We have kept banging the drum for Miks Indrašis as a possible signing to take IK up another level. So far, there has been no visible response from IK, Miks or his agent.
Meanwhile, Mattias Tedenby is sitting without a contract in Jönköping. HV71 brought in the 36-year-old forward on a short-term deal through the start of the regular season, then offered him another six weeks. Tedenby turned it down. HV71 have not closed the door, but there is currently no full-season solution for him there.
Tedenby is also a former Dead Hollow Carver – albeit for a very brief spell in 2008. His connection to Oskarshamn is obviously nowhere near as strong as Manuel Ågren’s, but it exists.
This is not a big, heavy forward. What he brings is speed, skill, work rate and a CV featuring more than 600 games for HV71 and three Swedish championships. Last season, he recorded 8+2 in 48 SHL games.
And it certainly starts to look interesting when you put him into the current IK line-up.
Tedenby – Matt Brown – Danny Dzhaniyev?
Or Tedenby – Joel Svensson – Matt Brown?
That would allow Ågren – Engsund – Calle Karlsson to remain intact when Manne returns.
It would not give IK the size and power that a bigger forward would. But speed? Absolutely. Experience? Plenty. A player who still works hard and can make things happen with the puck? Yes.
There is, of course, a downside as well. Tedenby is 36, and his scoring has declined. He finished last SHL season with 8+2 in 48 games. So this is not a proposal to sign a player who will come in and be guaranteed to dominate the scoring charts.
At the same time, HockeyAllsvenskan is not the SHL. The pace, the opposition and his role would all be different. The real question is whether Tedenby’s speed, skill, experience and work capacity can still give IK something the team does not already have. We think that is worth a phone call, at the very least.
We do not know whether Tedenby is interested in IK. We do not know whether IK are interested in Tedenby. And we are not going to pretend there has been contact when we know nothing of the sort.
But he is in Jönköping, he has turned down another short-term deal with HV71, and he already has a small piece of IK history behind him.
And if a little assistance is needed: IK assistant coach Johannes Salmonsson can call his friend Oscar Sundh. Sundh, himself a former Dead Hollow Carver, also has strong ties to HV and can at least explain what Oskarshamn can be for a player who becomes one of our own.
Because that is part of the offer too. Instead of another adventure far from Jönköping, Tedenby could stay close to his family while getting the chance to become a hero at a working-class club where players who give everything can still be loved long after their final game.
Maybe Tedenby has forgotten his brief spell with IK. We have not.
Make the call, Arsi.
