Swedish Wings Psyched to Meet the King

By Helene St. James, Free Press, September 26, 2008

After skating seven straight days the Wings get Saturday off, which is especially convenient for the Swedish contingent.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Andreas Lilja, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson are to meet up with their country’s king, Carl XVI Gustaf, Saturday at the General Motors proving grounds in Milford. The king is in Michigan for a ceremony to open a project that will produce energy from waste removed from Flint’s wastewater treatment plant. A renown car enthusiast, GM’s facility was a natural stopover – as was meeting up with so many countrymen.

“We’re going to go to the track and have a little meet and greet with the king,” said Zetterberg, who has met his highness before at the Olympics. “I know he likes cars, so I don’t think it’s that big a surprise we’re meeting him on a track.”

Unlike in England, where the queen or king can bestow knighthoods and such on his or her subjects, Sweden has no such pomp. If there were such a tradition, the Wings have little doubt they’d already be calling their superstar defenseman Sir Nick.

“No knighthoods in Sweden, but I think Nick would be the closest we’d have to that,” Zetterberg said.

Red Wings Playoff MVP Henrik Zetterberg Enjoyed Tending to the Stanley Cup So Much that he Doesn't Want to Let it Go.

By Neil Koepke, Lansing State Journal.com, September 21, 2008

From the time he first joined the Detroit Red Wings in 2002, Henrik Zetterberg's goals as a National Hockey League player were quite simple: w Develop into the best player he could be at both ends of the ice. w Help the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup. w It took some time, a lot of hard work and dealing with a few disappointing moments, but three months ago he realized his boyhood dream of getting his name on the Stanley Cup.

Along the way, the 5-foot-11, 195-pound left wing from Njurunda, Sweden, has become a world-class player, one who is tremendously skilled with the puck in setting up and scoring goals and is equally adept at preventing goals with outstanding defensive skills.

The Hockey News ranks Zetterberg as the third best player in the world, only behind No. 1 Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and No. 2 Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Zetterberg's teammate and good friend, center Pavel Datsyuk, is ranked No. 4.

Henrik Zetterberg, NHL superstar?

His teammates totally agree, but Zetterberg would rather talk about being part of a team and trying to win another Stanley Cup than his place among the game's greats.

"I don't think about that at all,'' Zetterberg said earlier this week, when he and three other Red Wings stopped in Lansing to meet with members of the National Guard at the National Guard Headquarters near the airport.

"It's nice to do something that people appreciate but you can't think about it that much. You just go out and play the best you can. It's all about winning.''

That's what his teammates, coaches and Wings fans love about Zetterberg - his willingness to do anything to help the team have success. It was very much on display in last season's Stanley Cup Finals when he was matched up against Crosby, and consistently denied the Penguins' star forward quality scoring chances.

"What makes him so great is he's a two-way player. He's great offensively and just as great defensively,'' Wings forward Mikael Samuelsson said.

"He's one of the hardest working guys on the team. He doesn't take things for granted. He really enjoys the game and has fun, but that's our whole team. You need that.''

In last year's playoffs, Zetterberg won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player. He had 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points, which followed a brilliant regular season in which he scored 43 goals and had 49 assists for 92 points, all career highs.

"Henrik is never satisfied with being OK. He wants to be perfect,'' Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. "But he's a very laid-back guy. If you met him at a mall and just started talking, you would never think he's one of the top players in the league.

"That's a credit to him and to this organization. I think it started with Steve Yzerman, who was so humble and one of the nicest guys you'd want to meet. Guys look up to players like that.''

The Red Wings have certainly done a lot of winning during the regular season in Zetterberg's five seasons, and he's piled up a lot of points, especially in the last three years: 85, 68 and 92.

Over the past five seasons, the Red Wings have dominated the regular season with 250 wins, 97 losses and 49 ties or9 overtime or shootout losses. Detroit has finished first in the Central Division in each of Zetterberg's five seasons, and has had the most points overall in four of those seasons. The Red Wings tied for the lead with Buffalo in the other season.

"This is what I love to do and I'm just happy to be able to do it in an organization like the Red Wings,'' Zetterberg said. "Hopefully, I can stay here many, many years.''

And win more Stanley Cups.

"It was amazing to win it and I'd love to do it again. It's been my goal for many years to win and we finally achieved it,'' he said. "To (take) the Cup to Sweden and see the reaction of my friends and family was amazing.''

Hometown hero

Zetterberg had the Stanley Cup for a day and a half and shared some special moments with family, friends and thousands of hockey fans, young and old.

According to the Hockey Hall of Fame's Stanley Cup Journal, Zetterberg and his fiancee, Swedish singer- actress Emma Andersson, hosted a party at their summer home in Sundsvall, north of Stockholm, on Aug. 2, one that lasted until 5 a.m.

