The 2022–23 SHL season was the 48th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began on 17 September 2022 and ended on 9 March 2023, where it was then followed by the playoffs and the relegation playoffs.
The Växjö Lakers completed their second league and playoff double in three seasons; having finished three points clear of Skellefteå AIK after the 52-game regular season, the two teams met again in the playoff final with the Lakers prevailing 4–1 in the best-of-seven series.[1]
The league consists of 14 teams; HV71 returned to the SHL after one season in the HockeyAllsvenskan, where they won the 2021–22 title.[2]Djurgårdens IF were relegated to the HockeyAllsvenskan at the end of the previous season, and as a result, Stockholm was not represented by a top-division team for the first time.[3] In the end of the season, Brynäs was relegated for the first time ever, leaving Färjestad as the only team to have played every season in the league since it was founded.
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.[4]
Source: SHL.se Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored (R) Relegated
Statistics
Scoring leaders
The following shows the top ten players who led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season.[5] If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.
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.[6][7]
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.[8]
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 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary) while the lower-seeded teams are at home for games 2 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).[8]
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.[9]
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.[10]
The two bottom-placed teams 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, the 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.
Brynäs IF's defeat in the series ended their 63-year run in the Swedish top flight.[11]
^Grefve, Daniel (2022-05-04). "HV71 tillbaka i SHL" [HV71 back in SHL]. SVT Sport (in Swedish). Retrieved 2022-05-05.
^Danielson Frost, Oskar Juan Pablo; Krigsman, Linn (4 April 2022). "Utan Stockholmslag för första gången" [Without Stockholm team for the first time: "Doesn't see any financial impact"] (in Swedish). SVT Nyheter. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
