Toronto Sceptres defender Anna Kjellbin (71) saw her English-speaking skills sharpened quickly over the last two seasons in the PWHL. The captain of Sweden's women's hockey team has just one teammate who speaks her native language.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Anna Kjellbin says the beginning of PWHL seasons can be a bit mentally taxing.
Coming back to Canada after summers in Sweden, the Toronto Sceptres defender who hails from Göteborg says some adjustment is required.
“I do remember both last year and this year that it’s a little bit draining,” Kjellbin said. “Getting here and everything is in English again. It takes a couple of weeks, and then you’re in it.
“But it’s definitely a little bit harder at the beginning of every season.”
Kjellbin is one of four Swedish players in the PWHL. Her Toronto teammate, first-year forward Sara Hjalmarsson, is someone she’s known from their time on the Swedish national team.
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This season, Kjellbin said they’ve gotten to know each other better since they’re roommates in Toronto.
“Always nice to get home after practices and be able to speak your first language,” Kjellbin said. “It makes it way easier not to have to think before you talk.”
Kjellbin, Sweden’s captain at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, is used to having a big voice in the locker room – something that comes more naturally in her native language.
“On the other hand, I have a different role here in Toronto,” Kjellbin said. “Obviously, I can speak, but I don’t do it in the same way as I do on the national team.”
Swedish women's team captain Anna Kjellbin said that while in Toronto with the PWHL, it can be mentally draining to be relying on a second language as your primary means of communicating with others.Marton Monus/Reuters
Sceptres’ goaltender Raygan Kirk, from Ste. Anne, Man., notices Kjellbin’s on-ice – English-speaking – presence consistently.
“She’s really communicative with me,” Kirk said. “Just moving the screens and yelling for passes and such.”
In the PWHL, two countries dominate its demographics – Canada and the United States. The two North American countries account for about 85 per cent of the league’s players.
The 2025 PWHL draft reflected the dominance of the Canadian and American programs.
Last year’s draft featured six nationalities. The United States led the way with 24 selections, Canada was second with 17, while Czechia, Finland and Russia each had two draftees.
Hjalmarsson was the lone Swede selected. Joining the Sceptres, where her Olympic teammate resides, meant someone familiar was able to show her the ropes in Toronto.
The 28-year-old played at Providence College in Rhode Island from 2018 to 2023. At first, she found the language barrier difficult due to the lack of fellow country people on her team.
“When you’re surrounded with people speaking English everywhere, all the time, you kind of have no choice but to pick it up,” Hjalmarsson said. “So, I think pretty quickly I got more and more comfortable.”
But on the ice, some terms transcend barriers.
Sweden's Maja Nylen Persson, who also suits up for the New York Sirens in the PWHL, said that it's nice to get home and talk with friends and family in Swedish, after days full of speaking English with teammates.Carolyn Kaster/The Associated Press
“I would say hockey terms aren’t too difficult because a lot of them are quite similar in Swedish,” Hjalmarsson said.
Given her college experience, she’s “pretty used to speaking English” now that she’s in the PWHL.
“I think both come pretty naturally,” Hjalmarsson said. “But it’s really nice to be able to speak Swedish to somebody out there.”
For New York’s Maja Nylén Persson, being the only Swede on her team this season has “been a challenge.”
During her rookie season in 2024-25, she found comfort in Noora Tulus. Though Tulus, 30, is from Finland, Nylén Persson said they spoke Swedish with each other.
Now, she’s the only Siren who can speak her native language. While the defender said she’s developed a lot linguistically this season, there are still some issues.
“Last year, I felt like it was hard to get off your personality in a different language, but I felt like I got better at it,” Nylén Persson said. “It’s still something that can be draining; to know you need to think all the time when you’re talking.
“Now, one season in, only talking in [English], it comes more natural.”
The Avesta, Sweden, product said her New York teammates have been nothing but supportive – but unlike Kjellbin and Hjalmarsson, her Swedish speaking is typically limited to phone calls with her family since her roommates are English-speaking.
“At home, when I want to be social and hang out with them, I still have to talk [in] that language,” Nylén Persson said. “Sometimes it’s just nice to come home and call my family, my friends at home, and you can think about something else and kind of shut off your brain.”
All three Swedes said the lack of Swedish teammates and the inability to speak their native language wasn’t a big deal.
But like Nylén Persson, Kjellbin, 32, also enjoys the time away from the rink where she can shut off her English brain.
“When you hit the off button, outside of hockey, coming home and stuff like that,” Kjellbin said. “It’s nice to being able to speak Swedish.”