Inge Hammarström
Swedish left winger, NHL pioneer, four-time Swedish champion.
Hans Inge Hammarström is a Swedish former professional ice hockey left winger who played in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues. He spent most of his career in Sweden's top leagues and represented the Swedish national team at the 1972 Winter Olympics and five World Championships. After retiring, he worked as a scout.
Quick Facts
- Played for
- Wifsta/Östrands IF
- Timrå IK
- Brynäs IF
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- St. Louis Blues
- Position
- Left wing
- Shoots
- Left
- Born
- 20 January 1948
- Birthplace
- Timrå, Sweden
Facts from the source article.
Playing career
Hammarström began playing at the top national league level in 1963 for Timrå IK at age 15. He joined Brynäs IF for the 1968–69 season and won the Swedish Championship four times, in 1970, 1971, 1972 and later in 1980. In 1973 he became the first Timrå IK player to reach the NHL and, with Börje Salming, one of the first two Europeans to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Both had to counter the Canadian stereotype of the "chicken Swede." Team owner Harold Ballard once complained that Hammarström could go into the corner with a dozen eggs in his pocket and not break one. After four seasons with the Maple Leafs, he was traded to the St. Louis Blues for Jerry Butler on 1 November 1977. He played two seasons for the Blues and ended his career in 1982 after three more seasons with Brynäs IF.
After retirement
After retiring, Hammarström became a European-based ice hockey scout, working for Central Scouting. From 1990 to 2008 he was the chief European scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, and from 2008 to 2018 he worked for the Vancouver Canucks. He is credited with pushing hardest for Philadelphia to select Peter Forsberg with the sixth overall pick of the 1991 NHL entry draft, a choice considered surprising at the time because Forsberg had been ranked lower by The Hockey News and was expected to go late in the first or early in the second round.
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