For 35 Years, Svensson Has Been Important Part of Black & Gold

STOCKHOLM – Svenåke Svensson was nearly overcome with emotion.

As he stood in the visiting dressing room in Vancouver, champagne spraying all around him, the longtime Bruins’ scout found himself next to the star of Boston’s 2011 championship run.

Tim Thomas had paced the Bruins to their first title in 39 years with a postseason for the ages. But the netminder, holding the Conn Smythe trophy as the Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP in his lap, made sure to let those around him know how appreciative he was of the role they played in allowing him to reach hockey’s highest peak.

“I remember in Vancouver after the seventh game and he had got the [Conn Smythe] trophy,” Svensson recalled. “He said, ‘I have to thank you for this.’ I almost got tears in my eyes. I said, ‘No, Timmy, I only recommended you, you did the rest.’

“That was really emotional…but he did it himself. He got the chance and he took it, that’s really nice.”

Nearly a decade earlier, it was Svensson who helped lead the charge to bring Thomas into the Bruins organization when his reports on the journeyman goaltender stood out to then assistant general manager Jeff Gorton.

“[Jeff] called me, ‘Hey, you wrote some good reports on this Tim Thomas,’” said Svensson, who had been watching Thomas during the backstop’s stints in Finland (HIFK Helsinki, 1997-99; Karpat, 2001-02) and Sweden (AIK, 2000-01).

With the Bruins in search of a goaltender for the American Hockey League club in Providence, Svensson was quick to give his endorsement of the Michigan native, who had played four seasons with the University of Vermont before heading over to Europe.

“He had great stats,” said Svensson, who estimated he watched Thomas play about eight times over the course of three seasons. “When you saw him play, he never quit. He was really a warrior in the net and always with a smile on his face. Jeff asked, ‘Do you think he can play on our farm team?’ ‘Yeah, absolutely,’ I said. The rest is history.”

Indeed, it is. As is the exceptional career of a man who hails from Kiruna in the northern-most part of Sweden toward the Arctic Circle – “I’ve been freezing all my life,” Svensson joked – and has devoted his life to the sport he loves.

Svensson, whose own playing career was cut short by knee injuries, is celebrating his 35^th year with the Bruins and at 73 is still supporting the club’s scouting efforts across Europe. While his schedule is about half of what it used to be – down to about 90 games a year from nearly 200, he estimated – Svensson continues to enjoy the grind of bouncing from rink to rink across the continent and recently sat down for an interview with BostonBruins.com during the club’s Bear Tracks trip to Stockholm in August.

Svensson began his scouting career with the Bruins in August 1988 as a part-timer and was officially brought onto the staff for the 1990-91 campaign when Ted Sator, whom Svensson had known from his days coaching in Sweden, was an assistant on Mike Milbury’s staff in Boston.

“Milbury wanted a hockey guy in Sweden and I happened to be coaching in the Swedish league,” said Svensson, who spent three seasons as head coach of Rogle BK from 1984-87 and in 1987-88 briefly coached Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom with IK VIK.

Svensson remembers the days when he would host Bruins great Jean Ratelle, who later became a scout for the club, as well as longtime scouts Jim Morrison, Bob Tindall, and Bart Bradley, for scouting trips across Europe.

“We were only about seven scouts at that time,” said Svensson, who is entering his 33^rd full season with the Bruins. “How many are we today, 26 or something? It’s unbelievable…back then, Ratty came over with Bart Bradley and Morrison came over with Bob Tindall. It was those four that came to Europe for tournaments. You picked them up at the airport if it was in Prague or whatever and went to the games and stuff like that.

“It was totally written, no computers…one player on one sheet. Maybe in a season in the beginning there, you were writing sheets for 50 players…then you put it in an envelope and send it to Bob Tindall in Toronto…today it’s an enormous difference.”

Nowadays, Svensson still teams up with Bruins European Scouting Coordinator P.J. Axelsson and European Amateur Scout Victor Nybladh for scouting trips at various points throughout the year.

“Scouting is teamwork,” said Svensson, who was set to attend a J20 tournament in Nykoping, Sweden, with Axelsson and Nybladh in the days following this interview. “You need to have backup from some of the other scouts to get a guy. Some scouts, they protect their league or their country or whatever, so it’s better to say, ‘These are the ones I love, take a look and you travel to see everyone.’ It’s teamwork.”

It was that type of collaboration that led to the Bruins making one of the best picks in club history when they selected the recently retired David Krejci in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft (63^rd overall). The Czech centerman had caught the eye of Svensson, who relayed what he was seeing to Scott Bradley.

“[Bradley] came over [to Europe] maybe four times [to watch Krejci playing in Czechia],” Svensson said. “Some other scouts saw and said, ‘He’s small.’ I said, ‘But look at the details, how good he is on details; he always comes out with the puck.’ Then Scott Bradley came over and said, ‘You’re right, he’s good.’”

Svensson had a similar experience with Axelsson, who the Bruins selected with a seventh-round pick (177^th overall) in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft.

“I remember at the last Draft meeting we talked about a Swede in the seventh round, we had two Swedes there,” said Svensson. “They asked me, ‘Who is the better skater?’ I said, ‘Axelsson.’ They didn’t discuss anything else and we picked Axelsson. It was a hell of a pick.

“Eleven years [with Boston]. Nothing in Providence…that’s really good…he was offensive [for Vastra Frolunda in Sweden], he scored goals and he was involved in the offense, but he was so smart he could handle the defensive play.”

In addition to factoring into Axelsson’s draft selection all those years ago, Svensson has also made a significant impact on the former Bruin’s post-playing career, having acted as a mentor to Axelsson and so many other B’s scouts in recent years.

“Sven is a legend among Swedish scouts because of his gregarious personality and willingness to travel anywhere to see a young player,” said Bruins general manager Don Sweeney. “Sven has hosted, shuttled, and mentored nearly every Bruins’ scout over the past 35 years. His passion and dedication for the Boston Bruins has never wavered. Sven loves hockey and the Bruins. We are all fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Sven.”

Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs has been on several overseas trips with Svensson throughout the past 20 years, traveling to the likes of Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Czechia for a firsthand look at how the club conducts its scouting business abroad. The journeys are always entertaining, Jacobs said, and portray just how dedicated Svensson is to looking beyond the numbers and statistics.

“He’s a charismatic guy, he’s very funny…he’s just a character, man,” said Jacobs, who recalled that his first scouting trip with Svensson was at the 2004 World Junior Championship in Helsinki.

“He does take the younger scouts and shows them the ropes…he’s a true Bruin…he can talk about characteristics beyond what you’d see on the stat sheet. That’s really important when you’re building a team and putting it together.

“To have a guy that’s been around for 35 years and seen it all – he’s been through a lot of management [teams], a lot of drafts, seen a lot of players – that’s irreplaceable.”

Despite, however, the significant hand he’s had in so many Bruins success stories over the last three-plus decades, Svensson is hardly interested in taking any credit.

“No prestige,” said Svensson. “I don’t care if we draft [a player I watch]…as along as we are winning, that’s the key.”

And after 35 years with the Black & Gold, that type of mentality isn’t changing anytime soon.

“I can’t even believe that it’s gone that far…35 years. The brain thinks that I’m 25 but my body goes, ‘You are still alive?’” Svensson said with a chuckle. “My buddies say, ‘You’re a senior now, can’t you just relax?’ I tell them, ‘Are you [expletive] stupid?’”