Bert Robertsson is an interesting coaching candidate. He has been a part of the training staff for Skellefteå that has taken them to 7 finals in 8 years in the SHL.
He has some NHL experience, been around a lot. Even played for us, a few games in the NHL and about a season in HFD. He is probably the closest to a goon Sweden ever have produced.
He is very influenced by Mike Babcock but has developed Babcocks style a lot over the years. A little background that I don't think many knows, but during Babcock's last year in the AHL he coached a Swede, Jonas Rönnqvist. Rönnqvist is a very intelligent player, but had a lot of backproblems during his career which eventually forced him to retire. Anyway Rönnqvist and Babcock became very good friends and Babs preparing for NHL interviews really picked his brain on which parts from the European games he could use in his NA game and how. There was some talks about Babcock wanting Rönnqvist to become his assistent in Detroit but it never materialized (
Tränaren om galna ryktet: "Jag hörde om det där"). Bert Robertsson also played some for Babcock in Cinncinatti. Anyway, a few years later Rönnqvist (who during the few years between playing hockey and becoming a coach, started a company and made a 20m USD exit) and Robertsson took over as coaches of Almtuna in the Swedish second tier league. Almtuna had worthless conditions, no money, the worst arena imaginable and so forth. But Rönnqvist and Robertsson had tremendous success and fell just short of taking Almtuna to the SHL. They revolutionized Swedish hockey.
Robertsson then moved on to Skellefteå and Rönnqvist to another SHL team. Rönnqvist is a genius but he has quit coaching now. But Robertsson was a huge part of creating the extreme powerhouse Skellefteå has been in the NHL the last years. Now all teams in the SHL uses that puck pursuit style that Rönnqvist took with him from Babcock.
Robertsson is as passionate as they come, way too passionate at times, but he got that mentality you love in a coach. Sees no limits, so bright and positive, always pushes things forwards. He is 43 but has already been coaching for 10 years now.
But he is also one of those super bright personailities, who just has experienced so much. He had Mike Keenan for almost a full year. Has been coached by Babacock, Crawford, Low, Renney and many others (played for 12 teams in NA). He had no skill but grinded himself to 7 years in NA, playing both forward and D. Fighting, killing penalties etc.
I think Skellefteå is the
best coached hockey team out there right now. They have been for a while. They play that high paced up tempo forchecking style, takes the puck to the net and create a ton of top notch scoring chances -- AND they manage to combine that with also having a lot of possession.
To be honest, I am very far from convinced that Robertsson is a Head Coach materia in the NHL -- but I do think that he could become a tremendously valuable assistent for a NHL team. The coaching staff that would get me the most excited would lol probably be: HC: Ron Francis, Associate Coach Forwards: Keefe, Associate Coach Defenders: Bert Robertsson
