Eric Stefan Persson (born 22 December 1954) is a Swedish professional ice hockey executive and former player.
Persson played for nine seasons with the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL), where he was a member of four Stanley Cup championship teams in the early 1980s.
He sent the four diamond rings he received for the four Stanley Cup wins to his father, Gösta, in the northern city of Piteå, where he had begun his hockey career.
During the late stages of the 1985–86 season, the Islanders management, starting to lose the commitment from its owner to its product, decided that it was no longer prudent to pay Persson's salary,[citation needed] so they traded him to the Winnipeg Jets for a player to be named later.
Persson had become a part of the community on Long Island, his only U.S. residence, and was so distraught about the trade that he decided, almost immediately, not to report to Winnipeg, and instead retired from the NHL altogether.