Väsby IK

Väsby IK HK play in HockeyAllsvenskan, the tier just below the SHL. It is the kind of position the club has occupied on and off since the 1980s: close enough to the top to remember what it looked like, never quite settled there.

That memory goes back to 1987, when Väsby won Division I and rode the momentum straight into Elitserien, the top flight of the day. The promotion was sudden enough that the nickname "Vilda Väsby" — Wild Väsby — was coined on the spot and has stuck since. The stay lasted one season before relegation sent them back down, and the club has not returned to the top division since, nor lifted a national title.

The old attendance record from that campaign, 3,683 at what is now called Renew Arena, still exceeds the ground's official capacity of 3,000 — a number set before the seating was reconfigured. Founded in 1956, the club has otherwise built its history in the lower tiers, adding a Division 1D and Allettan title in 2007 that took them to the promotion play-offs without a way through.

Per Eklund passed through the club in the early 1990s on his way to a longer career that eventually took him to the NHL and a World Championship gold with Sweden in 1998. Huddinge IK remains the club's most regular opponent, a rivalry worn in through repeated meetings in Hockeyettan rather than through any single match that gave it a name.