The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ten teams and employs a system of promotion and relegation with the Nationella Damhockeyligan (NDHL). The unexpected withdrawal of Göteborg HC after playing only thirteen games of the 2022–23 season caused the number of teams to decrease to nine for the remainder of that season.

Bodychecking was allowed for the 2022–23 season and goal cameras were introduced for the 2024–2025 season.

Format When a game is tied after regulation, a sudden death overtime is played with only four skaters per team for maximum 10 minutes (or 20 minutes in the playoffs). If the game is still tied after overtime, the winner is decided by game winning shots.

The regular season is a double round-robin tournament, with each team playing twice at home and twice away against every other team, resulting in a 36-game regular season per team. After the regular season, the top six teams qualify for the Women's Swedish Championship playoffs (). The two teams with the best regular season records in the SDHL are given a bye to the semifinals, with the remaining four qualified teams starting in the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, team 3 gets to pick their choice of opponent between teams 5 and 6, leaving the remaining club to meet team 4. In the semifinals the first ranked team chooses an opponent from the two winners of the quarterfinals. The playoffs are all best-of-three series, with the higher ranked team starting with one match away, followed by the remaining two at home.

The two teams with the worst records in the regular season are forced to play a qualifier to defend their spots in the SDHL against challengers from the NDHL.

Teams

From the formation of the SDHL in 2007, Luleå HF/MSSK have been the most successful club, winning six Swedish Championships. Luleå has been the most successful regular season team, finishing on top of the league six times. MODO Hockey was the first team from outside the Stockholm area to win the championship with their victory in 2012.

2025–26 season Team City Arena Head coach Captain Brynäs IF Gävle Monitor ERP Arena Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet Frölunda HC Gothenburg Frölundaborg Färjestad BK Karlstad Löfbergs Arena HV71 Jönköping Husqvarna Garden Linköping HC Linköping Saab Arena Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Coop Norrbotten Arena MoDo Hockey Örnsköldsvik Hägglunds Arena SDE Hockey Danderyd Enebybergs Ishall Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Skellefteå Kraft Arena Sources:

Previous winners

Regular season champions

Riksserien 2008 – AIK Hockey 2009 – Segeltorps IF 2010 – Segeltorps IF 2011 – Segeltorps IF 2012 – Brynäs IF 2013 – MODO Hockey 2014 – MODO Hockey 2015 – Linköping HC

SDHL 2016 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2017 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2018 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2019 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2020 – HV71 2021 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2022 – Brynäs IF 2023 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2024 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2025 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2026 – Frölunda HC

Swedish Champions (playoff winners)

2008 – Segeltorps IF 2009 – AIK Hockey Dam 2010 – Segeltorps IF 2011 – Segeltorps IF 2012 – Modo Hockey 2013 – AIK Hockey Dam 2014 – Linköping HC 2015 – Linköping HC 2016 – Luleå HF/MSSK

2017 – Djurgårdens IF 2018 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2019 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2020 – Not held due to COVID-19 pandemic 2021 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2022 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2023 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2024 – Luleå HF/MSSK 2025 – Frölunda HC 2026 – Brynäs IF

Attendance While average attendance in the SDHL has been significantly lower than other professional leagues in Sweden and the Premier Hockey Federation in North America, attendance has tended towards increasing as the league receives greater investment and promotion, and as women's clubs have been less neglected by their parent organisations. There exists a considerable disparity in attendance between clubs, with Luleå HF/MSSK having led the league in attendance ever single year since the club's formation, often with almost ten time greater attendance than the worst attended club. Playoff attendance has also tended to be much higher than regular season attendance, averaging almost 900 per match in 2017–18 and 2018–19.

+ SDHL Regular Season Attendance Season Average Highest Lowest 2013–14 Riksserien season 114 Munksund Skuthamn SK (205) Segeltorps IF (59) 2014–15 Riksserien season 102 Munksund Skuthamn SK (132) IF Sundsvall Hockey (54) 2015–16 Riksserien season 141 Luleå HF/MSSK (468) IF Sundsvall Hockey (57) 2016–17 SDHL season 179 Luleå HF/MSSK (542) SDE Hockey (54) 2017–18 SDHL season 192 Luleå HF/MSSK (442) SDE Hockey (65) 2018–19 SDHL season 234 Luleå HF/MSSK (831) SDE Hockey (42) 2019–20 SDHL season 178 Luleå HF/MSSK (539) SDE Hockey (48) League records

Individual records Most goals in a season: Andrea Dalen, 47 goals (36 games, 2015–16) Most assists in a season: Lara Stalder, 55 assists (33 games, 2021–22) Most points in a season: Lara Stalder, 89 points (33 games, 2021–22) Most points in a season, defenceman: Sidney Morin, 65 points (36 games, 2020–21) Most penalty minutes in a season: Jenn Wakefield, 90 PIM (31 games, 2020–21) Most shutouts in a season: Florence Schelling, 10 shutouts (31 games, 2017–18) Best save percentage in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played: Kim Martin Hasson, .956 (17 games, 2014–15) Beat goals against average in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played: Frida Axell, 1.00 GAA (14 games, 2022–23)

Club records Most points in a season: 99, HV71 in 2019–20 Highest attendance in a regular season match: 6,220 – Luleå HF/MSSK vs. AIK Hockey, 16 November 2018 Highest attendance in a playoff match: 7,765 – Brynäs IF vs. Luleå HF/MSSK at Monitor ERP Arena, 7 April 2022 (Game 5 of the 2022 Swedish Championship finals)

All-time leading scorers The top-ten point-scorers (goals + assists) in SDHL history.

Note: Nat = Nationality; Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game

Points Nat Player Pos GP G A Pts P/G RW 337 277 286 563 1.67 C 406 227 281 508 1.25 C 191 180 222 402 2.10 LW/C 385 179 212 391 1.02 RW/LW 456 232 157 389 0.85 LW/RW 322 186 200 386 1.20 LW 283 199 145 344 1.22 C 307 158 185 343 1.12 C/LW 371 141 197 338 0.91 LW 397 142 192 334 0.84 Source: See also Women's ice hockey in Sweden List of SDHL seasons Sweden women's national ice hockey team Swedish Ice Hockey Association

References

External links