2019–20 SHL season

The 2019–20 SHL season was the 45th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began in September 2019 and ended in March 2020; it was scheduled to be followed by the Swedish Championship playoffs and the relegation playoffs. The league consisted of 14 teams; Leksands IF returned to the SHL after two seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan, having defeated Mora IK in the 2019 SHL qualifiers. IK Oskarshamn played in the SHL for the first time in franchise history, after defeating Timrå IK in the SHL qualifiers.

2019–20 SHL season
League Swedish Hockey League
SportIce hockey
Duration
  • Scheduled for:
  • September 2019 – March 2020
  • (Regular season)
  • March – May 2020
  • (Playoffs)
Regular season
First placeLuleå HF
Top scorerMarcus Nilsson (Färjestad BK)
Playoffs

On 3 March, Luleå HF won the regular season title for the third time; after a 3–0 win over Rögle BK, coupled with defeats for Skellefteå AIK (0–1 versus Frölunda HC) and Färjestad BK (1–2 versus HV71), Luleå HF held an unassailable 14-point lead with 4 matches remaining.[1]

After the playoffs were initially delayed following the conclusion of the regular season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, the season was curtailed on 15 March. No Swedish champions will be determined, for the first time since 1952, and the SHL will feature the same teams next season.[2]

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
HV71 Jönköping Kinnarps Arena 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
IK Oskarshamn Oskarshamn Be-Ge Hockey Center 3,275
Rögle BK Ängelholm Catena Arena 5,150
Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Skellefteå Kraft Arena 6,001
Växjö Lakers Växjö Vida Arena 5,700
Örebro HK Örebro Behrn Arena 5,150

Regular season

Each team plays 52 games, playing each of the other thirteen teams four times: twice on home ice, and twice away from home. Points are awarded for each game, where three points are 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 finishes with the most points is crowned the league champion.

Standings
Pos Team Pld W OTW OTL L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Luleå HF 52 30 6 4 12 151 98 +53 106 Qualification to Quarter-finals
2 Färjestad BK 52 25 6 5 16 173 146 +27 92
3 Rögle BK 52 25 7 3 17 149 123 +26 92
4 Skellefteå AIK 52 27 4 1 20 149 122 +27 90
5 HV71 52 24 6 5 17 158 130 +28 89
6 Djurgårdens IF 52 24 5 6 17 137 135 +2 88
7 Frölunda HC 52 25 4 2 21 154 126 +28 85 Qualification to Eighth-finals
8 Örebro HK 52 26 2 3 21 137 133 +4 85
9 Malmö Redhawks 52 21 4 6 21 131 130 +1 77
10 Växjö Lakers 52 20 4 2 26 127 143 −16 70
11 Linköping HC 52 14 6 11 21 118 139 −21 65
12 Brynäs IF 52 13 8 5 26 132 168 −36 60
13 Leksands IF 52 13 2 6 31 115 168 −53 49 Qualification to Relegation playoffs
14 IK Oskarshamn 52 10 3 8 31 110 180 −70 44
Source: SHL.se
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored

Scoring leaders

The following shows the top ten players who led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season.[3] 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 GP G A Pts +/– PIM
Marcus Nilsson Färjestad BK 50 12 42 54 +9 60
Kodie Curran Rögle BK 48 12 37 49 +8 67
Ryan Lasch Frölunda HC 48 12 36 48 −4 38
Anton Rödin Brynäs IF 46 14 32 46 +4 73
Broc Little Linköping HC 48 24 21 45 −4 14
Mathias Bromé Örebro HK 52 17 26 43 +10 22
Per Åslund Färjestad BK 52 16 25 41 +11 45
Johannes Kinnvall HV71 51 11 29 40 +5 8
Joakim Lindström Skellefteå AIK 47 16 23 39 +8 45
Fredrik Händemark Malmö Redhawks 52 14 24 38 +9 65

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.[4]

