The 2021–22 SHL season was the 47th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began on 11 September 2021 and ended on 15 March 2022, it was then followed by the playoffs and the relegation playoffs. The league consisted of 14 teams; Timrå IK returned to the SHL after two seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan, having won the 2020–21 HockeyAllsvenskan.

Like the previous season, the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden has resulted in many games being postponed, resulting in an uneven schedule.

Teams

Team City Arena Capacity Brynäs IF Gävle Monitor ERP Arena 7,909 Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet 8,094 Frölunda HC Gothenburg Scandinavium 12,044 Färjestad BK Karlstad Löfbergs Arena 8,647 Leksands IF Leksand Tegera Arena 7,650 Linköping HC Linköping Saab Arena 8,500 Luleå HF Luleå Coop Norrbotten Arena 6,300 Malmö Redhawks Malmö Malmö Arena 13,000 IK Oskarshamn Oskarshamn Be-Ge Hockey Center 3,275 Rögle BK Ängelholm Catena Arena 5,150 Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Skellefteå Kraft Arena 6,001 Timrå IK Timrå NHC Arena 6,000 Växjö Lakers Växjö Vida Arena 5,700 Örebro HK Örebro Behrn Arena 5,150

Regular season Each team will play 52 games, playing each of the other thirteen teams four times: twice on home ice, and twice away from home. Points will be awarded for each game, where three points will be awarded for winning in regulation time, two points for winning in overtime or shootout, one point for losing in overtime or shootout, and zero points for losing in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that will finish with the most points will be crowned the league champion.

The four best teams of the regular season will qualify for the 2022–23 Champions Hockey League (if the play-off winners qualify through the regular season, its spot will go to the 5th placed team of the regular season; if a Swedish team wins 2021–22 Champions Hockey League, three best teams of the regular season will qualify, and, if the play-off winners qualify through the regular season, its spot will go to the 4th placed team of the regular season).

Standings

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following shows the top ten players who led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player Team Frölunda HC 52 13 53 66 –1 8 Leksands IF 51 34 26 60 +18 14 Luleå HF 52 21 37 58 +11 32 IK Oskarshamn 49 26 26 52 +6 2 Skellefteå AIK 51 14 38 52 +10 16 Växjö Lakers 52 23 25 48 –3 6 Leksands IF 50 11 37 48 +7 28 Timrå IK 51 21 26 47 –16 32 Skellefteå AIK 52 26 20 46 +10 18 Rögle BK 46 14 32 46 +19 78

Leading goaltenders The following shows the top ten goaltenders who led the league in goals against average, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of the regular season.

Player Team Luleå HF 22 1302:55 11 2 9 43 3 91.79 1.98 Örebro HK 42 2486:08 23 3 15 83 6 92.33 2.00 Skellefteå AIK 30 1797:18 17 3 10 62 3 91.98 2.07 Skellefteå AIK 22 1317:55 13 1 8 48 3 91.44 2.19 Luleå HF 31 1839:35 18 4 8 67 4 91.10 2.19 Brynäs IF 45 2600:51 20 4 20 101 5 90.77 2.33 Växjö Lakers 29 1662:02 11 3 13 65 3 90.90 2.35 Rögle BK 37 2189:08 22 1 14 87 4 92.05 2.38 Linköping HC 41 2426:19 17 4 19 97 4 91.07 2.40 Malmö Redhawks 31 1870:23 12 5 14 75 1 90.48 2.41

Playoffs Ten teams qualify for the playoffs: the top six teams in the regular season have a bye to the quarterfinals, while teams ranked seventh to tenth meet each other (7 versus 10, 8 versus 9) in a preliminary playoff round.

Format In the first round, the 7th-ranked team meets the 10th-ranked team and the 8th-ranked team meets the 9th-ranked team for a place in the second round. In the second round, the top-ranked team will meet the lowest-ranked winner of the first round, the second-ranked team will face the other winner of the first round, the third-ranked team will face the sixth-ranked team, and the fourth-ranked team will face the fifth-ranked team. In the third round, the highest remaining seed is matched against the lowest remaining seed. In each round the higher-seeded team is awarded home advantage. The meetings are in the first round played as best-of-three series, and in the later rounds as best-of-seven series. In the eighth-finals, the higher-seeded teams play at home for game 2 (plus 3 if necessary) while the lower-seeded teams play at home for game 1. In the later rounds, the higher-seeded teams are at home for games 1 and 2 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary) while the lower-seeded teams are at home for games 3 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).

Playoff bracket

Eighth-finals

(7) Örebro HK vs. (10) Brynäs IF

(8) Leksands IF vs. (9) IK Oskarshamn

Quarter-finals

(1) Rögle BK vs. (9) IK Oskarshamn

(2) Luleå HF vs. (7) Örebro HK

(3) Skellefteå AIK vs. (6) Färjestad BK

(4) Frölunda HC vs. (5) Växjö Lakers

Semi-finals

(1) Rögle BK vs. (6) Färjestad BK

(2) Luleå HF vs. (4) Frölunda HC

Finals

(2) Luleå HF vs. (6) Färjestad BK

Statistics

Scoring leaders The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of the playoffs. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player Team Färjestad BK 19 5 13 18 +11 8 Luleå HF 17 4 13 17 +7 10 Färjestad BK 19 3 12 15 +12 6 Luleå HF 17 2 13 15 +6 20 Färjestad BK 19 8 6 14 +5 16 Färjestad BK 19 4 10 14 +5 18 Luleå HF 13 8 5 13 +6 12 Färjestad BK 19 6 6 12 +9 23 Färjestad BK 19 5 6 11 +2 35 Rögle BK 13 4 7 11 –5 2

Leading goaltenders The following shows the top five goaltenders who led the league in goals against average, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of the playoffs.

Player Team Luleå HF 17 1053:45 11 6 33 2 91.85 1.88 Örebro HK 8 504:13 3 5 18 0 91.30 2.14 Färjestad BK 19 1172:02 12 7 43 3 91.21 2.20 Brynäs IF 3 160:08 1 2 6 1 90.63 2.25 Rögle BK 11 624:26 4 6 24 0 92.36 2.31

Play Out Teams 13 and 14 from the regular season played a best-of-seven series, with the winner remaining in the SHL and the loser relegated to the second tier, HockeyAllsvenskan. The higher-seeded team held home advantage over the series, playing at home for the odd-numbered games while the lower-seeded team was at home for the even-numbered games.

SHL awards Award Winner(s) Guldhjälmen Max Véronneau (Leksands IF) Guldpucken Honken Trophy Jhonas Enroth (Örebro HK) Håkan Loob Trophy Max Véronneau (Leksands IF) Rookie of the Year Linus Karlsson (Skellefteå AIK) Salming Trophy Maja Nylén Persson (Brynäs IF) Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy Per Åslund (Färjestad BK) Guldpipan

References

External links

SHL on eurohockey.com SHL on eliteprospects.com