In 1981, at the age of 21, Loob was playing for Farjestad when they won the Swedish Championship but he really made his mark in the 1982-83 season. Farjestad was then at its zenith and the team's best five-man lineup consisted of Tommy Samuelsson and Peter Loob, Jan Ingman, Thomas Rundqvist and Hakan Loob. The quintet became the asset of the season and the agile Hakan Loob was its driving force.
Farjestad lost the gold to Stockholm's Djurgarden in the 1982-83 season and Hakan Loob was seriously injured in one of the games. But that season became the turning point in his career. The talented forward caught the attention of the NHL Calgary Flames scouts. Once again the skeptics wondered whether this player who was slight of build could hold his own in the NHL, where tough bodychecking was the rule and rinks were smaller than those in Europe.
But Loob fooled them all. In the 1987-88 season, he became the first Swedish player to score 50 goals in the NHL regular season. Besides that, he had 56 assists to his credit, racking up a total of 106 points?an achievement that the present generation of Swedish players in the NHL can still be proud of. A year later, "Lucky Loob" was able to hold up the cherished Stanley Cup won by the Calgary Flames. Loob played 450 games for the NHL, scoring 193 goals.
For Loob and all Swedish hockey fans, 1987 was an especially memorable year. At the World Championship in Vienna, Tre Kronor won the gold after a hiatus of 25 years, largely thanks to the efforts of Hakan Loob.
The Swedish nationals, under the leadership of senior coach Tommy Sandlin, were a well-balanced and powerful team with an excellent lineup of players that year. Hakan Loob was a standout.
Returning to Farjestad in 1989, Loob continued to play the key role in the lineup of his native team, achieving one more gold medal at the 1991 World Championship as well as an Olympic gold medal at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. That gold medal became Loob's crowning achievement. He'd won practically every gold medal that a hockey player could dream of, including the championship of Sweden, the World Championship, the Winter Olympics and the Stanley Cup. Only two other Swedish hockey players have equaled such an achievement, defenseman Tomas Jonsson and forward Mats Naslund.
Loob quit playing in 1996 and was given a standing ovation as he left the ice. A jersey bearing the number 5 that he wore while playing for Farjestad was raised in the local hockey stadium in recognition of his exceptional role. Loob remained in hockey, becoming the sports training supervisor for Farjestad. In 1997 and 1998 the Karlstad team won the Swedish Championship.
