You’ll be able to see just that this fall in the National Hockey League (NHL). Just tune in the Ottawa Senators. They are the team that drafted Mika Zibanejad last Thursday. To the surprise of everyone, he was the sixth person picked in the NHL draft. Many sports analysts thought he would be passed over this year since he is only 18 and drafted next year.
And, okay, Zibanejad is only half-Iranian. His dad, Mehrdad, moved from Iran to Sweden after the revolution when he was 23 years old. His mother, Ritva, moved from Finland to Sweden after a divorce. They met and married and the result is Mika—who speaks Swedish, Finnish, Farsi, English and a smattering of French. But he speaks ice hockey best.
He grew up just outside Stockholm and started playing ice hockey at age six. He was soon a fixture of local youth teams and moved up the league scales rapidly until he was placed in Sweden’s professional league last year.
He only made his pro debut last December 7, not even seven months ago.
He started playing as a winger but is now a center. The NHL lists him as 6-foot-2 (188 cms), but others list him at 6-1 or even 6-0. Of course, at 18, he may still be growing.
Zibanejad was flown to Ottawa recently for an interview, indicating that the team was seriously considering him, but he said he was still surprised to be drafted.
“Obviously, when you are brought to Ottawa you get a feeling,” he said.
“I’ll do everything I can to work hard and make it.”
The Ottawa Senators have several Swedes on their roster, most notably captain Daniel Alfredsson, likely easing Zibanejad’s adjustment to the NHL from the Swedish Elite League, where he played for Djurgarden.
Zibanejad was steered toward tennis at first by his father, but discovered hockey thanks to his older half-brother, Monir Kalgoum, who now plays hockey in England for a semi-pro team.
“He’s been a big inspiration for me,” Zibanejad said of Kalgoum. “I actually started to play tennis. That was what my dad wanted. But then I got stuck into hockey after the first time on ice. I love tennis, but obviously I love hockey [more] so I switched.”
Zibanejad said he always had his eye on playing in the NHL. That’s why he began studying French, he said, “maybe with the thought of playing in the NHL for a French-speaking team.” The Senators are in Canada’s bilingual capital city with French-speaking Quebec just across the river.
Canada’s national daily, The Globe and Mail, quoted scouts as saying Zibanejad is a skilled player who has a mean streak. Zibanejad described himself as a North American player. Canadian and American ice hockey is considered to be very rough compared to the more genteel hockey played in Europe from Britain to Russia.
“I play pretty physical,” Zibanejad said.” I try to use my speed. I try to use my skills, too, so I’m an all-around player.”
The National Hockey League was started in 1917 with four Canadian teams, including the Ottawa Senators. The “National” in NHL refers to Canada. But in 1924, the league added the Boston Bruins and in the 1960s began a major expansion that put the majority of teams in the United States. The NHL now has 30 teams, only seven of which are Canadian.
The Senators currently need all the help they can get. In the 82-game season that just ended (with a riot in Vancouver), the Senators finished 26th out of 30 teams and had the third worst goal differential.