Meet Swedish Right-Handed Defenseman Helge Grans

The difference in population between Swedish town Ljungby and Los Angeles of 3.99 million people is about 3.98 million people to the American city´s advantage. A nine hour flight separates Sweden from L.A. But there's still ice. And there's still hockey to be played.
At some point for Helge Grans, these two worlds will hopefully meet.
The SHL season is underway and for Helge Grans it couldn't have started in any better fashion. With six points in eleven games the 18 year old right shot defenseman has already surpassed his personal best in terms of goals (2), assist (4) and points (6), having scored one goal and two assists in 21 games last season.

When we had our talk, he had just scored his second goal in straight games on the powerplay against Örebro. Grans saw an opportunity on the left hand side and rushing forward in an empty space he hammered in a rebound, tying it at one in what would be a 2-1 victory for the Malmö Redhawks.
"The game offered a few rebounds and when the opportunity presented itself, I just went for it and slotted it home." he says with a modest voice.
But the offensive mind of Helge Grans does have its reasons; Up until he played with the U15 team, Grans played center:
"That was when I began playing D. My older brother, Henning, and my dad thought I should begin playing defense. That way I'd play the puck more and that's what kind of made me latch on the position." he explains. "And I soon felt I was better at playing D than center."

Speaking of Grans´ family, he sums up his hockey pedigree with the words "We're a big hockey family, so I guess there's no surprise I ended up playing". And he's not wrong. Helge Grans has two brothers. Henning, 26, played as a centerman in the Swedish fourth tier hockey up with Värnamo this past season. Egon, 21, last season played with Diö GOIF, fifth tier hockey.
Their dad, Morgan, has his jersey in the rafters back home in Ljungby, where he played 484 regular season games with Troja in the second tier leagues division 1 and Hockeyallsvenskan between 1988-2003 before ending his season with another 41 games in 2004-05. And yes, Morgan Grans played center.
"My dad stopped playing a few years after I was born. He's got his jersey in the rafters there, that's pretty cool. He has been my coach from time to time." Grans continues. He played with Troja Ljungby up until the beginning of the 2017-18 season, at which point he moved south to Malmö. The story, as told in Malmö newspaper Kvällsposten earlier this year, goes that Malmö Redhawks general manager Patrik Sylvegård and junior scout Thomas Kollar watched an exhibition game prior to the classic Swedish tournament for 15 year-olds, TV-pucken, and had made up their mind two minutes into the game.
"Sign him!" was the orders from Sylvegård to Kollar.
Done and done. Helge Grans moved to Malmö, and has not looked back.
"Patrik is a great person, it's great having him here. He's a good general manager. Calm and easygoing. I like it here in Malmö. You feel liked, everybody is nice. We've got great coaches." he says.
Coming into this season, Grans says his goal was to up the ante:
"Last year, it was more of a look and learn experience. This season, I'd like to be more of a presence." Grans says. And he has. Apart from his scoring, he's averaging 14:02 minutes per game so far, compared to 9:41 minutes per game last season. And speaking of the powerplay, he's now playing 3:53 minutes per game on the man advantage compared to 1:38 minutes last season. What has been his focus coming into this season?
"I've been working on my defensive play and I've also focused on my explosiveness, the first four or five strides. I have a great report with our assistant coach, Andreas Lilja. We do a lot of video with the d-pairings.
Everything seems to have fallen into place for Grans, who got picked by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round, 35th overall, in the NHL Entry Draft on October 7th.
"It was a bit hectic there during those days. It was fun, exciting...lots of feelings" he laughs. "But I've been enjoying it a lot."

Off the ice, Grans says he tries to spend as much time as he can with his girlfriend and his family. Other than that, he plays a lot of padel - a very popular racquet sport: "It's so much fun. There are a lot of players." he says excited.
Besides that, he likes to travel and, yes, he has already paid a visit to the Staples Center.
"Yeah, I was actually in Los Angeles a year or so ago. We watched some hockey and also some basketball. L.A. seems to be a nice city and the arena seems nice. Hopefully I'll play there some day."
When prompted on what L.A. Kings fans might not know about him, he goes quiet for a short while. Then he says with a laugh:
"Well, I love Game Of Thrones."
It might be a nine hour flight from Sweden to Los Angeles. We might not know when Helge Grans will make the leap. And he's sort of pushing it aside for now: "Yeah, that's then and here's now. I play for Malmö and the most important thing for me right now is to keep developing as a player. I just have to keep going."

A nine hour flight is a nine hour flight. A sheet of ice is a sheet of ice.
What binds the bolstering L.A. with the small Swedish municipality of Ljungby is an 18 year old defenseman. A right-shot defenseman with quite the offensive capabilities.
Sound familiar?