Do the SHL teams tho have any relations to the Allsvenskan teams or is everything just related to their own U20/U18 teams? Since in Finland, even when there are no farm teams, some Liiga teams have collaboration team in Mestis. Which basically means there are few contract players playing in the Mestis team and getting called up for covering injuries if necessary.
How the SHL (Swedish Hockey League/Svenska hockeyligan) works without farm teams/compared to the NHL!:
The SHL is the highest Swedish menâs hockey league and the second highest league is Hockeyallsvenskan, every season teams from HA has a chance to move up to the SHL and SHL teams are at risk of being sent down to HA. The worst teams in the SHL face off VS the best teams in Hockeyallsvenskan. So the leagues are partnered as they switch teams every season. (This same model applies to Hockeyallsvenskan -> Hockeyettan/Division 1 and so on with the lower tier leagues)(Both the SHL and HA are owned byt the teams who make up the leagues, when a team leaves their league they hand over their shares/investments to the league who takes their place.)
SO thereâs obviously connections between the leagues but Hockeyallsvenskan is NOT the SHLâs farm league!Â
Instead the SHL relies heavily on the own clubâs U20 and U18 teams when players on the senior teams are injured etc. Thereâs a big pride in acquiring and developing players from an early age and âraisingâ them, via the clubâs junior teams and hockey schools, to become pro hockey players playing for the senior team. SHL teams trust and use young players more than the NHL does, which is why the players when NHL draft-ready have often played at least 10+ games of professional/high level hockey, and often an entire season. (Also a big reason why European teams are looked at as farm leagues for the NHL but thatâs a different discussion lol)
But of course you canât build a team on junior players alone and clubs tend to have more players in the organisation than needed with the U20, U18 and Senior team. So thereâs a lot of loans just like in Liiga. The SHL teams can loan players to (and from) teams in HA (or even Hockeyettan) and they even loan them to leagues in different countries (Liiga and Mestis for example). There used to be more semi-official two-way partnerships between clubs, and some clubs still have loan deals with Hockeyallsvenskan clubs. But since the goal for the secondary and third league clubs is always to move up a league, and teams get sent down leagues thereâs no way to keep the deals permanent.
A good example of this is John Klingberg (trust me to bring him up every chance I get). He played with Lerum BK until he was 14, but after that he was with the Frölunda organisation until the Dallas Stars signed him. He played on the Frölunda U16, U18 and U20 teams, and eventually with the senior/pro team Frölunda HC. But before he got a permanent roster spot he was loaned to 4 different organisations. (BorÄs HC, Hockeyallsvenskan. Jokerit, Liiga. Kiekko-Vantaa, Mestis. SkellefteÄ AIK, SHL).These loans happened during the 2010/11/12 seasons and today you would probably not see Frölunda loaning to BorÄs because BorÄs has been sent down to Hockeyettan, vs being with HA back then.
TLDR:Â The SHL and Hockeyallsvenskan loan players to each other and to other leagues. But the most common way to fill up roster spots caused by injury/illness is using the clubâs own U20 and U18 players!
(Iâm sorry this got so long but I wanted to cover the basics of Swedish hockey leagues for anyone interested in how our highest league works compared to the NHL! And I get really excited when people ask about the SHL)
