Niverville’s Hayden Fast is playing professional hockey this season in Sweden. The 20-year-old has signed on to play with the Söderhamn/Ljusne HC, a team which plays at the Division 2 level.
Fast decided to play in Sweden earlier this year after wrapping up a stellar junior season with the MMJHL’s St. Vital Victorias, where he scored 59 points in 43 games and took home the league’s Rookie of the Year honour.
“I honestly did not expect to be playing competitively after my last season with the Vics,” Fast says. “But once I got a call, I figured I could not pass up the opportunity to travel and experience hockey overseas, which was the main reason for me.”
Fast was originally coming to Sweden to play on the local junior team, and looking to hopefully get some games with the Division 2 pro team. After his arrival, Fast was told that they were going to put him on the Division 2 team right away.
“The quality of hockey is very high,” he says. “A lot of imports from all over Europe have come out here ranging from 19 to 28 years old. So there’s definitely some big men out here, which is great to be able to play with everyone. So far things are great, as the guys here are awesome and extremely understanding that the foreign players can’t speak their language. They try to make us feel as welcome as possible.”
Fast currently lives in Ljusne, which is 10 minutes away from Söderhamn, but the rink is in Ljusne and most of the Swedish players on the squad come from Soderhamn.
“It’s a very small quaint town with very few things to do, but within a week the restaurant owners knew my name, which is more of a Niverville atmosphere. That made it easy to adjust.”
Fast’s season with Soderhamn-Ljusne begins on October 6. Until then, the team has six preseason games, with the first one coming up this Thursday against a Division 3 team.
“My goals for the upcoming season is to put myself in a spot to move up to Division 1 next year,” says Fast. “To do that, I just have to keep going by playing my game, which is smart and skilled hockey.”