The Växjö Lakers Hockey Club (often referred to as the Växjö Lakers or VLH) are a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Växjö in Sweden. The club plays at the Vida Arena and plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL; formerly Elitserien), the top-level league of Swedish ice hockey, and made its debut there in 2011–12. Since entering the SHL the club has become known as one of the premier SHL clubs, winning the Le Mat Trophy as Swedish national Champions four times in 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023 (the most of any SHL clubs since their promotion). Forwards Erik Josefsson and Robert Rosén are the only players to be a part of all four Championship-winning teams.

History The club was founded on 8 September 1997, after Växjö HC went bankrupt that year. the Växjö Lakers originally played in Växjö Ishall as their home arena, but prior to the 2011–12 season they moved to Vida Arena. The construction of the Vida Arena was finished in summer 2011.

The club began play in the 1997–98 season. Starting in Division 4, four divisions below the Elitserien/SHL, Växjö worked its way to HockeyAllsvenskan within 6 years, being promoted 3 times. With a perfect record in the 2003 HockeyAllsvenskan Kvalserien, the club qualified for HockeyAllsvenskan. Sensationally, during their debut season in HockeyAllsvenskan, the club acquired Shjon Podein, an NHL-merited North American player who played 699 NHL games and won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001. The acquirement was described as "årets värvning" (acquirement of the year) by some people. During Podein's years in Växjö he became a crowd favorite. Prior to the following season, the 2004–05 season, the team also acquired Brad DeFauw, another NHL-merited North American player who played 9 NHL games and 154 AHL games. Both Shjon Podein and Brad DeFauw left the team after the 2004–05 season.

The club would spend 8 seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan and, during that time, reach the Kvalserien qualification for Elitserien three times. Växjö did not manage to promote to Elitserien in the 2009 and 2010 respective Kvalserien qualifications, but after winning the 2010–11 HockeyAllsvenskan season for the first time in club history and earning a third consecutive trip to Kvalserien, Växjö secured promotion to the top-tier league Elitserien in the eighth round (of ten) in the 2011 Kvalserien. The team finished the 2011 Kvalserien with 26 points, which is a record in the Kvalserien history.

The team formerly used red, yellow and blue as its colours, both in the team's logo and the team's jerseys. On 18 April 2011 it was announced that the club had changed the colours of their jerseys to blue and orange prior to the 2011–12 season. At that time it was also announced that the club's logo had been changed to an orange shield containing the name of the club beneath a lion holding a crossbow – an image from the Småland coat of arms.

Elitserien/Swedish Hockey League

The club's first game in the Elitserien league was played on 13 September 2011, losing 0–2 to Frölunda HC in front of an outsold Scandinavium. Two days later, the club historically took their first points in Elitserien, beating Luleå HF on away ice 3–2 in a shootout, despite trailing by two goals in the third period. Their first home game was played on September 17, against Linköpings HC, in front of an outsold Vida Arena. Linköping won the game 4–2. Former Växjö Lakers crowd favorite Shjon Podein watched the game in the arena. Their first home points and regulation-time win came on September 27, when the Lakers won 4–1 against Modo Hockey. The Lakers' first shutout came on away ice when Modo were beaten 2–0 on 25 October 2011.

The Växjö Lakers played the first Småland derby game in Elitserien history, which was on away ice against reigning regular-season champions HV71, on 8 October 2011 in front of an outsold Kinnarps Arena—exactly 7,000 spectators—in Jönköping. the Växjö Lakers came out on top with a 3–2 victory in a shootout. Växjö Lakers forward Mike Iggulden scored three penalty shot goals in the game, two of them counted in the statistics.

Season-by-season record Season Level Division Record Notes Position W-OT-L This list features the five most recent completed seasons. For prior seasons, see List of Växjö Lakers seasons. 2020–21 Tier 1 SHL 1st 34–6–1–11 21 Swedish Championship playoffs — 11–3 8 Won finals, 4–1 vs Rögle BK2021–22 Tier 1 SHL 5th 28–5–2–17 3,691 Swedish Championship playoffs — 0–4 5,420 Lost in quarterfinals 0–4 vs Frölunda HC2022–23 Tier 1 SHL 1st 27–7–7–11 4,760 Swedish Championship playoffs — 12–6 5,509 Won finals, 4–1 vs Skellefteå AIK2023–24 Tier 1 SHL 2nd 29–4–4–15 4,952 Swedish Championship playoffs — 4–4 5,564 Lost in semifinals 0–4 vs Rögle BK2024–25 Tier 1 SHL 8th 17–9–7–19 5,111 Eighth-finals — 2–1 5,257 Won 2–1 vs Örebro HK Swedish Championship playoffs — 1–4 5,342 Lost in quarterfinals 1–4 vs Luleå HF

Players and personnel Current roster

Updated 29 July 2025.

Team captains

Mikael Bjerdahl, 2003–04 Torsten Yngvesson, 2004–07 Johan Markusson, 2008–14 Tomi Kallio, 2014–15 Liam Reddox, 2015–19 Erik Josefsson, 2019–23 Joel Persson, 2023–Present

Honored members Växjö Lakers retired numbers No.PlayerPositionCareerNo. retirement 14 Stefan Nilsson F 1990–1991, 1997–2003 – 38 Johan Markusson RW 2005–2014 – 85 Liam Reddox LW 2011–2019 –

Club records and leaders Scoring leaders These are the top-ten point-scorers of the Växjö Lakers since their promotion to the SHL in the 2011–12 season. Figures are updated after each completed season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Växjö Lakers player

Points Player Pos GP G A Pts P/G Robert Rosén C 508 148 214 362 .71 Joel Persson D 349 44 192 236 .67 Liam Reddox LW 386 72 78 150 .39 Erik Josefsson C 607 73 75 148 .24 Richard Gynge C 191 72 76 148 .78 Tuomas Kiiskinen LW 206 58 72 130 .63 Cory Murphy D 208 28 89 117 .56 Tomi Kallio RW 204 43 73 116 .57 Dennis Rasmussen C 202 50 60 110 .55 Emil Pettersson C 131 41 58 99 .75

Trophies and awards Team Le Mat Trophy 2014–15, 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23

Individual Coach of the Year Sam Hallam: 2017–18 Honken Trophy Viktor Fasth: 2017–18 Rookie of the Year Elias Pettersson: 2017–18

References

External links

Lakers Lakejer official website