The next morning, the Cup served as a baptismal font for his nephew, Victor. Then it was off to Zetterberg's boyhood rink in Njurunda and a reception for 3,000 fans.

After taking the Cup to the house where he grew up, Zetterberg moved on to Timra and the rink he played on as a teenager. A crowd of 4,000 gathered to celebrate Zetterberg's success

"Just to see how everyone enjoyed seeing the Stanley Cup was so great,'' he said. "With so many (seven) Swedes on the team, the Red Wings are big in Sweden.

Next summer, Zetterberg is up for more parties.

"This is my first Cup, so I really don't know what it's like to defend it. It will be tough to do it again, but the good thing is we know what it takes,'' he said.

"You have to be healthy, you have to have some luck and you have to play well.''

Zetterberg is thrilled with the addition of superstar forward Marian Hossa, who signed a one-year contract after helping the Penguins get to the finals last season.

"He's a world-class player and will fit on this team very well,'' Zetterberg said.

Zetterberg's the Complete Package, Just Hitting Prime
By Wes Goldstein, Sportsline.com, Sep. 19, 2008

If you didn't realize how good Henrik Zetterberg is, don't feel bad. The best and the brightest minds in hockey weren't sure at first either, drafting 209 players before the Detroit Red Wings decided to gamble a seventh-round pick on him in 1999.

Talk about stepping it up.

Zetterberg broke in three years later on a team with had nine future Hall of Famers in the lineup and still managed to stand out enough to finish second in the Rookie of the Year voting. And his game has gotten better every year since, hitting a high last season when he picked up 92 points in 75 games when he also was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward.

Can we say all-around game?

Go ahead. It's fair and it's accurate and it's the best there is right now in the NHL. Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby both have tremendous individual skills and make those around them better, but neither does everything as well -- at least not yet -- as Zetterberg. What's more, the Red Wings center will be only 28 years old when the new season begins and really just entering his prime.

Now that's a scary thought for anyone outside of Detroit.

Folks there know what they have, and the rest of the world might if the NHL's marketing machine gave him some of the muscle Crosby and Ovechkin have gotten since the lockout. The dynamic duo has definitely become the new faces of the game -- hockey's version of Magic and Bird -- and neither has hurt their cause by winning both a scoring title and MVP award in their first three seasons.

That's something Zetterberg can't say. But he can say he was the playoff MVP last spring, which meant he was the standout for a Red Wings team that ran to the Stanley Cup with machine-like efficiency and many believe can do it again this time around. And that makes him our choice as the top player in the NHL right now.

2. Alexander Ovechkin, LW: No one in the league can bring fans out of their seats like Ovechkin, who won the scoring title and MVP award last season as he carried the Washington Capitals on his back down the stretch to the playoffs.

3. Sidney Crosby, C: A high-ankle sprain cut into season in a big way and kept him from defending his scoring title, but Crosby was a point-producing machine when he was in the lineup, especially in the playoffs.

4. Nicklas Lidstrom, D: With six Norris Trophies in the last seven seasons (and three runners-up in the previous four), Lidstrom has dominated this critical position unlike anyone since Bobby Orr.

5. Vincent Lecavalier, C: His numbers dipped a little last season, but nowhere near what they could have considering how little support he had around him. The new captain of the Lightning also got what amounted to a contract for life -- for good reason.

Henrik’s Best Summer Ever

By Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, September 14, 2008

Since winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs for the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings, it has been a great summer for 27 year old Swedish superstar Henrik Zetterberg.

It was a summer kicked off by raising trophies above his head. Then, there was a victory parade. Then, there was lots of partying in Detroit and back home in his native Sweden. There were also many new honors to come for the hockey hero.

It was a summer that included Henrik’s game-used gloves as well as the Cup-winning goal puck from Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals scored by the MVP being displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. That’s quite an honor.

Then, in early July, Easton Hockey announced the launch of www.eastonhockey.com/hank, a site dedicated to the Red Wings left winger. The five-year endorsement deal is for 1.89 million dollars. Not a bad payoff for being one of the top players in the National Hockey League.

But, Zetterberg’s most memorable days of the off-season were August 2nd and 3^rd, two wonderful days spent in Sweden with Lord Stanley’s Cup. Henrik got the cup in Sundsvall at around 4:30 in the afternoon after Red Wing’s European scout Hakan Andersson spent a day with it.

On the first rainy evening, Zetterberg had a private party at his fantastic seaside home in northern Sweden near Alnö, Sundsvall, not too far from his hometown Njurunda. Over one-hundred friends and family members dined and partied all night long, drinking and singing, safe from the rain under big white canopies.

