Niagara Falls native and former Niagara Predator Dante Massi spent Christmas Day away from his family for the first time in his life. Instead, he was in Sweden playing a pickup game with current and former members of the Division 3 Falkoping Riders hockey club.
His potential loneliness was softened on Boxing Day, though, when his parents arrived from Niagara Falls for a visit. They brought his Christmas presents with them, of course, went sightseeing in Stockholm, and took him out for dinner, where he tried venison for the first time.
Massi has been in Europe since October, when his visa finally was approved, allowing him to cross the pond to pursue his professional hockey dream. He credits his 2021-2022 season playing for the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League’s (GMHL) Predators for giving him the opportunity.
“With COVID, I was kind of done with hockey,” says the former Greater Ontario Junior B Hockey League (GOJHL) player. “That GMHL season kind of saved my career, in a sense. It kept me going.”
Prior to joining the Predators, Massi had spent time with the Thorold Blackhawks, Welland Junior Canadiens, and Fort Erie Meteors of the GOJHL’s Golden Horseshoe Junior B League. He also spent a season with the Junior C Chippawa Riverhawks.
Massi was one of the first signings by Johan Eriksson, the Predators general manager when the team moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake from Toronto. Though Massi had a bit of a slow start to his season, he ended up leading the team in points (74) and assists (59) in 32 regular season games. He also tied for the lead with three goals and six points through the Preds six playoff games.
The 5’7”, 170-pound forward quickly became a fan favourite at Virgil’s Meridian Credit Union Arena. His gritty style of play found him frequently taking on much larger opponents in the corners and usually coming out with the puck to set up one of his teammates. He became a leader both on and off the ice.
“He goes in there and comes out with the puck more often than not,” says Predators owner and president Robert Turnbull, who coached the team most of last year. “And around the net, his hand-eye coordination is great. He tipped in a lot of pucks that made everyone say ‘wow’ last year, But how he matured, and to see him grow as a young man, that’s every bit as important in getting him to where he is right now.”
The 2021-2022 Predators included Swedish players such as Jesper Eriksson, Emil Eriksson, Alexander Insulander, Pontus Madsen and goalie Oscar Spinnars Nordin. Massi says playing with them and getting to know them gave him the idea to look into playing there this season after his final year of GMHL eligibility.
“My friend Devin Sanders from Niagara Falls was playing for Hagfors,” explains Massi. “I connected with him, and a bunch of other people playing over there to get feedback from them. I started reaching out to teams and it all worked out.”
“He told me he wanted to go to Sweden,” says Johann Eriksson, who is now a player agent and advisor with Avenue Sports Management. “I connected him with Duane Smith, a Niagara local (who played with Hagfors from 1988 to 1994). I pretty much just gave him the contacts he needed and he basically had the drive to make it happen. That was his end goal.”
Eriksson explains that it is difficult for Canadian players to get clearance to play in Sweden. It is common for visa requests to take as long as four months to come through. And the rules have changed in recent years. Eriksson helped Massi begin the application for the holiday work visa he needed last summer.
While he was waiting, Massi trained with the Plattsville Lakers of the Western Ontario Super Hockey League, a senior semi-professional loop, but didn’t get any game experience during that time. He had some catching up to do once he made it overseas.
The 22-year-old began his Swedish journey with the Division 3 Hagfors Viking Hockey Club, where he scored his first European goal. He quickly realized how different the European game is to what he was used to back home.
“It’s been a huge adjustment,” Massi tells The Local, a sister publication of ThoroldToday. “Everybody here is so fast. There’s a lot more east-west puck movement, and it’s less physical. Sometimes you’ll get the puck and you’ll have more time than you think. And every single player here is a great skater.”
The bigger ice surface has also required an adjustment — when the scrappy St. Paul Catholic High School graduate heads into the corners, he tends to find more space than he did in the GMHL.
“I’ve been trying to play a little more skilled and offensive game, and a bit less gritty,” he adds. “They don’t like to go into the corners here. There’s less battling. I have to read the play more, intercept passes and take their sticks away. I’ve had to learn to have more poise with the puck, to be a bit more tactical.”
After a couple of months with Hagfors, Massi opted to take a transfer to his current team in Falkoping, about four hours by car southwest of Stockholm.
“Hagfors was starting to struggle a bit, and I wasn’t getting the opportunities that I felt I deserved,” he says. “So I put in for a transfer. I’ve only played two games for them before our break. But it seems a lot better here, the team is winning more, and I’m getting the opportunity to play more.”
Massi says most people in Sweden speak English, as they study it as a second language in school. He is currently living in an apartment with two teammates, fellow Canadian Brodie Conlon, who helped him move all of his gear from Hagfors to Falkoping, and a player from Ukraine.
The league is on a short break until Jan. 4 when the Riders will take on the team from Tibro.
Though Massi had heard from his teammates last year how popular the sport is in Sweden, he’s still amazed by it.
“The amount of hockey here is crazy,” he says. “Hockey is a huge tradition in Falkoping and they’re very passionate about their team here. The community really supports us. After the games the kids from the younger teams come in and do a celebration chant. It’s pretty cool.”
When the season ends in April, Massi plans to return to his family home in Niagara Falls. He’ll go back to his job at the Hilton there and also help out at Dave Cullen’s Hockey School. And he’ll take a few spring and summer courses to continue on his psychology degree at Brock University. Then he’s hoping to return to Europe for a second season.
“They’re changing the import rules again next year,” Eriksson says. “Next year he will need an actual full work visa. That means he would have to get a salary that is at an elite level. To get that kind of salary in Sweden you usually have to come from four strong years in a (U.S. College) Division 1 program. But there are so many other countries in Europe he can play for.”
“It’s been a great experience,” says Massi of his Swedish sojourn so far, “and it’s helped me out with life skills, too. I’m hoping I can stay in Sweden and move up to Division 2 or even Division 1. But other countries like Germany and Denmark have some good leagues, too.”
Says Turnbull, who through the years has seen many of his players move on to Europe, the American Hockey League and even the NHL, “I’m very proud of him. He has worked his butt off. I’m incredibly proud of what he has achieved. He’s earned this, and I know he’ll do very well.”
“He’s a high-level playmaker,” adds Eriksson. “I’ve had weekly contact with him, so I know he is putting in the work. He’s a really good skater, and he can play at a high level. He can play in Europe for a long, long time.”
