The 2025–26 SHL season was the 51st season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began on 13 September 2025, and concluded on 14 March 2026, where it was followed by the playoffs and the relegation playoffs.
Skellefteå AIK finished top of the regular season standings for the first time in a decade, finishing with 108 points and a 7-point margin over runners-up Frölunda HC, helped in part by top points scorer and most valuable player Oscar Lindberg, and an SHL record 10 shutouts for goaltender Strauss Mann. Skellefteå AIK went on to complete the league and playoff double, defeating Rögle BK 4–1 to win their fifth playoff title, with Lindberg again being the most valuable player – becoming the first player to win the Guldhjälmen and the Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy in the same season since Joakim Lindström did so in 2013–14, and the first player to win the Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy twice.
HV71 won the Play Out for the third successive season, defeating Leksands IF in four consecutive games, relegating the latter after seven seasons in the SHL.
Teams The league consisted of 14 teams; Djurgårdens IF returned to the SHL after three seasons in the HockeyAllsvenskan, where they won the 2024–25 title.
Modo Hockey were relegated to the HockeyAllsvenskan at the end of the previous season, after two seasons in the SHL.
Team City Arena Capacity Brynäs IF Gävle Monitor ERP Arena 7,909 Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Hovet 8,094 Färjestad BK Karlstad Löfbergs Arena 8,647 Frölunda HC Gothenburg Scandinavium 12,044 HV71 Jönköping Husqvarna Garden 7,000 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 Örebro HK Örebro Behrn Arena 5,150 Rögle BK Ängelholm Catena Arena 5,150 Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Skellefteå Kraft Arena 6,001 Timrå IK Timrå SCA Arena 6,000 Växjö Lakers Växjö Vida Arena 5,700
Regular season Each team played 52 games, playing each of the other thirteen teams four times: twice on home ice, and twice away from home. Points were awarded for each game, where three points were 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 finished with the most points was crowned the league champion.
As Skellefteå AIK won both the league and the playoffs, and Frölunda HC won the 2025–26 Champions Hockey League, the two next highest-ranked teams – Växjö Lakers and Rögle BK – also qualified for the 2026–27 Champions Hockey League.
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 Skellefteå AIK 52 30 37 67 +17 52 Skellefteå AIK 52 20 36 56 +13 12 Timrå IK 50 30 25 55 +9 16 Örebro HK 52 15 35 50 0 14 Växjö Lakers 51 12 38 50 +3 14 Linköping HC 50 23 24 47 +2 49 Skellefteå AIK 48 16 31 47 +11 36 HV71 52 21 25 46 –10 38 Timrå IK 51 15 31 46 +8 22 Färjestad BK 49 12 34 46 –1 44
Leading goaltenders The following shows the top ten goaltenders who led the league in goals against average, provided that they had played at least 40% of their team's minutes, at the conclusion of the regular season.
Player Team Frölunda HC 24 1425:53 14 10 40 3 92.34 1.68 Skellefteå AIK 42 2483:18 31 10 80 10 91.35 1.93 Frölunda HC 28 1693:56 20 8 60 1 90.84 2.13 Växjö Lakers 32 1896:40 22 10 69 3 90.71 2.18 Färjestad BK 37 1997:19 17 17 77 2 89.92 2.31 Rögle BK 35 2055:47 19 15 80 4 89.16 2.33 Luleå HF 33 1934:19 20 12 76 2 89.28 2.36 Brynäs IF 33 1929:28 17 15 81 2 88.73 2.52 Timrå IK 33 1881:20 14 16 80 3 89.06 2.55 Örebro HK 31 1833:51 13 17 81 2 89.05 2.65
Playoffs Ten teams qualified for the playoffs: the top six teams in the regular season had a bye to the quarterfinals, while teams ranked seventh to tenth met each other (7 versus 10, 8 versus 9) in a preliminary playoff round.
