[irbefan4life]

Born on May 5, 1973 in Leksand, Sweden, this goalie had a very interesting route into the NHL. His name, Johan Hedberg. A standout goalie with Leksands in Sweden, Hedberg was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers late in the ninth round of the 1994 NHL draft. After moving to North America for the 1997-98 season, Hedberg hovered between the ECHL and two IHL teams, however, after his rights were traded to the San Jose Sharks the following season, he headed back to Sweden in 1998-99. The season after, he returned to North America and played with San Jose's minor league affiliate in Kentucky. In 2000-01, he was traded by the Sharks to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Within four days of the trade at the age of 27, Hedberg was thrown into his first NHL game against the Florida Panthers and he recorded a convincing 41 save victory. From there, he didn't look back. He immediately supplanted starter Jean Sebastien Aubin and led the team into the Conference Final against the New Jersey Devils, where he was eventually defeated in five games. From there, he became the Penguins starting goalie for the next two seasons before being acquired by Vancouver in 2003-04 to back-up Dan Cloutier. After the 2004-05 lock-out, he was signed by the Dallas Stars and then by the Atlanta Thrashers the next off-season. From 2006-2010, Hedberg remained with the Thrashers as a split starter with Kari Lehtonen and Ondrej Pavelec. In 2010-11, Hedberg was signed by the New Jersey Devils, and there he played for three seasons, posting highly competent numbers in his first two seasons with them. Unfortunately, his numbers dropped by 2012-13 and he was subsequently waived by the team in that season's off-season. In 2013-14, he appeared in a single tryout game with Albany but was eventually cut. After retiring from play, he became the goalie coach for the Albany Devils before taking over that same role with the San Jose Sharks in 2015-16 and maintaining that role as of the 2017-18 season.

In his NHL career, Hedberg appeared in 373 games, recording a 161-143-14-22 record with 22 shutouts, 10 assists, a 2.82GAA, and a 0.901% save average. In 23 playoff games, he recorded a 10-13 record with 2 shutouts, a 2.31GAA and a 0.914% save average.

What you are looking at right now is a stick used by Johan Hedberg in the 2011-12 New Jersey Devils' campaign, definitively photomatched to two contests. What I do like is that the two games were against San Jose and Pittsburgh, the first being the team that owned his rights for a while and who ultimately gave him the NHL opportunity when they traded him to the Penguins, with whom he rapidly became a full-fledged NHLer out of nowhere. The wear is beautiful and the last photo wonderfully highlights the wear and tear some of these sticks can take with game action.

Acquired from: Fellow collector Jordan Wompierski via a trade

Dates of Game Use:
October 21, 2011 v San Jose (38-41, 4-3SOL)
October 22, 2011 v Pittsburgh (25-29, 4-1L)

Photomatched: Yes

https://www.gettyimages.ca/license/130204972

[creasecollector]

Awesome Hedberg stick here. Congrats on these recent additions, Bruce.