A stalwart of the Danish national team over the past decade with experience in both the SHL and DEL, the captain of the Aalborg Pirates, Julian Jakobsen, has truly excelled wherever he has played. Now 33 years of age and well into his second spell with his hometown club, the Danish dynamo told us that he still has a point to prove.
Jakobsen broke into the Aalborg senior team as a teenager and played a combined 54 games with the club in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. This included a run in the playoffs where he notched 7 points in 17 games as Aalborg would eventually lose in the final.
“For me it was a great honour because it was a really hard team to break into. They lost two finals in a row, I was part of the the last one on the bench and there was a lot of pressure on from the city and sponsors to win. For me it was great to be a part of those teams. The first year I really came in, I got to play a lot, so that was special, but we lost again, so we lost three years in a row,” Jakobsen said.
Aalborg would lose four straight Danish finals between 2003/04 and 2006/07 despite having a team stacked with leading domestic talent, such as Jens Nielsen and Ronny Larsen, as well as top quality imports such as Robert Burakowsky.
“During the years I came into the senior team, Aalborg was really at the top of Danish hockey. They had a lot of imports first and foremost, and they also had a lot of Danish national team players who were playing in the World Championships at that time. There was really a lot of depth. Our national team coach now, Heinz Ehlers, was back then the coach for us,” Jakobsen remarked.
"I was still only 20 years old, but I knew I had more and I wanted to challenge myself"Julian Jakobsen on why he initially left Aalborg
After failing to get the playing time he would have liked in 2006/07, Jakobsen made the decision to move to Danish league rivals Odense Bulldogs, where he would truly make his mark as one of the country’s top young players. With the Bulldogs, Jakobsen scored 97 points over two seasons, with these performances leading to a national team debut in 2009.
“In the fourth year, I ended up back on the bench, and what do you do? You work harder. Then we lost again in the final and then I chose to change team. I wouldn’t say this was for a new beginning because I was still only 20 years old, but I knew I had more and I wanted to challenge myself,” the Aalborg native said.
Following these two great seasons, Jakobsen took the road travelled by many of Denmark’s top hockey players and moved to Sweden, signing with then SHL club Södertälje SK. Despite the challenges that came with such a drastic step up in quality, Jakobsen looks back fondly on the experience.
“Sweden is tough, you really have to prove yourself, and looking back now I should maybe have started in the Allsvenskan and not have gone straight into the SHL, but it was a really really good experience. I got to play and practice with some of the best players in Europe and it was kind of fortunate when we went down to the second league,” the Aalborg forward explained, referencing Södertälje’s relegation to the Allsvenskan in 2011.
In the Swedish second tier, Jakobsen rediscovered his scoring touch after a couple of lean years. With 31 points in 52 games, other European teams came calling, and the Danish national team star found his way to the Hamburg Freezers in 2012.
“In Hamburg, I found home somehow outside of my own country. I'd always dreamt of going to Germany one day because I knew that the atmosphere, the hockey, and just the mentality was probably more laid back than in Sweden. I really wanted to try that out one day and then I got the opportunity after my third year in Sweden, I would probably say that it was my last chance to prove myself, it was 'do or die',” Jakobsen commented.
Playing alongside fellow countrymen Daniel Nielsen and Morten Madsen, Jakobsen would spend four seasons in the northern German city, which included a run to the DEL Semi-Finals in 2013/14. He would also play in the first-ever CHL season one year later as a member of the Freezers.
“With Hamburg at that time, the Champions Hockey League was fun because we had a chance to beat all the other teams. We had a really good team in Hamburg and it was fun that way,” Jakobsen remarked.
The Freezers would fold after the club’s owners announced in 2016 that they could no longer fund the team. For Jakobsen this meant finding a new landing spot.
“It was too bad that our owners folded, otherwise I might still have been playing there,” he said.
After nine seasons away, Jakobsen would return to his hometown team, which had also faced financial problems of its own. Aalborg finished eighth in the 10-team Danish league in the preceding season, with the glory days looking a long way away.
