After Sam Molind missed most of her junior season with Suffolk University women’s hockey, she decided that she wanted to continue playing hockey after graduation. She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but she knew she wanted to go somewhere in Europe.
Not long after her senior season began, she started the process of reaching out to different European teams with the help of an adviser. Originally, she had her heart set on Italy, but due to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy, she couldn’t find a team that would take her because of that.
After going through offers from a few different places, she landed on Sweden and decided to move forward from there.
“They wanted their national team girls on the Italian teams over there,” said Molind. “I had an offer from Hungary, I had an offer from Spain and two offers from Sweden. I landed in Uppsala, Sweden with Almtuna, which is a great fit so far.”
Over the summer, Molind officially signed with Almtuna IS of Sweden’s NDHL, the second-highest professional hockey league in the country. Sweden wasn’t on Molind’s radar when she started her search, but once she started talking to Almtuna, she didn’t want to pass it up.
“I talked to the general manager a bunch. He was super proactive, he was very upfront with me about where he thought I would fit in on the team and giving me a feel of how the girls play, who they are as people and [I] just thought it would be a great fit,” said Molind. “Everyone has seemed to be in the right mindset, they want to win.”
To get to Sweden, Molind first had to get her visa ready to go in the U.S. After a few weeks of paperwork, she was cleared to go to Sweden. The process didn’t end there, as Molind still had to obtain a Sweden residence card and a different card that clears her to play in the league. Additionally, she had to get paperwork signed by Suffolk to formally transfer her to Almtuna.
Now that she’s in Sweden, prep is underway for the beginning of the Almtuna season. On the ice, there is a much more intense practice environment and a bigger sheet of ice as opposed to playing in the states. Both on and off the ice, there is a language adjustment as well.
“It’s not necessarily a language barrier, but they do prefer to speak Swedish,” said Molind. “In the locker room, the girls speak a lot of Swedish and not a lot of English. The coach speaks Swedish for the most part, so during drills, [I’m] going up to the girls and asking what he said, which has been interesting. The girls love it, they don’t mind.”
Molind ended her Suffolk career with 17 goals and 26 assists, including a hat trick in the team’s first round victory in the Conference of New England playoffs against Western New England University in February. She is the second women’s hockey alum to sign with a professional team, joining Tess Adams, who signed with the Connecticut Whale of the now-defunct National Women’s Hockey League.
Looking back on her Suffolk career, Molind credited the women’s hockey program for helping her hone the skills needed to compete at a professional level while also helping her teammates improve their game, which has served her well so far in Europe despite transitioning to a different style of play.
Molind also hopes to serve as an inspiration for future Suffolk hockey players to show that they can make it to a high level of athletics as well.
“I’m excited to play next month and I’m excited to represent Suffolk as an alum,” said Molind. “Hopefully, there are girls on future teams at Suffolk who will look at me and say ‘we can do that too.’”
While Almtuna is still in their preseason training, Molind’s professional debut will come soon, as Almtuna’s 12 game regular season starts Oct. 5 against Södertälje SK.
