Career Reflection: (S66) Kolur Bjoernsson

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Today we are here to take a look at the career of Icelandic goaltender Kolur Bjoernsson. Bjoernsson first appeared during S65 when he signed with the Las Vegas Aces in the VHLM. Appearing in just 36 games for the Aces, his career started slowly with a record of 6-25-4 and a save percentage of 0.864. Despite the rough beginnings, Bjoernsson was able to use this partial season to start learning the league and motivate himself to improve heading into his first full season. In S66, he would eventually be selected with the 90th overall pick in the VHLM draft by the Philadelphia Reapers.

 

Taken so late in the draft and with everything yet to prove, he would end up beating out Sunny Burst for the starting job between the pipes for the Reapers and quickly proved that it was the right decision. In total, the Reapers earned 116 points over the course of the season in an effort that would see them win the Prime Minister's Cup for the first time in their history. Bjoernsson saw action in 67 games that season, totaling 4044 minutes in goal. He finished the season with a record of 52-11-4 and had 9 shutouts. He would end up making 1335 saves and allowing just 122 goals over the course of the regular season. With a save percentage of 0.909 and a goals allowed average of 1.81 (he maintained a GAA less then 2.00 for the entire season), Bjoernsson was selected as the top goaltender in of S66 of the VHLM and was given the Benoit Devereux Trophy. 

 

Next came the S66 playoffs, where Philadelphia would eventually go on to win their first ever Founder's Cup. In this post season run, Bjoernsson would make 14 appearances and earn a record of 12-2-0. He made 345 saves and gave up 32 goals in these playoffs, finishing with a save percentage of 0.907 and a goals allowed average of 2.23. This season would unfortunately be the peak of Kolur's career, and he ended it by making 5 appearances for Team Europe in the World Junior Championship tournament and won 4 of those games. 

 

In the S66 VHL draft, Bjoernsson had been selected 49th overall by the New York Americans and in S67 he would have his most active VHL season before he would quickly become irrelevant. He made 44 starts that season and won only 7 games while allowing over 4 goals per game. His career would extend through S73, and in that time he would play for a total of 5 different teams and appeared in only 97 games when it was all said and done. He ended his career with a record of 17-54-7 and a save percentage of 0.898. Interestingly, in S69, Bjoernsson recorded a save percentage of 0.948 which is the sixth highest single season save percentage in VHL history. He made only 4 appearances that season, played 120 minutes, and had a record of 0-0-0 but I personally choose to ignore that part. 

 

Despite his career largely being a failure, Philadelphia Reapers legend Kolur Bjoernsson did manage to leave his mark on VHL history and is an interesting topic of discussion. 

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Kolur Bjoernsson week