"We need the foreign players"

- We need these players. It is a professional league and if it is to be a professional league then we cannot have a Division 1 team. We need to bring in players from outside to be able to beat Luleå and be competitive in this league, ”says Sofia Reideborn, goalkeeper at SDE to SVT Sport.

Head coach Shane Warschaw, who himself comes from California, says there are no alternatives.

- There are about 200 senior players registered in Sweden. How many of them are good enough to play in SDHL? Let's say half. Each team must fill its squad with 22 players. If we want players of the highest caliber, we have to go abroad, he tells SVT Sport.

In principle, SDE has always been a bottom team and has the most number of foreign players currently. A bit of a punching bag in both the table and the debate on the number of imports. But it is not only the smaller clubs that find it difficult to associate Swedish talents that rely on foreign stars. In the Swedish champions Luleå, for example, nine of 22 players were foreign last season. The majority were fine shoes.

It can connect even more foreign players before the season starts. The Canadian league CWHL shut down last spring and two players from champion team Calgary Inferno have joined SDE just this week. Now, for the first time in a long time, it is believed that a playoff spot is within reach and a realistic goal.

- The players in this league are already strong and talented. We can only add to it. For players who are on the verge of joining the team, it is a good test to train and play with us. If they want to be in SDHL then they realize they have to raise a snap, says new acquisition Kelty Apperson, Canada.

The women's crowns are recovering from the bleakest spring ever where they left the A World Cup. There is concern that the Swedish national team players will not receive the ice age and the responsibility on the ice that they need to increase the quality of the national team if the SDHL law allows foreign players to play the most important roles.

The union captain Ylva Martinsen agrees that they will raise the quilt on the league.

- Provided that the players who come in are serious and invest in their sport, it will create an environment where the Swedish players are forced to compete, which is good, ”she tells SVT Sport.

At the same time, there are concerns.

- But in the long term, if we look at the effects for maybe ten years, it is important that work has been done alongside. Where it works to get Swedish players who are well educated, she says.

- I understand what they mean, but I just think it's good that we're here and push them. So that Sweden can participate in and compete in an Olympics in the future, for example, says SDE's Kelty Apperson.