Maja Nylén Persson (born 20 November 2000) is a Swedish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

for the New York Sirens of the

Professional Women's Hockey League The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; , LPHF) is a women's professional ice hockey league in North America. The league comprises eight teams, four each from the United States and Canada. The teams play a Season (sports), regular season ...

(PWHL). A member of the Swedish national team, she was drafted tenth overall in the second round of the 2024 PWHL draft by New York.

Playing career

Nylén Persson grew up cheering for

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, Swedish Hockey League (SHL), after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus ...

, and made her debut in what is now the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

(SDHL) for their women's team at the age of 13. She played five seasons for the club, scoring over 60 points. In March 2019, she won the EliteProspects Award for the SDHL's youth player of the year, becoming the inaugural recipient of the women's hockey version of the award. After graduating from high school, she left Leksands to sign a three-year contract with

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), promoted from the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden, following the 2023–24 season. The ...

. She scored 26 points in 36 games in her first season with Brynäs, serving as an assistant captain. Following the season, she repeated as the recipient of the EliteProspects Award. The 2021–22 season saw Nylén Persson record 15 goals and 47 points in 35 games, good for fifth in league scoring and first among defenders. In the playoffs, her four goals and 13 points helped Brynäs to their second consecutive finals appearance. She won the SDHL awards for player of the year and defender of the year, and became the first woman to win the Salming Trophy as the best Swedish-born defender playing in Sweden. Following the season, she signed a two-year contract extension with Brynäs. In the 2023–24 season as the captain of Brynäs, Nylén Persson finished fifth in the league and led all defenders with 38 points in 36 games. She won the SDHL top defender award for the third consecutive season. Nylén Persson chose to move to North America for the 2024–25 season, declaring for the 2024 draft of the

(PWHL), where she was selected tenth overall by

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. She signed a three-year contract with the club on 11 July. Prior to the start of the PWHL season, she was loaned back to Brynäs, where she played the first five games of the SDHL season and recorded five points, all assists.

International play

Nylén Persson was part of the Swedish squad that won gold at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics. She made her senior national team debut at the 2017 World Championship. Nylén Persson represented

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

at the 2017 World U18 Championship, where they faced

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in the bronze-medal match. Scoreless after two periods, the Russians scored twice in the third period to deprive Sweden of a medal. Nylén Persson was named the best player of the match for the Swedes. Returning for the 2018 World U18 Championship, Nylén Persson was named to the media all-star team as she and Sweden claimed a silver medal. A month later, she made her Olympic debut as the youngest on her team at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

, recording four points in six games despite the Swedes' worst-ever seventh-place finish. In the 2022 Olympic qualifying tournament, Sweden won all three matches to qualify for the games, with Nylén Persson recording an assist in the final match, a 3–2 victory over

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. As an alternate captain at the Olympic tournament, she was an integral part of the Swedish delegation, who would be eliminated in the quarterfinals. Nylén Persson attended the 2024 World Championship in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

, where she led Swedish defenders in ice time with an average of 20 minutes per game and recorded three points in five games before being named a top three player on the Swedish team.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honours

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nylen Persson, Maja 2000 births Living people Swedish women's ice hockey defencemen People from Avesta (locality) Ice hockey players at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Youth Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Brynäs IF (women) players Leksands IF (women) players Ice hockey people from Dalarna County 21st-century Swedish sportswomen