| 2021–22 SHL season | |
| League: | Swedish Hockey League |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Season Champ Name: | First place |
| Season Champs: | Rögle BK |
| Top Scorer: | Ryan Lasch (Frölunda HC) |
| Playoffs: | Playoffs |
| Playoffs Link: |
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| Finals Champ: | Färjestad BK |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Luleå HF |
| Playoffs Mvp: | Per Åslund (Färjestad BK) |
| Relegate: | Djurgårdens IF |
| Relegate To: | HockeyAllsvenskan |
| Playoffs Mvp Link: | Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy |
| Nextseason Year: | 2022–23 |
| Prevseason Year: | 2020–21 |
| Seasonslistnames: | SHL |
The 2021–22 SHL season was the 47th season of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). The regular season began on 11 September 2021 and ended on 15 March 2022,[1] it was then followed by the playoffs and the relegation playoffs. The league consisted 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 in Sweden has resulted in many games being postponed, resulting in an uneven schedule.
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).
The following shows the top ten players who led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season.[2] 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 |
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.[3]
| Player | Team< | --(s)--> | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 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 |
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.[4]
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).[4]
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.[5]
| 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 |
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.[6]
| 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 |
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.