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Kent Nilsson |
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| Born August 31, 1956 in Nynashamn, Sweden. Forward. Kent Nilsson played for Swedens Junior National Team from 1973 76, including tying for the tournament lead in scoring at the 1974 IIHF European U18 Championship which helped Sweden to the gold medal. After graduating to the senior team, Nilsson appeared in three Canada Cups and three IIHF World Championship events, and earned a silver medal at the 1990 tournament in Bern. Nilssons first three seasons in the Swedish Elite League were divided between Djurgardens IF from 1974 - 76 and one season with AIK Solna, helped prepared him for North American game, playing first with the WHAs Winnipeg Jets, winning the Avco Cup in both seasons and claimed the Rookie of the Year in 1978 and Most Gentlemanly Player Award in 1979. The bulk of his NHL career was spent with the Flames organization, (Atlanta in 1979 80 then Calgary until 1986) appearing in two NHL All Star games before moving to Minnesota North Stars. It was during Nilssons second year with the club that he was again on the move, this time to Edmonton where he became an integral part of the teams 1987 Stanley Cup triumph. Nilsson then made numerous stops across Europe first leading Bolzano to the Italian championship in 1988. Three consecutive seasons from 1989 92 for Kloten in the Swiss League were sandwiched between stops back with Djurgardens in Sweden. EC Graz of Austria were next to employ Nilsson in 1993 94, followed by the Norwegian club Valerenga the next season, which even included six more NHL games, this time with Boston, rounding out an NHL career that tallied 686 points in 553 games. Finally, Nilsson made brief appearances with his hometown club Nynashamn, Stugggart in Germany and even with CH Majadahonda in the Spanish League in 1997 98. Nilsson was honoured back in Sweden with the Viking Award as Best Swede in the NHL in 1980 81 and also declared the Swedish Player of the Year for the 1988 89 season. |
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