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History of Swedish Elite League To understand the history of Swedish Elite League (aka Elitserien which literally means "The Elite League") you have to go back to the 1920s when the game of ice hockey was introduced to Sweden by Raoul Le Mat. Raoul Le Mat is the founding father of ice hockey in Sweden. The Elitserien Championship trophy is named after him. It is called the Le Mat Trophy. The current Elitserien league was founded on October 5, 1975. There were originally ten teams, but in 1987 two more teams were added which brought the league to 12 teams, which is where it stands today. Elitserien is the highest level of professional ice hockey played in Sweden and is currently ranked as the fourth best professional league in Europe by the IIHF behind the KHL, SM-liiga, and Czech Extraliga.  The majority of players in the league are Swedish, but there are are good number of foreign players who play in Elitserien. The ice rink that Elitserien games are played on is rectangular, with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall. It measures 30 by 60 meters. Elitersien has an interesting aspect to its structure. After the Elitersien regular season ends, Kvalserien is played, which is a round-robin ice hockey tournament to qualify for play in the next season of Elitserien.  Kvalserien is formed by using the two worst ranked teams in Elitserien, the best three teams in HockeyAllsvenskan, and the the winner of a two-round playoff tournament between the next four best teams (4th—7th) from HockeyAllsvenskan. (HockeyAllsvenskan by the way is the second highest professional ice hockey league in Sweden). The six teams play each other twice and the two teams finishing first and second are promoted to Elitserien next season. The remaining four teams are relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan. So in theory, using this system, there is a good possibility that there could be two new teams playing in Elitserien at the beginning of each season.  Some of the best players in hockey (now NHL Stars) have played in Elitserien. Nicklas Lidstrom, Peter Forsberg, Daniel & Henrik Sedin, Henrik Zetterberg, and Johan Franzen are just of the few names that have played in Elitserien at one point or another in their careers. For more information about the history of Swedish Elite League, players, teams, and much more, please
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