The NAFL returns for season 3 in the premier Floorball league for North America! This season will see 6 teams fight for the championships with talent across the USA and Canada supplemented by several “imports” coming across from Europe for the summer tournament which runs from July 13th to July 28th with the culmination taking place in Duluth, Minnesota during the annual “FinnFest” which is a 5 day festival that aims to provide an “experience of Nordic culture and learning”. Here we look at some of the biggest transfers for some of the sides taking part in season 3 of the NAFL.

Fresno Force
With defending champions Orlando Vikings not participating in season 3, the runners up from last season, Fresno Force may be early favourites for the Troy Cup. Their biggest acquisition for the new season just may well be Philippines national team star Melvin Alm Mendoza. Mendoza is fresh off a long season for Hagunda IF in the top Swedish league before helping his national side Philippines win the AOFC qualification event for the 2024 Men’s World Floorball Championships in Malmo later this year. In goal they will have experienced Goalkeeper Oskar-Viking Tjärnberg who plays for Strängnäs IBK in the Swedish Allsvenskan (2nd highest division). Several other Allsvenskan players also make this Fresno team with Pontus Sjöström, Rasmus Johansson, Kim Nyberg and Alex Neumann all coming in from Sirius IBK alongside Billy Nilsson and Wille Kallberg from Gävle Gik. Adrian Amdahl provides some Norwegian nerve as one of the key players from the U19 World Championships in Frederikshavn, Denmark for Norway makes his move over to the NAFL with Fresno from his club side and Norwegian champions Tunet IBK.

Minnesota Growlers
The hosts of the Troy Cup final are reinforcing their squad in a BIG way ahead of season 3. Perhaps no bigger name than 2-time World Champion and 2016 WFC MVP Peter Kotilainen. Kotilainen is one of the most recognisable names in the world of Floorball and this past season was a big player on Swiss U-PL side Floorball Thurgau, who progressed to the 2nd round of the playoffs after defeating number 1 seed, HC Rychenberg Winterthur. Kotilainen has represented Finland at 4 World Championships and once at the U19 World Championships back in 2013 and has accumulated 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal from WFC’s alongside a Bronze from the U19 WFC. Another big name but this time from the world of Ice Hockey, Joonas Donskoi makes the move over to Floorball. Donskoi is mostly known for his time in the NHL for teams San Jose, Colorado and Seattle with one of his major highlights as part of the San Jose squad that made it to the 2015/16 Stanley Cup finals with Donskoi himself scoring the overtime, game winning goal in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Tiitus Salokangas is a young star who will look to gain more experience in the USA after recently being part of the Men’s senior national team for Finland at the EFT (EuroFloorballTour) event after moving up from the U19 and U23 team with stellar league performances for LASB in the Finnish top division.

Fort Worth Jaguars
The “Jags” alongside Fresno are 2 of the original 4 sides of the NAFL to return for season 3, with the Jags officially being the first ever announced team of the NAFL. Fort Worth has been known for it’s Finnish influence mixed with domestic talent over the past several years. However this year the Swedish influence sems to be growing with more players moving over. From Malmo FBC Tobias Tjornestam and Filip Borglundh join the Jags with Alexander Spinord, Alexander Janols and goalkeeper Hampus Bodin moving across from top division SSL side Hagunda IF who have several players taking part in the NAFL this season for various teams. Domestically the Jaguars are also committed to pushing forward homegrown US talent with Landon VanPatten, Ryan Folic and Swedish born, US naturalised, Isak Angerstig also joining the Jags.

Aviators Floorball of Ohio
Returning after their first season in the NAFL last year, the Aviators will look to improve on their 4th place finish this year. With no Orlando Vikings this season a big acquisition for the Aviators is goalkeeper Petr Chlad who won the first two Troy Cups with Orlando and will now look to do the same with the Aviators. Chlad comes from Czech side FBC Liberec in the Czech top division, who made the playoffs this season and had yet again another strong season in the highest Czech league. Several Swedish players make up the core of this Aviators squad with Filip Lundmark, Carl Brorsson and Sebastian Åkesson all coming in from Swedish Division 1 sides. Another highlight is SSL player Zach Melin from FC Helsingborg who will look to provide some more offensive sparks to this Aviators side after a very impressive NAFL season last year.

Texas 39ers
Returning for another NAFL season with a new name the previous Texas Tornados and now Texas 39ers will look to improve on their disappointing inaugural season last year where they finished bottom of the league. Two important players for the 39ers will be Allsvensken and Fagerhult Habo IBK duo Oscar Liljegrahn and Tim Andersson Carlsson. Adam Cilicek is well known from social media as “Bombardak_96” with his perchance for skill moves and trick shots, alongside his coaching and tips videos to help young players develop their game. There is also a core group of US national team talent with Case Connor, Derek Moser and goalkeeper Trent Kling also joining the ranks of the 39ers.

Seattle Sockeyes
The newest team in the NAFL comes from the pacific northwest with the Seattle Sockeyes joining the action. Head coach and general manager Tuomas Korhonen and now currently a part of the Danish Men’s national team coaching staff has already announced several players for the first ever NAFL Sockeyes squad! Using his Danish national team connections Andreas Kleczewski and Patrick Falkenberg Møller move over from Rodovre to Seattle. Both represented Denmark at the 2022 WFC and will bring talent, speed and experience to this brand new side. An international lineup of players with Antonin Senez from Belgium (French U19 national team), Axel Salonen from Finland, Jonathan Möller from Sweden (US national team) and a Canadian duo from the national team Evan Pierce and goalkeeper Ben Kiddie.

The full season is available to watch on YouTube on the NAFL channel

For more NAFL information check out their website here 

For more up to date transfers throughout the whole offseason keep up to date on the IFF social channels and website all summer long! For full transfer lists you can find out on the official IFF transfer list