Early the next day, Henrik’s nephew Viktor, was baptized using the Stanley Cup at Zetterberg’s home. Shortly after the ceremony, Zata (as he is known in Sweden) took the trophy to the Njurunda Ice Hall, where he grew up playing hockey.

"I have looked forward to this day," said Njurunda’s own. "It is fantastic to see so many come here!”

About 3000 people from his hometown gathered to see their hero return including the Mayor, Timra IK and Njurunda SK’s club presidents, and Henrik’s childhood coach, Peder Groening.

"He was a coach's dream. He had everything, both on and off the ice” said Groening.

Zetterberg graciously signed autographs and posed for pictures with all of the fans.

Njurunda SK's chairman Jane Bredberg added,"It is not possible to understand how valuable it is with a role model like Henrik. He means so much for the children of the association, and it puts Njurunda on the map.

"I have great memories from my time in Njurunda. In particular, when we took the bike or the kick-sled here in the rink in the evenings and weekends together with friends. And then of course, that kept going in Timrå," said Zetterberg.

Next, Hank took the Cup for a brief stop at his childhood home, reflecting on his youth. Then, he continued on to EON Arena in Timra. This is where Zetterberg once starred, playing for the Red Eagles of the Swedish Elite League from 1997 to 2002. His #20 is retired and he is revered as a hockey god in this place.

Once again, the Timra fans went nuts for Zata as he took the ice.

"I have looked forward to this day a long time, to come here and show the trophy. It feels really, really cool," said Zetterberg.

After spending the day with the local fans, Hank took the Cup home for a quiet evening with his girlfriend of two years, (Swedish singer, actress, and model) Emma Andersson, the one time winner of the Swedish version of “Survivor”, who he recently announced that he is engaged to.

"It is true that we are engaged and we are pleased and happy for this,” exclaimed the lucky man. Henrik didn’t give too much information about the celebrity couple’s wedding date but did reveal that “it will be in Europe somewhere.”

When asked about his private time with the Cup, Henrik replied with a grin, “Things happened a little, but there is nothing to address here and now.”

Another huge honor was bestowed upon Zetterberg not long after his time with the Stanley Cup. Njurunda Ice Hall was renamed Modin & Zetterberg Hall after the two Stanley Cup Champions from the small village. Fredrik Modin of the Columbus Blue also grew up and played in the area, and won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The two were teammates in Timra during the 2004-05 NHL lock-out. The Swedish Stars sweaters were raised to the rafters in the arena now bearing their names.

Henrik spent much of the rest of his summer at a summer home in Southern Sweden outside of Vadodara near Ängelholm.
Zetterberg usually trains in the off-season with Timra, his former Swedish team. But, due to spending the later part of the summer in Angelholm, Henrik trained with Rogle, the closest Swedish Elite League club.

Since returning to Detroit from Sweden on August 28th, Hank has been on the ice with Red Wings teammates in unofficial practices at the Joe Louis Arena. He is now focusing on the year ahead and the last season of his current contract.

Zetterberg, who is set to become UFA on July 1st, after the 2008-09 season, has stated that he would like to sign a long-term deal with the Red Wings saying, "It's many months before the open market starts; hopefully, we can get something done before. I love it here. This has become a home for me. I would like to be here for a long, long time."

It seems marriage isn’t the only long-term commitment Henrik is looking forward to. However, talks between General Manager Ken Holland and Zetterberg’s primary agent Marc Levine are just in the initial stages. 

Zetterberg knows by staying in Detroit, he likely won’t get paid what he could get from another team as an unrestricted free-agent. And while it certainly sounds like he won’t try to break the team, Henrik gave the Red Wings a big discount on his last contract, and now entering the prime of his career, may not settle for such a low offer this time around.

He is currently making 2.9 million this year. Per most reports and speculation, Zetterberg is likely to get around 7.2 to 7.5 million a year for 5-7 years. A contract like that would keep him in Detroit until he is 33 to 35 years old. He would have 11 to 13 seasons with the club when it expires.

Henrik realizes that it is going to be hard for the Wings to keep him as well as potential UFA’s Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa, in addition to highly skilled and highly paid teammates Pavel Datsyuk and Niklas Lidstrom. 

"A lot of good players are under the same roof. I think it would be tough for Kenny. It's not easy like it was before the cap. We've got to find a way it can work for both of us."

The Red Wings confirmed that signing Zetterberg is a top priority for the organization, but it doesn’t sound like they are going to offer him what he is “worth” somewhere else.

"Our organization is about winning. Winning means sacrifice. Sacrifice some stats, some ice time, doing a contract where you're not always on the upper end of where you should be. I'm selling a program. Players know what I'm selling. In the end, success is about the team,” said Holland.

