The Swedish Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, and while Swedish ice hockey champions have been crowned through various formats since 1922, the title and the Le Mat Trophy have been awarded to the winner of the SHL playoffs since the league's inaugural 1975–76 season.
Färjestad Bollklubb is a Swedish professional ice hockey team based in Karlstad. Färjestad has had 20 Swedish Championship final appearances, winning nine times since the Swedish Hockey League was started in 1975, making them the most successful SHL club in history. The team plays in the highest Swedish league, and have done so since 1965. They and Brynäs IF are the only two teams to have constantly played in the current top tier of Swedish hockey, the SHL, since it was started in 1975. They reached the SHL championship finals six years in a row between 2001–2006, winning the championship two times. They are featured rivals with Djurgårdens IF, Frölunda HC, and HV71.
The Daytona Beach Breakers were a Single 'A' professional ice hockey team based in Daytona Beach, Florida. The team began play as the Sun Devils in the Sunshine Hockey League's first season in 1992–93 and remained with the SuHL until 1995, when the league changed its name to Southern Hockey League. The team became known as the Breakers while playing in the SHL. After the 1995–96 season both the team and the league folded.
The Sunshine Hockey League (SuHL) was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 to 1995. The league was based in Florida and consisted of five teams in its inaugural 1992-93 season. Each team's initial head coaches were former NHL players including Bill Nyrop, West Palm Beach; Rocky Saganiuk, Daytona Beach; Jim Mikol, Lakeland Warriors; and Lou Francheschetti, Jacksonville Bullets.
The Columbus Cottonmouths were a professional ice hockey team based in Columbus, Georgia. The team is nicknamed the Snakes and played their home games at the Columbus Civic Center. In 2017, the team suspended operations after failing to find a new owner.
Brynäs IF is a professional 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.
Luleå Hockeyförening is an ice hockey club from Luleå, Sweden. The club has been playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the top tier of ice hockey in Sweden, since the 1984–85 season. They are the northernmost team in the league and have won the Swedish championships once, in 1996. Since being promoted to the top flight in 1984, the team has not once had to participate in a promotion/relegation-qualifier to defend their spot in the top league.
Rögle BK is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Ängelholm that has been playing in the SHL since the 2015–16 season. Rögle has previously played in the SHL in 1992–1996, 2008–2010, and briefly in 2012–13.
HockeyAllsvenskan is a professional ice hockey league, and the second-highest league in the Swedish ice hockey system. Since the 2009–10 season, the league consists of fourteen teams.
The Southern Hockey League was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league that operated from 1973 to 1977. The league was formed when the Eastern Hockey League split in two; the southern teams became the Southern Hockey League, and the northern teams became the North American Hockey League. It was the first professional hockey league to operate wholly within the Southern United States, and followed the establishment of the Atlanta Flames in the National Hockey League; and also the Richmond Robins and the Tidewater Wings in the American Hockey League. The Southern Hockey League was a feeder league for the recently started World Hockey Association. Tedd Munchak was appointed the league's first commissioner, and was owner of the Greensboro Generals. The championship trophy of the league was named the James Crockett Cup, after local figure Jim Crockett Sr. The league disbanded during its fourth season, when four of its seven teams folded due to financial issues.
Kvalserien, also known as Kvalserien till SHL, was the Swedish round-robin ice hockey tournament to qualify for play in the next season of the Swedish Hockey League, Sweden's top-level ice hockey league for men. It was replaced by a playoff round in the 2014–15 season.
The Huntsville Channel Cats was a professional ice hockey team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The franchise was a member of several different leagues, the Southern Hockey League (1995–1996), the Central Hockey League (1996–2001) and the South East Hockey League (2003–2004). They played their home games at Von Braun Center Arena in downtown Huntsville.
