Man of the Week: Adam Reideborn

The Swedish goalie had a shutout in the most important game so far – game seven against Lokomotiv.

At his fourth season in the League, Adam Reideborn is for the first time a starter for his team in the playoffs, and he’s demonstrating how he belongs to this level. In the deciding, seventh game in the second-round series against Lokomotiv, Reideborn posted his thirteenth career shutout, stopping 30 shots as his CSKA blanked the Railwaymen scoring five unanswered goals to get once again to the Western Conference finals, where the Muscovites will meet once again with SKA. Reideborn has played 49 games this year so far, a record for him in the KHL – he had overall more only once in 2018-2019, when he competed in 57 SHL games with Djurgardens, helping the team returning home with a silver medal and being honored with the Honken Trophy as the Swedish league’s top goalie.

Early years

Adam Reideborn was born on Jan 18, 1992, in Stockholm, the capital and largest city of Sweden, as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. He started his hockey path with AIK, a team in Stockholm that has produced several other players who made it to the KHL, most noticeably the productive defenseman Theodor Lennstrom. However, differently from the former Torpedo blueliner, Reideborn spent little time with AIK. As a junior he played with Spanga IS, Wings HC Arlanda, and Almtuna IS for whom he also got the chance to test games in the Hockeyallsvenskan (the Swedish second-tier league) while he was still loaned down to Wings for games in Division 1.

Moving up the ranks

In the 2012-2013 season, Reideborn finally moved up in ranks signing with Djurgardens IF for his first stint there, playing both as a junior and with the senior team in the Hockeyallsvenskan. He played two years there, getting also called up to Team Sweden during the season, but without getting any actual action. In the 2014-2015 season, he had then the opportunity to have his debut in the Swedish Hockey League for Modo Hockey, where he stayed for another season before returning to Djurgarden, who also played in the SHL again.

He would then spend three seasons in his second stint with Djurgarden, helping the Stockholm side reaching the 2019 SHL finals and being awarded the Honken Trophy for the Swedish goalie of the year. He also played in the Champions Hockey League, posting excellent numbers, but without much team success for Djurgardens.

Move to the KHL

After his tremendous 2018-2019 campaign, it was quite obvious that Reideborn outgrew the SHL, and decided to sign a deal in the KHL, inking a one-year contract with Ak Bars. He played well in his debut season, and shortly after it his contract was renewed for a further season. 2020-2021, however, was the season that saw Timur Bilyalov having a jump in his development, and he ended up playing more games, including in the postseason.

After his second campaign with Kazan, Reideborn had his debut at the IIHF World Championship, playing five games for the Tre Kronor in Latvia. However, Ak Bars decided to part ways with the Swedish goalie, who in turn moved West to Moscow, signing a two-year deal on Jun 1, 2021. In his first year with CSKA, Reideborn had once again to help a younger goalie stepping up in his development, with Ivan Fedotov taking the lead between the piping and backstopping the Muscovites to their second Gagarin Cup triumph. However, during the season, for his reliable play he was rewarded with a spot in the Team Sweden roster for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

The rest is history. Reideborn keeps on providing excellent goaltending for CSKA and this year he’s a starter, and has a fantastic chance to lead the team to yet another triumph.