Håkan Loob

Loob was born on 3 July 1960 on Gotland, where he grew up in the small town of Slite. Loob is of Estonian descent. Loob's grandparents, together with their children, including Loob's father, Paul, fled to Gotland in a small boat across the Baltic sea from the island Kihnu during the German occupation of Estonia in 1944. Loob started playing ice hockey at the age of five, when an artificially frozen rink was constructed near his home. and quit all other sports to focus on hockey. ==Playing career==

Färjestad BK Loob began with third division clubs IK Graip Slite and Roma IF Romakloster in 1975–76 and 1976–77 respectively before spending two seasons with second division club Karlskrona IK. He moved up to the Elitserien when he joined Färjestad BK, with whom he scored 15 goals and 19 points in 36 games in 1979–80. In 1982–83, Loob set Elitserien records by scoring 42 goals and 76 points. He continues to hold those records today. They were not able to convince him to join the club until the 1983–84 NHL season when, after his record setting season in the Elitserien, Flames' General Manager Cliff Fletcher referred to him as the "Wayne Gretzky|[Wayne] Gretzky of Sweden". Loob scored 30 goals and 55 points in his first NHL season, and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team. He led the team outright in 1985–86 with 31 goals, and won the Molson Cup as the Flames player with the most three-star selections. He also set a Flames franchise record by scoring five hat tricks during the season. He finished sixth in league goal scoring, while his 106 points was ninth in that category. During the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs, Loob made it known that he was considering a return to Sweden. He later revealed that he and his wife had made the decision almost a year before and that he declined a large contract offer the team offered to entice him to stay. At 37 goals, Loob also led the league in goal scoring. He played another four seasons with Färjestad, retiring in 1996. He served in the role for 11 seasons, during which the team reached the final of the Elitersien playoffs eight times and won four championships. Two of the titles came in his first two seasons as general manager, 1996–97 and 1997–98. He added a third in 2001–02, International Internationally, Loob first skated for the Swedish junior team at the European Junior Hockey Championship in 1978. He finished third in tournament scoring in 1980 with nine points (seven goals, two assists) and was named an all-star. He debuted with the senior team in 1982, scoring three goals in eight games for the Swedish team that finished fourth in the World Championship, but won a silver medal in the European Championship, which counted results amongst only participating European nations. He scored two goals and two assists in the two game final series, which Sweden lost to Canada. A shoulder injury prevented Loob from playing in the 1987 Canada Cup, The shootout went seven rounds, until Peter Forsberg scored the winning goal for Sweden. By virtue of winning the Olympic gold, Loob joined teammates Mats Näslund and Tomas Jonsson to become the first three members of the Triple Gold Club as winners of a Stanley Cup championship, a World championship and an Olympic championship. Loob was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. ==Playing style==

Standing five-foot, nine inches tall, and weighing 170 pounds, Loob arrived in Calgary facing skepticism about his ability to cope with the rougher style and smaller ice surface of the NHL compared to what he was used to in the Elitserien. Opinion around the NHL in the early 1980s was that Swedish players were "soft"; teammate Colin Patterson credited Loob with changing that perception. He was a vocal leader, unafraid to speak to his teammates when he felt it necessary. He was a strong skater with "dazzling technique", and former Calgary linemate Joe Nieuwendyk said Loob was a key reason for his own early success in the NHL: "He just had such a great amount of skill. He could do things none of the rest of us could. The luckiest thing that happened to me was getting put on Hakan Loob’s line my first full year in Calgary. He helped me so much, starting my career the right way. A big reason why I scored 50." Nieuwendyk added that Loob could "put pucks into areas, make plays, nobody else would dream of". ==Personal life==

Loob's older brother Peter was also a hockey player. The brothers played together briefly with Färjestad and Peter appeared in eight NHL games with the Quebec Nordiques. Håkan and his wife Marie have three children, Henrik, Niclas, and Isabelle. Their children are why the family chose to return to Sweden in 1989. Loob always intended to return home following his playing days, but felt that Henrik's assimilation into North American culture was problematic. He wanted his family to grow up in Sweden. ==Career statistics==

Regular season and playoffs International ==Awards and honours==