2021–22 SHL season

The 2021–22 SHL season is the 47th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began on 11 September 2021 and will end on 15 March 2022, it will be then followed by the playoffs and the relegation playoffs. The league will consist 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 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 	
Håkan Loob Trophy 	Max Véronneau (Leksands IF)
Rookie of the Year 	
Salming Trophy 	
Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy	Per Åslund (Färjestad BK)
Guldpipan 	
==References==
==External links==
*
*SHL on eurohockey.com
*SHL on eliteprospects.com
 
2021-22
SHL
Category:2021–22 in European ice hockey leagues