The Hampton Gulls were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in Hampton, Virginia, from 1974 to 1978 at the Hampton Coliseum. The Gulls played three seasons in the Southern Hockey League, beginning in 1974. When that league folded in 1977, the Hampton played one season in the American Hockey League. The Gulls were a World Hockey Association farm team to the Cincinnati Stingers each season. John Brophy was team's only head coach during its existence. Hampton ceased operations on February 10, 1978, part way through its fourth season.
The Charlotte Checkers were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team began as the Baltimore Clippers in 1954, playing in the Eastern Hockey League. When the arena in Baltimore burned down, the team briefly played as the Charlotte Rebels, before permanently relocating to the Charlotte Coliseum in 1956, becoming the Charlotte Clippers. The team was renamed the Checkers in 1960, and played its final four seasons in the Southern Hockey League, before folding in 1977. The Clippers/Checkers franchise won five playoff championships in its existence, and were the first team to be based in the Southeast United States.
The Roanoke Valley Rebels were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Roanoke Valley in Virginia. The team first played in the Eastern Hockey League and then joined the Southern Hockey League. The team was originally known as the Salem Rebels from 1967 to 1970, playing at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia. In 1971, the Rebels began splitting home games between Salem at the newer and larger Roanoke Civic Center in Roanoke.
The 1974–75 Southern Hockey League season was the second season of the Southern Hockey League. On July 31, 1975, Jack Riley was announced as the new commissioner of the SHL, taking over for interim leader Gene Hawthorne, of the Roanoke Valley Rebels. The four existing teams returned from the previous season, joined by a fifth expansion team from Fayetteville, North Carolina. The new team was named after the Fayetteville Arsenal, and was scheduled to play at the Cumberland County Memorial Arena. In October 1974, owner Bill Raue moved the team, to Hampton, Virginia before playing any games, when availability of home ice dates became a problem. The new Hampton Gulls moved into the Hampton Coliseum recently vacated by the Virginia Wings of the American Hockey League. The five teams played a complete schedule of 72 games, with the Charlotte Checkers winning the regular season, and the playoffs.
The marathon standings for the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) is an accumulated table for the Swedish Hockey League, the current top Swedish ice hockey league, since it was inaugurated in the 1975–76 season. The marathon standings, updated by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association (SIHA), presents an overview of the overall regular-season records for all teams who have played at least one season in the SHL. The table is sorted after the highest number of total points.
The 2014–15 HockeyAllsvenskan season was the tenth season of the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden under that name. The league featured 14 teams, including Stockholm-based AIK, who were relegated from the SHL following four seasons in the top league. Also joining HockeyAllsvenskan was HC Vita Hästen, which marked the return of elite-level hockey to Norrköping. A previous Vita Hästen club had played in Sweden's second-tier league until the 1995–96 season, but following that club's bankruptcy in 1996, the new Vita Hästen club rebuilt from the bottom of the league system, culminating in their promotion back to the second tier in the 2014 HockeyAllsvenskan qualifiers.
The Macon Whoopees were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in Macon, Georgia, and played home games at the Macon Coliseum. The Whoopees played in the Southern Hockey League, and were the second professional hockey team in Georgia. The attempt in Macon to expand hockey southward failed, as the team ceased operations before completion of the 1973–74 season. Hockey did not return to Macon until 1996, when the name was revived by the Macon Whoopee in the Central Hockey League. The original Whoopees team was named after the song "Makin' Whoopee" by Gus Kahn, and is the subject of the book Once Upon A Whoopee: A Town, A Team, A Song, A Dream, by Ed Grisamore and Bill Buckley.
The 2018–19 HockeyAllsvenskan season is the 14th season that the second tier of Swedish ice hockey has operated under that name. The series consists of 14 teams playing a regular season in which each team plays each other team four times, twice at home and twice away. This is followed by a series of promotion and relegation tournaments, with the teams finishing first through eight participating in promotion playoffs, and the teams finishing 13th and 14th forced to requalify to avoid relegation to the Hockeyettan.