Lulea Trio Making A PWHL Impact

The influx of talent from Europe has been a pleasant surprise in the second season of the PWHL. Three of the top players from Luleå HF of the SDHL traveled to the 2024 Draft together, and were a consistent sighting for press, families, and players during those few days in St. Paul, MN. Not surprisingly, by the third round, all three were selected.

Luleå has been a perennial champion in the SDHL, and their success is due in large part to several very talented players, including Finnish legend Jenni Hiirikoski. But the leading scorer in the entire league, Noora Tulus, was also a Luleå fixture. And on defense, the pair of Daniela Pejsova (from Czechia) and Ronja Savolainen (from Finland) played huge minutes. Defender Anna Kjellbin (who didn’t travel to Minnesota) was another significant player from Luleå, and she was drafted by the Montreal Victoire.

For Tulus, Pejsova, and Savolainen, the draft was a whirlwind — not only dealing with a 7-8 hour time difference from their home base in Sweden, but facing the cameras, questions, and uncertainty of what their hockey futures would bring.

Still, they participated and leaned on each other for support through all of the picture posing, the WNBA basketball game, the purple carpet, and the excitement of being drafted (all three to different teams).

This fall, the trio arrived in North America to begin their PWHL journeys. Here’s what each of them, beginning this week with Noora Tulus, said about the experience so far.

Noora Tulus (drafted 13th overall by New York)

2023-24 SDHL statistics: 36 GP 22 G 39 A 61 pts / Playoffs 9 GP 4 G 8 A 12 pts

About the draft:

It was a nice trip, nice to be able to be part of an event like that. It was a new situation for me, since we don’t have a draft situation in Europe. So it all was new, but it was also nice to feel that I had two teammates with me there. It was like a little adventure to us.

On handling the attention and having her Luleå teammates with her on the trip:

I know it’s part of the league here, in the PWHL, I need to do media. So, I just needed to do it. But having Ronja [with me], one of my closest friends there and also knowing she's doing the same thing, it kind of gave me some space safe somehow.

Staying in touch:

Yeah, especially with Ronja, we try to keep in touch. Like I said, she’s one of my closest friends, so of course, we try to keep in touch as much as we can, but mostly with texting; we've been texting, ‘how is it going,’ if everything's okay, how we are doing and that kind of stuff.

Just kind of like caring about each other and hoping that everything goes well for both of us. So it’s kind of cool to have someone else doing this same adventure. Again, it is just like creating like a safe space.

She's also having her life and I'm having mine. But, like, thank God we have a phone, so we can keep in touch whenever.

On what will it be like to play against Ronja regularly in the PWHL:

I’m sure we will laugh. We haven’t had that many situations against each other, like it's literally not happening that many times — just like in practice or scrimmages. So yeah, it's definitely tough to play against her. We kind of know each other too well, too good. So yeah, it's going to be fun. But also we‘ll’ see how it's going to be on the ice once some battles are happening.

On Ronja getting engaged to Anna Kjellbin:

I was so happy to hear the good news. So happy that they have found each other and definitely good for them to be that close [Ottawa and Montreal] so maybe they can see a little bit more of each other.

On Daniela Pejsova playing in Boston:

She's a young talented player, and people like Ronja and Daniela, they are tall and can use their bodies probably more than me. But yeah, I think she’s going to do good in Boston and I'm hoping for the best for her.

On playing for New York, and living in New Jersey:

We are in New Jersey right now, so it’s all good. I'm actually sharing an apartment with Maja Nylen Persson, so it's nice to have some other European players here; we've played before against each other, but we didn’t know each other really more than that. So it’s nice also get to know her. And I think we are vibing pretty good. So yeah, so far good. It's been a lot, but I know that like day by day it's going better and better.

On enjoying the physical play:

I'm probably not the most physical player here in this league, but I could also say I'm strong enough to be able to play physical. We were able to hit in the Swedish league last two years so I feel like I'm prepared.

On keeping tabs on Luleå:

I was in Sweden for some time between August and October, and the season started earlier than here, so I was able to see some games. I actually drove down to Stockholm to see the team playing there. So it was nice to see some of the old teammates and say hi and say like, good luck for the season. So I haven’t done that much more keeping in touch with [Johanna] Fällman who was here last year, so we kind of keep in touch because of that, but otherwise I'm just trying to follow the games, how they end up and that kind of thing.

Luleå is at the top of the SDHL standings as of January 19, 2025, with a record of 19-5-3. The SDHL playoffs begin in the third week of February.