Format In the first round, the 7th-ranked team met the 10th-ranked team and the 8th-ranked team met the 9th-ranked team for a place in the second round. In the second round, the top-ranked team met the lowest-ranked winner of the first round, the second-ranked team faced the other winner of the first round, the third-ranked team faced the sixth-ranked team, and the fourth-ranked team faced the fifth-ranked team. In the third round, the highest remaining seed was matched against the lowest remaining seed. In each round the higher-seeded team was awarded home advantage. The meetings in the first round were played as a best-of-three playoff series, and in the later rounds as a best-of-seven playoff series. In the eighth-finals, the higher-seeded teams played at home for game 2 (plus 3 if necessary) while the lower-seeded teams played at home for game 1. In the later rounds, the higher-seeded teams were at home for games 1 and 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary) while the lower-seeded teams were at home for games 2 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).
Playoff bracket
Eighth-finals (7) Luleå HF vs. (10) Örebro HK
(8) Malmö Redhawks vs. (9) Djurgårdens IF
Quarter-finals (1) Skellefteå AIK vs. (8) Malmö Redhawks
(2) Frölunda HC vs. (7) Luleå HF Game four of the series was the second-longest SHL playoff match at the time, with Mathias Bromé's winner coming 2:31 before the end of the third overtime period.
(3) Växjö Lakers vs. (6) Brynäs IF
(4) Rögle BK vs. (5) Färjestad BK In game two, Färjestad BK became the first team to win an SHL playoff game having trailed 0–5 during it. Rögle BK became the first team to win a Swedish playoff series after trailing 0–3 in games; their head coach Dan Tangnes had previously achieved this feat in the Swiss National League with EV Zug in 2021–22.
Semi-finals (1) Skellefteå AIK vs. (7) Luleå HF Game one of the series became the first quadruple overtime game in SHL playoff history, surpassing the previous longest game of 119:16 between Leksands IF and Färjestad BK from March 1997. The game eventually ended after 122:18, with Andreas Johnsson's winning goal for Skellefteå AIK.
(2) Växjö Lakers vs. (4) Rögle BK
Finals (1) Skellefteå AIK vs. (4) Rögle 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 Skellefteå AIK 15 5 9 14 +3 8 Skellefteå AIK 15 6 7 13 +12 6 Rögle BK 15 5 7 12 +7 10 Rögle BK 17 5 6 11 –3 6 Skellefteå AIK 15 3 8 11 +14 4 Rögle BK 17 5 5 10 +8 8 Skellefteå AIK 15 4 6 10 +14 6 Rögle BK 17 2 8 10 –1 8 Rögle BK 17 1 9 10 +2 14 Rögle BK 15 6 3 9 –1 0
Leading goaltenders The following shows the top 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 Frölunda HC 5 316:08 2 3 7 1 92.13 1.33 Skellefteå AIK 7 489:51 6 1 12 0 92.26 1.47 Skellefteå AIK 8 485:31 6 2 12 2 92.59 1.48 Djurgårdens IF 2 115:46 0 2 4 0 92.31 2.07 Luleå HF 14 912:24 7 7 32 1 92.06 2.10
Play Out The two bottom-placed teams from the regular season (HV71 and Leksands IF) played a best-of-seven series, with the winner remaining in the SHL and the loser relegated to the second tier, the HockeyAllsvenskan. The higher-seeded team (HV71) held home advantage over the series, playing at home for the first two games, while the lower-seeded team (Leksands IF) were at home for games three and four.
SHL awards Award Winner(s) Guldhjälmen Oscar Lindberg (Skellefteå AIK) Guldpucken Honken Trophy Magnus Hellberg (Djurgårdens IF) Håkan Loob Trophy Jonathan Dahlén (Timrå IK)Oscar Lindberg (Skellefteå AIK) Rinkens riddare Rickard Hugg (Skellefteå AIK) Rookie of the Year Ivar Stenberg (Frölunda HC) Salming Trophy Johannes Kinnvall (Brynäs IF) Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy Oscar Lindberg (Skellefteå AIK) Guldpipan Linus Öhlund
References
External links
SHL on eliteprospects.com