SHL: A few questions about MODO

[lifeisruff]

So I noticed that the Sabres currently have 4 European prospects, all four play for Sweden and three of them (Gustav Possler, Linus Ullmark and Victor Olofsson) play for one club. MODO.

That struck me as strange that 75% of our European prospects play for one club.

Looked up on Wikipedia and discovered that Naslund, Foppa, The Sedins, and Hedman all played for MODO. What the article didn't tell me is:

1. Why MODO (apparently) plays such a big role in the development of Swedish NHL players

2. What does MODO even stand for?

Thanks

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[PuckPoise]

MoDo (Mo and Domsjö) was a big sponsor back in the 60's and it just stuck.

The Sabres have a Swedish scout with ties to Modo, that might have a tiny bit to do with it, but also them spending lots of money on their junior program to develop players from that hockey crazed city (liked they used to back with Forsberg, Näslund, Sedins etc) again, and also recruiting players from other parts of the country. Ullmark is a kid from the region they got at 16 or something, Olofsson is an Örnsköldsvik kid and Possler is a Stockholm area kid they scouted and recruited for their junior program.

They've done a great job allocating resources to their program and is now consistently both one of the most competitive junior teams as well as producer of talent both for their own SHL club and the NHL draft. William Nylander, Dimitro Timashov, Adrian Kempe, Robert Hägg are some of the prospects who's been there lately and looks like more to come.