Player Team GP TOI W T L GA SO Sv% GAA
Joel Lassinantti Luleå HF 36 2151:57 27 2 7 57 6 92.81 1.59
Gustaf Lindvall Skellefteå AIK 36 2121:27 24 3 7 63 6 93.52 1.78
Oscar Alsenfelt Malmö Redhawks 37 2175:41 16 4 17 76 6 92.76 2.10
Roman Will Rögle BK 34 1984:56 22 1 10 70 4 92.13 2.12
Jonas Gunnarsson HV71 35 2094:31 18 3 14 75 5 91.53 2.15
Niklas Rubin Frölunda HC 25 1410:12 12 0 10 51 2 91.36 2.17
Dominik Furch Örebro HK 46 2653:40 24 1 20 100 4 91.77 2.26
Arvid Holm Färjestad BK 31 1824:27 19 2 9 69 1 91.45 2.27
Niklas Svedberg Djurgårdens IF 35 2029:23 20 2 13 77 5 91.83 2.28
Jonas Gustavsson Linköping HC 33 1865:59 13 5 13 73 1 91.73 2.35

Playoffs

Ten teams qualified for the playoffs: the top six teams in the regular season were scheduled to have 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.[5]

In the first round the 7th-ranked team were scheduled to meet the 10th-ranked team and the 8th-ranked team were scheduled to meet the 9th-ranked team for a place in the second round. In the second round, the top-ranked team were scheduled to meet the lowest-ranked winner of the first round, the 2nd-ranked team were scheduled to face the other winner of the first round, the 3rd-ranked team were scheduled to face the 6th-ranked team, and the 4th-ranked team were scheduled to meet the 5th-ranked team. In the third round, the highest remaining seed was scheduled to matched against the lowest remaining seed. In each round the higher-seeded team was scheduled to be awarded home advantage.

The playoffs were scheduled to be held as a best-of-three series in the eighth-finals, with the remainder of the playoffs as a best-of-seven series that followed an alternating home team format: the higher-seeded team playing at home for games 1 and 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary), and the lower-seeded team at home for game 2 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).[5] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, the start of the playoffs was delayed from 14 March,[6] to 24 March.[7] As a result, the playoff format was altered; the eighth-finals were kept as a best-of-three series, but the remaining rounds were changed to a best-of-five series.[8]

On 14 March, the Swedish Hockey League, citing agreement with its fourteen member teams, formally requested that the playoffs be cancelled to the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.[9] Following a meeting the following day, the playoffs were cancelled.[2]

SHL awards
Guldhjälmen: Kodie Curran, Rögle BK
Guldpucken:
Honken Trophy:
Håkan Loob Trophy: Broc Little, Linköping HC
Rookie of the Year: Jesper Frödén, Skellefteå AIK
Salming Trophy: Kodie Curran, Rögle BK
Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy: N/A
Guldpipan: Patrik Sjöberg

References
  1. "Luleå vinner grundserien efter överkörning". SVT.se (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  2. "Svenska Ishockeyförbundets styrelse har enhälligt beslutat att avsluta säsongen 2019/2020" [The Swedish Ice Hockey Association's Board of Directors unanimously decided to end the 2019/2020 season]. Via TT (in Swedish). TT Nyhetsbyrån. 15 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  3. "Statistik – Spelare 2019/2020" [Statistics – Players: Summary] (in Swedish). SHL. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  4. "Statistik – Målvakter 2019/2020" [Statistics – Goalkeepers: Summary] (in Swedish). SHL. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  5. "SERIEBESTÄMMELSER och VERKSAMHETSPLAN Säsongen 2019/2020" (PDF). Swedish Ice Hockey Association.
  6. "TV-tider SHL slutspel" [TV Times SHL playoffs]. HockeySverige (in Swedish). Everysport Media Group AB. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. "Beslut angående SM-slutspel senast den 20 mars" [Decisions regarding the SM playoffs by March 20]. SHL.se (in Swedish). Swedish Hockey League. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  8. "SM-slutspelet i SHL skjuts upp till följd av regeringens beslut kring publika evenemang" [The SHL playoffs are postponed due to the government's decision on public events]. SHL.se (in Swedish). Swedish Hockey League. 12 March 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  9. "SHL begär att SM-slutspelet ställs in" [SHL requests that the SM playoffs be canceled]. SHL.se (in Swedish). Swedish Hockey League. 14 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
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