The Swedish Women's Hockey League ( sv, Svenska damhockeyligan), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for

women's ice hockey in Sweden Ice hockey is one of Sweden's most popular sports and participation in women's ice hockey is increasing; the number of registered women's ice hockey players in Sweden increased from 3,425 in 2011 to 5,973 in 2020. History The first organized wo ...

. It was established in 2007 as the by the

Swedish Ice Hockey Association The Swedish Ice Hockey Association ( sv, Svenska Ishockeyförbundet (SIF)) in Swedish, is an association of Swedish ice hockey clubs. It was established in Stockholm on 17 November 1922 by representatives from seven clubs. Before then, organize ...

and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ten teams and employs a system of

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...

with the Damettan. 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.

Format

When a game is tied after regulation, a sudden death

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

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 A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

, 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 ( sv, SM-slutspel damer). 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 Damettan.

Teams

From the formation of the SDHL in 2007,

Luleå HF/MSSK Luleå Hockey/MSSK is a professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL), the top-tier of women's ice hockey in Sweden. They play in Luleå, a port city in northern Sweden, at the Coop Norrbotten Arena. The team is the ...

have been the most successful club, winning five Swedish Championships. Luleå has been the most successful regular season team, finishing on top of the league five times.

Modo Hockey Dam MoDo Hockey Dam are an ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL), the top flight of women's hockey in Sweden. They play in Örnsköldsvik, in the historical province of Ångermanland on the east coast of Sweden, at the H� ...

was the first team from outside the Stockholm area to win the championship with their victory in 2012.

2022–23 teams

Sources:

Previous winners

Regular season champions

* 2008 –

AIK Hockey Allmänna Idrottsklubben Ishockeyförening (abbreviated ''AIK IF'', also known as ''AIK Hockey'', often abbreviated ''AIK'' in hockey subjects), is the ice hockey department of sports club Allmänna Idrottsklubben based in Stockholm, Sweden. S ...

* 2009 –

Segeltorps IF Segeltorps IF is a Swedish football club located in Kungens Kurva. Background Segeltorps Idrottsföreningen is a sports club in Kungens Kurva in Huddinge Municipality in Metropolitan Stockholm. The club is well known for its women's ice-hockey t ...

* 2010 –

* 2011 –

* 2012 –

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the top tier of ice hockey in Sweden. The club has played in the top-tier league since 1960, longer than any other team. History ...

* 2013 –

Modo Hockey Modo Hockey (or MoDo with uppercase letters) is a professional ice hockey club in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. The team plays in Sweden's second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan. The club was founded in 1987 and has won one SHL championships; in 2007. ...

* 2014 –

* 2015 – Linköping HC * 2016 –

* 2017 –

* 2018 –

* 2019 –

* 2020 –

HV71 HV71 (), often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League s ...

* 2021 –

* 2022 –

Swedish Champions (playoff winners)

* 2008 –

* 2009 –

AIK Hockey Dam AIK Hockey Dam is a professional ice hockey team in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (, SDHL), the top flight of Swedish's women's ice hockey. They play in Solna Municipality in Stockholm, Sweden at the Ritorps Ishall. History AIK were pr ...

* 2010 –

* 2011 –

* 2012 –

* 2013 –

* 2014 – Linköping HC * 2015 – Linköping HC * 2016 –

* 2017 –

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is nam ...

* 2018 –

* 2019 –

* 2020 – ''Not held due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

'' * 2021 –

* 2022 –

Attendance

While average attendance in the SDHL has been significantly lower than other professional leagues in Sweden and the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and h ...

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

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.

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 Jennifer Dorothy June "Jenn" Wakefield (born June 15, 1989) is a Canadian ice hockey player and coach, currently playing in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) with MoDo Hockey Dam. She has served as an assistant coach to the Netherlands' ...

, 90 PIM (31 games, 2020–21) * Most shutouts in a season:

Florence Schelling Florence Isabelle Schelling (born 9 March 1989) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. She briefly served as General manager of SC Bern from 2020 to 2021. She was the first woman to be named GM of a professional men's team in th ...

, 10 shutouts (31 games, 2017–18) * Best save percentage in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played:

Kim Martin Hasson Kim Kristine Martin Hasson (born 28 February 1986) is a retired Swedish goaltender, currently working in the Linköping HC organization. With the Swedish national team she won two Olympic medals, bronze in 2002 and silver in 2006, and two IIHF ...

, .956 (17 games, 2014–15) * Beat goals against average in a season, minimum 1/3 of games played: Kim Martin Hasson, 1.06 GAA (17 games, 2014–15)

Club records

* Most points in a season: 99,

in 2019–20 * Highest attendance in a regular season match: 6,220 –

vs.

, 16 November 2018 * Highest attendance in a playoff match: 7,765 –

vs. Luleå HF/MSSK at

Monitor ERP Arena Monitor ERP Arena, formerly named Gavlerinken Arena (2014–2019), Läkerol Arena (2006–2014) and Gavlerinken (1967–2006), is an indoor sporting arena located in Gävle, Sweden. The capacity of the arena is 7,909 for ice hockey games and 11, ...

, 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 Position often refers to: * Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity * Position, a job or occupation Position may also refer to: Games and recreation * Position (poker), location relative to the dealer * ...

; GP =

Games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Baseball ...

; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts =

Points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

; P/G =

Points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by ...

Source:

References

External links

* * * * * {{Women's European Ice Hockey Leagues Swedish Women's Hockey League Sweden Women's ice hockey competitions in Sweden 2008 establishments in Sweden Sports leagues established in 2008 Women's sports leagues in Sweden Professional ice hockey leagues in Sweden Women's ice hockey in Sweden