Tex Williamsson has played his final game. He said so himself to Hockeysverige.
The 35-year-old steps away after an injury-plagued final season in Nybro, a brief stint in Östersund and a family situation that ultimately mattered more than the next contract. His family is in Småland. Moving does not appeal to him. His agent had ideas, but Tex says he no longer wants to live that life.
That appeared to kill an idea we had been carrying around without publishing it: let Tex train with IK.
But after giving it another thought, that might not be quite the same thing as trying to sign him.
We are not talking about making Tex one of two regular goaltenders. His latest season in Nybro was disrupted by injuries, and that risk makes a traditional two-goaltender setup less attractive. We do not know whether his injury history was the reason Nybro moved on without him, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
But as a third goaltender? As an experienced netminder who trains with the team when it works, stays within reasonable reach of family life and provides an extra layer of cover if something happens?
That is a much more intriguing idea.
Vuorio has done well at the start. Axel Nyman remains untested for IK in HockeyAllsvenskan. There is no reason to manufacture a goaltending crisis that does not exist. On the contrary, this is about trying to cheaply insure against a future crisis.
Tex is the kind of goaltender who, when his body holds up and his game clicks, can win a match on his own. He does not need to prove that he can play in HockeyAllsvenskan. The only question is whether he wants hockey in his everyday life at all – and his recent announcement makes it fairly clear that, right now, the answer is no.
So this is not a rumour. Not even close.
It is our idea.
And perhaps that is exactly the point. Over the years, IK have benefited from occasionally thinking a little differently from everyone else. But history also shows why “unorthodox” does not automatically mean “smart”.
Skeeter More and Peter Ekroth are names that live on for good reason. Kamil Kastak is almost an example of both sides: when he was healthy, he was outrageously good, but injury made the story a short one. On the other side are signings that delivered more cult status than quality. Mike Maurice arrived out of shape, scored two goals in eleven games and was soon on his way out. Dale Weise never became the hit people had hoped for either.
The point, then, is not that IK should do strange things for the sake of it.
The point is that a small club must be prepared to look for asymmetry: low risk, potentially high upside.
Giving an expensive contract to a 35-year-old with an injury history as one of two goaltenders would be one thing. Asking a retired, match-winning goaltender in Småland whether he wants to stay sharp for a few sessions a week as the third option is something else entirely.
He may well say no. The Hockeysverige interview suggests that, for the time being, he wants some distance from hockey life altogether. If so, that settles it.
But asking costs next to nothing.
And if IK are to keep surviving and beating clubs with deeper pockets, they will probably need to keep considering ideas that do not always look entirely normal on paper.
This is one of them.