Börje Salming: Inspired Generations of Swedish Players

On November 16 & 17, the Detroit Red Wings will face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators at Avicii Arena in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the 2023 NHL Global Series. To commemorate this historic event and pay tribute to Detroit's Swedish connection, each week leading up to the Global Series, we will feature a Swedish Red Wings story in our series, 'How Swede It Is' presented by JP Wiser's. Each story is a testament to the dedication and resolve between the players and the Red Wings to build upon and maintain a tradition of excellence between Swedish hockey and the Red Wings. We continue our series with hall of fame defenseman Borje Salming.

By the time defenseman Börje Salming donned the Red Wings sweater, he was an icon in his native Sweden and an established NHL star with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

However, after 16 years in Toronto, he was looking for a change. After talking with Red Wings general manager Jimmy Devellano, he signed as a free agent with Detroit on June 12, 1989.

"I always admired Börje Salming. He was one of the top defensemen in the league," Devellano said. "I always thought during the late '70s, early '80s he gave the Leafs a bit of an edge over Detroit. They were a lot like us, they weren't very good, but they did have big Salming on defense.

"Börje was kind of at the end, but I felt that we could maybe milk a year out of him. He was ready to leave Toronto after 16 years and try something new. So we signed Börje Salming.

"Also, there was a little bit of show business to it. I like to do things for the press and the media, and I like to do things that'll grab attention. I guess I'm a bit of a disturber in that way. Signing Salming after 16 years in Toronto, they didn't take too nicely to that in Toronto. So it gave us a lot of media exposure."

Under coach Jacques Demers, the Red Wings were beginning to turn the corner and Salming liked how Demers was planning to use the legendary blueliner.

"I talked to Jacques, and he told me I would play about 60 games, and I feel good about that. I feel healthy," Salming, then 38, told the Detroit News on June 13, 1989. "I feel 100 percent. I don't think a team would sign me unless they felt I could still play. They're going to let me go home, get a couple of days off after we've played a lot of games. My family will stay in Toronto.

"I'm going year by year, that's all I can do now. I just want to go (to Detroit) and win. I want to come into the dressing room and feel good about winning. Here (Toronto) we lost a lot. I want to see everybody happy. That's most important to me. If you win, everybody is happy, the family is happy, and it's so much easier to live, that's all. I'm going to Detroit and give 100 percent. Hopefully, we'll do really well, but time will tell that."

Salming was also looking forward to playing with, and not against, Detroit's 24-year-old captain Steve Yzerman.

"(Yzerman) showed the last few years how good he is, and he was just improving," Salming told the Detroit News about Yzerman. "Last year he showed he was tops (155 points in 80 games). He can do any kind of move. He's such a good skater, a strong skater. It'll be a relief not to have to defend against him, definitely."

The 1989-90 Red Wings were still trying to consistently find their way into the upper echelon of the NHL standings. They finished with 70 points (28-38-14) and didn't qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four years. It would also be the last time the Red Wings didn't make the playoffs for the next 25 consecutive seasons.

Though he meshed well on and off the ice with his Red Wings teammates Salming retired from the NHL after the season. Yet, his impact on the Red Wings Swedish players who followed him is immeasurable.

"Back in '91, before I joined the Wings, he was my partner (at the 1991 Canada Cup)," Red Wings legend Nick Lidstrom said. "I was actually an extra defenseman when the tournament started and someone got hurt and I got paired with Börje and I played all the games with him. I was nervous to meet him, but he made me feel so relaxed. I remember he told me, 'Just go out there and play your game, I'm going to take care of the defense, you can go join the offense' and be the offensive player that I was at a young age. He made me feel comfortable right away, which was huge for me."

Lidstrom remembers how Salming showed up for every game and how he never took a shift off, something Lidstrom tried to emulate during his Red Wings career. He was also impressed with how Salming conducted himself.

"He probably exceeded what I expected. Off the ice he was such a nice man," Lindstrom said. "He cared for other people in the locker room, he didn't act like the superstar he was. He was just being himself and really was thinking about everyone else as well. He paved the way for not only Swedes but for European players when he came over in the early '70s. He wasn't the first European player, but he was one of the first that became a star. So he paved the way for all the Europeans the way he played and the way he stood up to the tough hockey that was played back then.

"He was my idol growing up."

In mid-July 2022, Salming was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Salming passed away from the disease on November 24, 2022, at age 71.

Salming's death sparked a wave of emotional tributes throughout the hockey world as fans and players remembered a tremendous hockey player and an even better man.

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