coach Anders Lundberg, video coach Adam Almqvist-Andersson, and goalie coach Nizze Landen all tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. All four coaches will remain in Sweden and assist the team virtually.

The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation had interest from former Ottawa Senator, Daniel Alfredsson, but he was deemed unable to enter the bubble in Edmonton by IIHF president, Rene Fasel.

“We have faced a major challenge in completing the team staff and we have worked intensively during the week in close dialogue with the IIHF,” said John Stark, General Secretary of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association, and also has good news: “The latest test results showed that all players and staff who are currently in Sundsvall are healthy and can go to Canada.”

Sweden🇸🇪 has named a new head coach for the #WorldJuniors. 30-year-old Joel Ronnmark will replace Tomas Monten, who can't travel to Canada after being tested positive for #Covid19. https://t.co/GvIVSrtJpB— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) December 11, 2020

Team Sweden is currently holding their preliminary camp in Sundsvall, and will join the other nine participating nations by entering the Edmonton bubble on Sunday, where all teams will face a four-day testing and quarantine period before they are able resume practicing.

Sweden will play two pre-tournament games prior to the start of the 2021 World Juniors. The first coming on December 21st against Canada at 6 pm ET/4 pm MT (local time), and the second is on December 23rd against Switzerland at 9:30 pm ET/7:30 pm MT.

They'll kick-off their 2021 World Junior campaign on Boxing Day against the Czech Republic at 2 pm ET/12 pm MT.

Source: IIHF

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