He is the head of European Scouting for the Calgary Flames after resigning as president of Hockey Operations for Färjestad.

The Elitserien created the Håkan Loob Trophy, awarded to the league's top goal scorer, in his honour in 2005 and Färjestad has retired his jersey number 5.

He moved to North America following that season to join the Flames, who had selected him with a ninth-round pick at the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.

Loob started playing ice hockey at the age of five, when an artificially frozen rink was constructed near his home.

[3] At age 15 Loob made his senior debut for IK Graip,[4] and quit all other sports to focus on hockey.

[12] He led the team outright in 1985–86 with 31 goals,[13] and won the Molson Cup as the Flames player with the most three-star selections.

[14] Loob struggled the following year due to a shoulder injury that required surgery to fix at the end of the 1986–87 season.

Returning to the lineup healthy for 1987–88, Loob became the first Swedish player in NHL history to score 50 goals in one season.

[11] Loob was named to the First All-Star team on the right wing,[9] and was the winner of the Viking Award as the top Swedish player in the NHL as voted by his fellow Swedes.

[5] He added 8 goals and 17 points in the playoffs to help the Flames win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

In the Cup clinching game against the Montreal Canadiens, Loob started a quick passing play with Joe Nieuwendyk on a three-on-one rush that set up Lanny McDonald's final NHL goal and gave the Flames a lead they would not relinquish.

[16] Loob wanted his children to grow up in Sweden, however, and after the Flames won the Stanley Cup, he announced he was returning to Färjestad for the 1989–90 season.

[10] In his first season back in Sweden, Loob scored 22 goals in 40 games for Färjestad and led the league with 53 points.

[21] He served in the role for 11 seasons, during which the team reached the final of the Elitersien playoffs eight times and won four championships.

[8] Loob appeared in his first best-on-best world tournament at the 1984 Canada Cup, where his ten points in eight games was second in team scoring, one behind Kent Nilsson.

[32] Standing five-foot, nine inches tall, and weighing 170 pounds, Loob arrived in Calgary facing skepticism about his ability to cope with the rougher style and smaller ice surface of the NHL compared to what he was used to in the Elitserien.

[16] Opinion around the NHL in the early 1980s was that Swedish players were "soft"; teammate Colin Patterson credited Loob with changing that perception.

[7] He was a strong skater with "dazzling technique",[8] and former Calgary linemate Joe Nieuwendyk said Loob was a key reason for his own early success in the NHL: "He just had such a great amount of skill.

[16] Loob always intended to return home following his playing days, but felt that Henrik's assimilation into North American culture was problematic.