Last Christmas was Calle Rosen’s first spent in North America. The Christmas dinner and traditionally cold weather were all part and parcel of how many hockey players from abroad spend a Christmas in Canada.



There was also an unexpected realization for the then 23-year old: the clichéd “grind” of a North American season has a lot of truth in it.



“When you get past Christmas you think ‘Oh shit, there’s five or six months more of this,’” said Rosen, shaking his head at the harsh realization of just how long, and how hard, his first season in North America actually was.



Signed as a free agent in May 2017 from the Vaxjo Lakers of the Swedish Hockey League, Rosen had never played more than 52 regular season games in five seasons in Sweden. He eclipsed that total by ten with the Toronto Marlies, not to mention four more as a member of the Maple Leafs.



But it wasn’t just the extra games that...