Brynäs

Gävle's working-class north end put its name to a hockey side in 1912, and within half a century Brynäs had grown into something the whole country claimed a stake in. Under coach Thure Wickberg in the 1960s the team played a fast, attacking game that filled arenas well beyond Gävle, and supporters started calling it "Folkets lag" — the People's Team. The nickname held.

Thirteen Swedish championships followed between 1964 and 2012, a run thick enough at the start that Brynäs took the title six times in eight seasons through the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1969 the club beat HC Davos to win the IIHF European Cup, still the clearest sign of how far its reputation travelled outside Sweden.

None of that made 2023 easier to take. After 63 straight seasons among Sweden's elite, Brynäs lost a playoff series to Malmö Redhawks and dropped into the HockeyAllsvenskan for the first time in the club's history. The response came within a year: a 4–0 sweep of Djurgårdens IF in the final sent Brynäs straight back up. Against Leksands IF, the old Gävle-Dalarna derby still carries a weight none of the club's other fixtures match.

Of the players who came through Brynäs, Börje Salming is the one the club is measured against. He became the first Swede inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.