Denmark's Frans Nielsen #51 looks on during preliminary round action at the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
photo: © IIHF / Matt Zambonin
During the 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, short profiles of each of this year's Hall of Fame inductees will appear on IIHF.com in the build-up to the IIHF Hall of Fame weekend (May 24-25). There will be two ceremonies. The Contributors' Awards ceremony takes place on May 24, followed by the IIHF Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on May 25. Both ceremonies will be shown live on the IIHF's YouTube channel and IIHF.TV.
Frans Nielsen represented in every way possible the alpha and omega of Danish hockey. The alpha has two parts to it. He was the first Danish-trained player to make it to the NHL, and he was a key member of the Denmark national team in 2002 at Division I-B that earned an historic promotion to the top level. The omega came in late 2021, when Nielsen again played an important role, this time helping his country qualify for the Olympics for the first time in history.
Born in Herning, co-host of the 2025 Men’s World Championship, Nielsen played his teen hockey at the local level before moving to Sweden and turning pro with Malmo in the early 2000s. He was drafted 87th overall by the New York Islanders in 2002, but this was a sign of the future, not the present. Nielsen remained in Sweden for four more years, growing physically and developing his game year by year. It was during this time that he had his first great successes with the national team. Nielsen helped Denmark to a 5-0 record in Division I-B to earn promotion to the top for the first time since 1949, and the next year he was again part of the team that played well enough to remain in the top pool, something the Danes have achieved every year since.
Nielsen came to North America in 2006, starting the year in the AHL with the Islanders’ affiliate in Bridgeport. Midway through the season he was recalled, making his debut on January 6, 2007, the first Dane to play in the NHL. He played most of one more season in the AHL and then became an NHL regular for the next 13 seasons, first with the Islanders, then with Detroit. He was perhaps New York’s best all-round player.
He could skate and pass, score a bit and play, as they say, a 200-foot game. He was a sensational penalty killer and even earned a reputation as the league’s best player in shootouts. Nielsen played on teams that were trying to build a playoff contender, and although not always successful, the situation allowed him a chance to represent his country on an almost annual basis. He played in the first five top-level Worlds for the Danes (2003-07), and again in 2010 and 2012. One of his greatest honours came at the 2016 World Cup, however. That tournament featured a “Team Europe,” an amalgam of the best players in the NHL from overseas. Nielsen and countrymen Mikkel Boedker and Jannik Hansen were all selected to play. To have three players of 25 from a relatively small hockey country was not only impressive but served to underscore the importance of those 2002 and 2003 achievements at the Men’s Worlds, which helped develop the Danish program to a remarkable degree.
But Nielsen was not done yet. Every four years Denmark had tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the Olympics, and in 2021 they again set about getting out of qualifying and earning a place in Beijing in 2022. In August 2021, in the hostile environs of Oslo, Norway, the process came down to one final game at Jordal Amfi Arena, host arena of the 1952 Olympics. Denmark and Norway would face each other in one very simple game— the winner advances to the Olympics; the loser does not.
After a goalless opening period, Frederik Storm gave the Danes a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes. Late in the third, the Norwegians desperately trying to tie the score before an enthralled home crowd, Nielsen fed Nikolaj Ehlers with a pass, which he converted. Final score: Denmark 2-Norway 0. For the first time, Denmark was headed to the Olympics.
Nielsen may have been 37 years old by the time the team got to China early the next year, but he played like a man ten years younger. He scored the winning goal in an opening-game 2-1 shocker over the Czechs, and he earned an assist on Markus Lauridsen’s game-winning goal of a 3-2 win over Latvia to send the Danes to the quarter-finals. Down to the final eight, Nielsen scored the tying goal early in the second period of the QF, but ROC had too much power and went on to a 3-2 win. All the same, the Danes finished an impressive 7th.
Nielsen finished his career in fine style. He played the 2021-22 season in Germany and led Eisbaren to the DEL championship. He then played one last time at the Men’s Worlds, leaving the ice for the last time on May 24, 2022, after a career that lasted more than two decades.
Frans Nielsen represented in every way possible the alpha and omega of Danish hockey. The alpha has two parts to it. He was the first Danish-trained player to make it to the NHL, and he was a key member of the Denmark national team in 2002 at Division I-B that earned an historic promotion to the top level. The omega came in late 2021, when Nielsen again played an important role, this time helping his country qualify for the Olympics for the first time in history.
Born in Herning, co-host of the 2025 Men’s World Championship, Nielsen played his teen hockey at the local level before moving to Sweden and turning pro with Malmo in the early 2000s. He was drafted 87th overall by the New York Islanders in 2002, but this was a sign of the future, not the present. Nielsen remained in Sweden for four more years, growing physically and developing his game year by year. It was during this time that he had his first great successes with the national team. Nielsen helped Denmark to a 5-0 record in Division I-B to earn promotion to the top for the first time since 1949, and the next year he was again part of the team that played well enough to remain in the top pool, something the Danes have achieved every year since.
Nielsen came to North America in 2006, starting the year in the AHL with the Islanders’ affiliate in Bridgeport. Midway through the season he was recalled, making his debut on January 6, 2007, the first Dane to play in the NHL. He played most of one more season in the AHL and then became an NHL regular for the next 13 seasons, first with the Islanders, then with Detroit. He was perhaps New York’s best all-round player.
He could skate and pass, score a bit and play, as they say, a 200-foot game. He was a sensational penalty killer and even earned a reputation as the league’s best player in shootouts. Nielsen played on teams that were trying to build a playoff contender, and although not always successful, the situation allowed him a chance to represent his country on an almost annual basis. He played in the first five top-level Worlds for the Danes (2003-07), and again in 2010 and 2012. One of his greatest honours came at the 2016 World Cup, however. That tournament featured a “Team Europe,” an amalgam of the best players in the NHL from overseas. Nielsen and countrymen Mikkel Boedker and Jannik Hansen were all selected to play. To have three players of 25 from a relatively small hockey country was not only impressive but served to underscore the importance of those 2002 and 2003 achievements at the Men’s Worlds, which helped develop the Danish program to a remarkable degree.
But Nielsen was not done yet. Every four years Denmark had tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the Olympics, and in 2021 they again set about getting out of qualifying and earning a place in Beijing in 2022. In August 2021, in the hostile environs of Oslo, Norway, the process came down to one final game at Jordal Amfi Arena, host arena of the 1952 Olympics. Denmark and Norway would face each other in one very simple game— the winner advances to the Olympics; the loser does not.
After a goalless opening period, Frederik Storm gave the Danes a 1-0 lead through 40 minutes. Late in the third, the Norwegians desperately trying to tie the score before an enthralled home crowd, Nielsen fed Nikolaj Ehlers with a pass, which he converted. Final score: Denmark 2-Norway 0. For the first time, Denmark was headed to the Olympics.
Nielsen may have been 37 years old by the time the team got to China early the next year, but he played like a man ten years younger. He scored the winning goal in an opening-game 2-1 shocker over the Czechs, and he earned an assist on Markus Lauridsen’s game-winning goal of a 3-2 win over Latvia to send the Danes to the quarter-finals. Down to the final eight, Nielsen scored the tying goal early in the second period of the QF, but ROC had too much power and went on to a 3-2 win. All the same, the Danes finished an impressive 7th.
Nielsen finished his career in fine style. He played the 2021-22 season in Germany and led Eisbaren to the DEL championship. He then played one last time at the Men’s Worlds, leaving the ice for the last time on May 24, 2022, after a career that lasted more than two decades.