“I’m really happy to be a part of Aalborg, that’s why I chose to come home. It was first and foremost because I could continue my financial education at the same time as my hockey without making any compromises. I came to a team that struggled for a couple of years with its finances, they struggled to get into the playoffs. That was another reason for me to come home: to try to get the club to grow, and it’s been growing fast,” Jakobsen explained.
After a couple of years in the doldrums, Aalborg went on to win their first Danish title since 1981 back in 2018. Jakobsen, as the club’s captain, was the player that got to lift the trophy, a memory that still fills him with pride to this day.
“That was something special, it’s hard to describe. Only one other captain lifted that trophy in Aalborg … it was really historic and I was really proud of the city and proud to be part of the team that finally won. After 1981 I think we lost nine finals, and that’s pretty tough. We really pulled through and we had a strong group of guys and we have some leaders. We had a city and surroundings that believed in us. That was really fun and something I will always look back on fondly,” the Aalborg captain said.
"I think there was one guy in Zurich who made more than our whole team when we played against them"Jakobsen discusses the challenges Aalborg will face in the CHL
By virtue of winning the title two seasons ago, Aalborg made their first-ever appearance in the Champions Hockey League in the 2018/19 season. In a group that included perhaps the toughest team of them all, the Frölunda Indians, the Pirates managed to claim an overtime victory against the Vienna Capitals, and also impressed in an overtime loss against ZSC Lions Zurich.
“I think the more southern teams, the Swiss league, the Austrian league, German league, maybe have a tendency to underestimate a team like us. That’s where we have a chance. But in the end, yes, we did prove that we can play hockey in Denmark. Obviously the depth, the talent, the skill is not as high because the money we have in the league is lower. I think there was one guy in Zurich who made more than our whole team when we played against them. I think that says it all!” Jakobsen remarked.
In his role as a veteran and club captain, Jakobsen now looks on the Champions Hockey League as a chance to show Aalborg’s younger players what it takes to play at the highest possible level.
“We have a young team in Aalborg, and its great to show them what it takes to be a part of one of the bigger leagues or bigger teams in Europe. It’s two different worlds but it’s still the same cool feeling getting to play against some of the best players in Europe,” he commented.
In their return to Europe’s elite ice hockey competition, by virtue of being 18 points clear at the top of the Danish league table when the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pirates will match up against Finnish powerhouse Kärpät Oulu. Jakobsen was philosophical over his team’s chances in the Round of 32, hinting that it will be a tough contest for the Danish club.
“Finnish teams and Swedish teams are so structured, they work so hard. They are really well schooled in their systems, the way they do stuff. They don’t really underestimate anybody. For me, I really hoped to get a southern country in the first round because to be honest, I think we will struggle to do any real damage against a team like that,” Jakobsen stated.
Denmark continues to hold its place in the elite group at the IIHF World Championships, and players such as Nikolaj Ehlers and Frederik Andersen continue to show the talent that the country can produce. However, at the domestic level, Danish teams will always face significant challenges, particularly on the European stage, Jakobsen stated.
“We’re a country that’s had skills. Whether it’s with a soccer ball or a racquet, Danish people can do almost anything if you ask them, so that’s why we’re good at playing with the puck. We lack talent because of money, we only have about 5,000 players. But I think with us, or with Esbjerg or Rungsted last year, it does show that we have the talent and it just takes more. It takes hard work to stay up there,” he concluded.
However, one source of optimism for the Pirates could be the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Jakobsen told us that he thought a number of shocks could be on the cards given how summer training regimes have been disrupted all across the globe.
“I think you will see slow starts from all the teams because it’s been weird, just shutting everything down, you can’t go work out, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. Most guys will get out of their normal routine, so I think you’ll see slow starts in many leagues around Europe, with everybody beating everybody,” the Aalborg captain commented.
Julian Jakobsen has done and seen it all when it comes to European hockey. He’s represented his clubs and his country at the highest stage and will go down in history as the captain that brought championship glory back to Aalborg.
The Pirates were well on their way to another title before the previous season got cancelled, and you can bet when they take to the ice once again, they’ll be desperate to claim what they feel is rightfully theirs.