Jacob Josefson

Jacob Josefson (born on March 2, 1991) is a Swedish professional ice hockey centre, currently playing with the New Jersey Devils in the National Hockey League (NHL).

After Jacob began playing hockey when he was 5 years old, he was acquired by Djurgården's youth organization when he was 10 years old where he also began playing junior hockey in 2005.

On February 28, 2005, Jacob made his Elitserien debut against Timrå IK and became a regular member of Djurgården's senior team.

Jacob's achievements in the Swedish Elitserien drew attention from NHL and he was selected in the first round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils (20th overall).

He played with Djurgården for an additional season before signing on for the Devils in May 2010.

Jacob has represented Sweden at four International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) sanctioned junior events, winning the silver medal at the 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships and the bronze medal at the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

He has also participated in the 2008 IIHF World U18 Championships, but he only played three of Sweden's six games, and the 2009 IIHF World U18 Championships.

Djurgårdens IF
Jacob started to play junior hockey in 2005 for Djurgården's under-18 team.[7] During the 2006–07 season, he helped Djurgården's under-16 team to win the Swedish championship.

The 2007–08 season began with the national junior hockey tournament TV-pucken. Jacob's team Stockholm/Vit reached the final which ended with a 2–1 defeat to Småland.

On February 28, 2008, he made his Elitserien debut against Timrå IK which proved to be the only appearance that Jacob would make in the Elitserien during the 2007–08 season.

Jacob played for the J20-team during most of the season scoring 14 goals and 31 points. His team reached the playoffs, but they were defeated by Brynäs IF in the semi-finals.

After the loss, he joined the under-18 team during the playoffs where he helped the team defeat Färjestads BK to capture the Swedish championship.

In May of 2008, Jacob signed a two-year contract with Djurgården. The club's initial plan for Jacob was to move him up to the senior team when regular players were out of the lineup with illness or injuries while his usual team would be the J20-team.

On September 23, 2008, Jacob scored his first goal in Elitserien in his third game, a 4–1 win against Brynäs IF.

Ultimately, he played almost every game of the regular season and usually played along with Carl Gustafsson and Henrik Eriksson on the 4th line.

At the end of the season, Jacob had scored 5 goals and 16 points, a record for players 18 or younger playing with the senior team.

He was ranked third in the midterm rankings among European skaters by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

Jacob was selected in the first round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils (20th overall).

He was also drafted in the third round (61st overall) in the 2009 KHL Junior Draft by SKA Saint Petersburg.

In July of 2009, Jacob participated at the Devils rookie camp. He has been compared with centres Nicklas Backstrom and John Madden.

At the beginning of the 2009–10 season, Djurgården participated in the Nordic Trophy pre-season tournament. In the second game, Jacob scored a hat trick and added two assists against the Malmö Redhawks.

At the end of the group stage, Josefson was the scoring leader with five goals and seven points.[24] He scored his first points for the regular season, three assists, in the Elitserien premiere away against HV71.

Djurgården lost the game 7–6, but on October 20, 2009, Jacob would get his revenge when he scored the game-winning goal in the 3–2 victory over HV71 20. This was also was his first goal of the regular season.

Jacob missed six Elitserien games due to the World Junior Hockey Championship, but was back in the roster against Timrå IK on January 9, 2010.

On January 30, 2010, he recorded an assist against Rögle BK which was his 17th point of the season, putting him ahead of last season's total.

At the end of the regular season, Jacob had scored 8 goals and 20 points in 43 games.

The 2009–10 playoffs were his first Elitserien playoffs and he played almost every game missing the first two semifinal games against Linköpings HC due to illness.

Djurgården lost the finals 4–2 to HV71. Jacob re-signed with Djurgården for another year on April 27, 2010.

Despite this and an oral guarantee the club received from Jacob's agent Peter Wallén that Jacob would stay, he signed with the New Jersey Devils on May 14, 2010.

New Jersey Devils
In September of 2010, Jacob participated in the pre-season camp with the Devils, but he was assigned to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Albany Devils after the camp.

He was called up to the Devils on October 14, 2010, and made his NHL debut the next day, in a 3–2 victory against Colorado Avalanche at the Prudential Center.

Jacob was slashed on his left hand and later fell on the same hand during the game against San Jose Sharks on October 27, 2010 which caused a ligament in his thumb to tear, and forced him to undergo surgery.

He returned from his injury on January 7, 2011 when the Albany Devils played against the Charlotte Checkers.

On March 12, 2011, Jacob scored his first NHL goal against Al Montoya of the New York Islanders.

The Devils failed to reach the playoffs and Jacob ended up with three goals and ten points in 28 regular season games.

In the fifth game of the 2011–12 season, Jacob broke his right clavicle after crashing shoulder first into the boards.

He underwent surgery the following day on October 22, 2011 and was expected to be sidelined for three or four months.

On April 3, 2012 in a game against the Islanders, Jacob bumped awkwardly into Jay Pandolfo which resulted in a broken left wrist.

He returned to the lineup on May 21, 2012 in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference Finals against Rangers and played a total of six games in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, scoring one point.

International Play
Jacob played in his first IIHF sanctioned tournament when he was part of Sweden's team at the 2008 IIHF World U18 Championships. He managed to score a hat-trick in the first game against Belarus.

He left the team in the morning before the fourth game due to an accident in which his father and uncle had been exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Jacob made his second appearance at the U18 Championship the following year, at the 2009 IIHF World U18 Championships where he also took the role as alternate captain.

He managed to score three goals and seven points in six games. Jacob was a part of Sweden's national junior team at the 2009 World Junior Championships. He played in all of Sweden's six games but did not score any points.

A few months later, Jacob played for Sweden in the U18 Championship but could not help his team go further than fifth place in the tournament.

He participated in the World Junior Championship for the second time when he was named for Team Sweden by head coach Pär Mårts for the 2010 World Junior Championships, along with fellow Djurgården team-mates Daniel Brodin and Marcus Kruger.

Jacob scored his first goal of the tournament and the first goal of the game against Austria in the preliminary rounds.

He scored two additional goals in Sweden's 7–1 victory over Finland in the last game of the preliminary rounds.

Jacob (who also had three assists in the tournament) had six points in total.

Personal Life
Jacob's parents are Annika and Peter Josefson. He is the youngest of three brothers.

He started skating when he was 2 years old and joined IK Gota when he was 5 years old.

Jacob's older brothers had played for the same club. He played with Hammarby IF for a year before he was acquired by Djurgårdens IF when he was 10 years old, playing for the 1991 team.

Jacob also played football until he was 13 years old, before deciding to focus entirely on hockey.

He attended high school at Vittra Gymnasium in Sweden while playing for Djurgården.