Niklas Svedberg

Playing career

Niklas Svedberg signed an entry-level contract with the Boston Bruins on May 29, 2012, coming over from the Swedish Elite League. He played his first AHL game on October 19, 2012, against the Manchester Monarchs. The Bruins called him up on May 24, 2013, and that same season he was named the AHL’s goalie of the year for 2012–13. His first NHL start came on January 2, 2014, at home against the Nashville Predators; he played the full 60 minutes and 50 seconds into overtime, helping the Bruins to a 3-2 victory. After Boston lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, the team signed Svedberg to a one-year, one-way deal on June 23, 2014, anticipating that backup Chad Johnson would become an unrestricted free agent. Over the course of that season, Svedberg appeared in 18 games for the Bruins and earned 7 wins. As a restricted free agent following his first year as Boston’s backup in 2014–15, he chose to leave the NHL on May 10, 2015, signing a one-year contract with Russian KHL club Salavat Yulaev Ufa. After leading all KHL goaltenders in wins during the 2015–16 season, he extended his stay with Salavat by signing a two-year deal. On July 1, 2017, Salavat released Svedberg from the final year of his contract so he could return to North America, where he agreed to a one-year, two-way contract with the Minnesota Wild. During the 2017–18 season, he was assigned to the Wild’s AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, for the entire year, posting 18 wins and 18 losses in 44 appearances. On June 8, 2018, with free agency looming, Svedberg signed a two-year contract to go back to Sweden with Timrå IK in the SHL. In the 2018–19 season, he managed only 10 wins in 35 games, and Timrå IK was relegated to the Allsvenskan. To remain in the SHL, Svedberg left Timrå IK on June 7, 2019, and joined Djurgårdens IF, his original hometown junior club, for the final year of his contract.