Negotiations are likely to take a few months, but it sounds like both sides feel an agreement can be reached soon. By “soon” I would expect it to get done before December. Holland has said, “It could take months and months and it could take days and days."

"They're talking a little bit. It's easier when you're back here in town and everything gets rolling again. It's nothing that's really bothering me. I try not to think about it that much,” says Zetterberg.

So, after a very eventful summer, it is time to look ahead to this upcoming season. The defending Stanley Cup champions have only gotten better with the unexpected signing of unrestricted free-agent Marian Hossa. Signed away from the Eastern Conference Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, Hossa will give the Wings tremendous scoring depth and a renewed desire to win, greatly increasing their chances of repeating this season.

How does this major move affect Zetterberg’s season? Well, Head Coach Mike Babcock has already announced that he plans on using Hossa in Zetterberg’s place on the top scoring line with Datysuk and Tomas Holmstrom. This moves Hank down to the second line with Franzen and Jiri Hudler.

It is well known that Zetterberg and Datsyuk are close friends and have great one-ice chemistry. They have always been magical when they are paired together. Babcock has tried to split them up before in an attempt to create two scoring lines, but it has never lasted. But then, the team has not had this kind of scoring depth in many years.

The addition of Hossa should make the team much more potent offensively, but could possibly cause a slight dip in Zetterberg’s numbers this year. Henrik told Swedish newspapers a few weeks ago that he would like to score 50 goals and reach 100 points this season, surpassing his previous highs of 43 goals and 92 points from last year. It’s no doubt that he could pull it off. His numbers have increased every season and this is a contract year. But Hossa is inevitably going to reduce Zetterberg’s playing time. Hank is going to have to do more in less time and without his Eurotwin Pavel, at least for the start of the season.

Personally, I prefer to see Zetterberg and Datsyuk together with Holmstrom with Franzen centering Hossa and Hudler. It’s probable that the lines will change up several times throughout the season. Either way, look for Henrik to have another great season, further establishing himself as one of the top five players in the world.

Life is good for Mr. Zetterberg. His best summer ever ends on September 19^th, when training camp begins.

Zetterberg Seeking Long-term Deal, to Wed Girlfriend

By Dave Dye, The Detroit News, September 10^th, 2008

Henrik Zetterberg, the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP, can become an unrestricted free agent next summer, but he seems genuinely committed to the Red Wings.

"It's many months before the open market starts; hopefully, we can get something done before," Zetterberg said Wednesday after returning from Sweden and participating in an informal practice with teammates at Joe Louis Arena.

"I love it here. This has become a home for me. I would like to be here for a long, long time."

Zetterberg said his agent, Marc Levine, and Wings general manager Ken Holland have started discussions concerning a potential new deal.

Holland said these types of negotiations often take a few months, which is why they're starting early.

"They're talking a little bit," said Zetterberg, 27, entering his sixth season with the Wings. "It's easier when you're back here in town and everything gets rolling again. It's nothing that's really bothering me. I try not to think about it that much."

Zetterberg conceded he understands Holland is in a difficult position with the salary-cap restrictions and so many top-level players on the team.

"A lot of good players are under the same roof," said Zetterberg, who led the Wings with 43 goals last season. "I think it would be tough for Kenny. It's not easy like it was before the cap. We've got to find a way it can work for both of us."

Zetterberg appears to be quite happy with his personal life, that's for sure. He confirmed he got engaged over the summer to his girlfriend, Swedish TV personality Emma Andersson.

He didn't want to reveal details about wedding plans, including a date or location.

"I think we're going to keep it to ourselves for a while," he said. "It won't be here (in the United States). I think it will be in Europe somewhere. More than that, I won't say."

Wings Prepared to Talk Contract Extension with Henrik Zetterberg

By George Sipple, Detroit Free Press, September 10, 2008

(Red Wings general manager Ken Holland’s) biggest priority is getting a long-term contract done with Henrik Zetterberg, who will become a unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2009.

Holland said he doesn't have any meetings scheduled yet to sit down with Zetterberg or his agent prior to training camp, but they know he's willing to talk any time.
"I've left it with them that we'd love to sit down and talk," Holland said. "Told that to Hank again today. When they feel they want to get together I'm ready to sit down. It could take months and months and it could take days and days."
Zetterberg will make $2.9 million in 2008-09.
"Our organization is about winning," Holland said. "Winning means sacrifice. Sacrifice some stats, some ice time, doing a contract where you're not always on the upper end of where you should be."
Holland said every negotiation is different and he has no time table for getting something done.
"I'm selling a program," Holland said. "Players know what I'm selling. In the end, success is about the team. But players only have a certain amount of years to make their money.
"We've had some brief conversations over the summer. I've told them we'd love to keep Hank long-term. I get the feeling Hank likes it here, but he's a great player and he's got free agency the first of July."