Joel Kellman, the 25-year-old Sharks rookie, signed out of the Swedish Hockey League last season, having spent five seasons with Karlskrona HK. Now, the forward’s former club is at serious risk of going bankrupt.
According to Swedish paper Kvallsposten, the club is reporting that they need to raise several million krona (shorthand “SEK,” conversion rate is 1/10th of a US dollar) in a short period of time to fund their reconstruction and avoid declaring bankruptcy.
Entrepreneur John Olsson then started an initiative to raise a million SEK by donations of 10,000 SEK each from 100 entrepreneurs and private individuals. After less than a day, they reached a quarter of their goal, hitting 250,000 SEK, thanks in part to a 10,000 SEK donation from Kellman.
In USD, that’s a $1,015.73 donation — likely no chump change for the rookie, who though his NHL salary is $925,000, only earned the big bucks in 31 games with the club this year. Kellman’s minors salary, for 25 games, was just $70,000, a pretty big step down.
I will spare you Google-translated quotes from Kellman, which you can view at the link above, but the gist is that he didn’t hesitate to help save his former club. It’s important to the community, especially developing players.
Kellman notched three goals and four assists for the Sharks this season, as well as four goals and 12 assists for the AHL Barracuda. He will be a restricted free agent this off-season.
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