MONTREAL — The Montreal Victoire anticipated Swedish star Lina Ljungblom's arrival from overseas for more than a year.
They’re confident it was well worth the wait.
“We wanted a game breaker,” head coach Kori Cheverie said. “Lina is a threat to score every shift. ... It really is a great addition to our lineup.”
First-line players aren’t normally drafted in the last round, but that’s what the Victoire have in Ljungblom.
The 23-year-old was selected with the final pick of the 2023 PWHL draft, but played out the final year of her contract with Swedish club MoDo before joining Montreal this fall. In 2023-24, Ljungblom won Player of the Year honours in Sweden with 23 goals and 23 assists in 36 games.
Now signed to a three-year contract, she’s already making waves with her wicked release at training camp.
The sight of her ripping shots off the post and in quickly explained why she was skating alongside Victoire stars Marie Philip-Poulin and Laura Stacey on the team’s top trio on Thursday and Friday at Verdun Auditorium.
“She brings a lot as a power forward, she's eager to learn, sees the game very well … You can see she has a powerful shot,” Poulin said of her new linemate. "Super excited to see what she’s got.”
Victoire players who also play for Canada have already experienced it on the international stage.
The five-foot-six Ljungblom scored seven goals in seven games during the 2023 world championships, including a second-period tally in Sweden’s 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Canada in overtime.
"Lina has done a lot of damage against Team Canada in all of our matchups. Whenever I see No. 25 on the ice when I am with Team Canada, I'm aware,” Canadian defender Erin Ambrose said. “To now have that with our group is pretty incredible.
“I think (she) is going to take her game to the next level and take us to the next level."
Victoire general manager Danièle Sauvageau didn’t know Ljungblom wouldn’t play in the league’s inaugural season, but is “very happy that she just stayed available" anyway.
Ljungblom, meanwhile, wanted to join Montreal last season and said it was hard to watch from afar as the PWHL's record-breaking crowds created a buzz in the MoDo locker room.
On Thursday, she was nervous about taking the ice. Not because she was skating with a living legend in Poulin, but because she’d always dreamt of playing in a league of the PWHL's calibre.
"I've always been dreaming about playing hockey professionally, to have it as my job,” Ljungblom said. “Now you can see with this league, it's really big, it has a lot of fans, it's so professional.
"It's a dream that I never thought I could have."
That’s why she’s making the sacrifice of leaving her family six time zones away, even though PWHL stars have far more modest salaries than NHL players (the PWHL minimum is US$36,050, while top players make around $70,000-80,000).
“You miss so much that is going on at home. My sister has two kids and I'm missing their life and growing up and everything. That's hard,” Ljungblom said. “It's hard to say goodbye to your family, but you're living your dream.”
On the ice, Ljungblom will have to adjust to the smaller North American ice surface and the PWHL’s physical brand of hockey, but she’s hardly concerned.
The gritty winger notes she skated with boys until she was 19 and has experience with body checking, something Sweden’s top league implemented in 2022.
"I feel that I'm good in the battles, I feel that I'm strong, and I like to go straight to the net,” Ljungblom said. “It's other stuff than scoring that could fit me in this league.
“But of course, I'd like to score."
Right now, Ljungblom is living in a downtown Montreal hotel, waiting to see if fellow Swede and roommate Anna Kjellbin cracks Montreal’s roster ahead of the season-opener on Nov. 30.
The 30-year-old Kjellbin, a right-shot defender who’s also Sweden’s captain, was drafted by the Victoire in the sixth round of this year’s draft but hasn’t yet signed a contract.
Cheverie, however, is impressed by what she’s seeing early in camp.
"She's a true pro,” she said. “We had her playing on the left side today in practice, just to see what we have there, and she was all for it. She's willing to do whatever it takes to try to make the team.
"She's got that smart IQ, she's able to move the puck, she can play a little bit of physicality. She's kind of a little bit of a Jill of all trades.”
Kjellbin’s message to Victoire fans about Ljungblom?
"You always know what you're going to get. It's 100 per cent,” she said. “She's a physical player, but also a smart player who knows where to be at what time. Having high expectations of Lina is what you should have."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
