****HV71, often referred to as just HV, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Jönköping, playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), the first tier of Swedish ice hockey. The team played in the 2008–09 Champions Hockey League season, and also participated in the new Champions Hockey League tournament since the 2014–15 season. Between 2008 and 2013, HV also participated in the European Trophy tournament. With the exception of a one-year stint in the 2021–22 season in Sweden's second tier, HockeyAllsvenskan, where they won the promotion playoffs, the club has played continuously in the SHL since being promoted in the 1984–85 season.

History

HV71 was founded on May 24, 1971, as a merger between Husqvarna IF and Vätterstads IK, and took the name Huskvarna/Vätterstads IF but later that year it was shortened to the current name HV71. The club first qualified for the top Swedish league, Elitserien, in the 1978–79 season, but was relegated in the 1979–80 season after only one season. They won promotion again in the 1984–85 season and have remained in the top division ever since with the exception of the 2021–22 season, and are as of the 2000s a well-established top club in Sweden. The club has won the national championship five times; 1995, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2017. For a few years in the late 1990s, HV71 was also called the Blue Bulls. Many Swedes associate HV71 with the club's old arena Rosenlundshallen, which was inaugurated in 1958 as Sweden's first indoor ice hockey arena, but was replaced in 2000 with the new and improved Kinnarps Arena. As the new arena was built around and on top of Rosenlundshallen, HV71 practically played its games during the season 1999–00 in a construction site. On December 6, 2006, HV71 topped Elitserien after a 5-2-win over Färjestads BK, at the same time as the club's two youth teams (under 20 and 18 years old) topped their leagues, J20 SuperElit and J18 Elit. This was an event that had never happened before in HV71's entire club history.

1994–95 season

HV71 won its first national championship season 1994–95 as the last (8th) team to qualify for the playoffs. The club is the only team in Swedish history to win the finals after ending as the 8th team at the end of the regular season. In the quarter-finals HV beat Djurgårdens IF Hockey, the team that finished first in the regular season, in three straight games. In the semifinal they came back after having lost the first two games to Malmö Redhawks, the team which was then defending champions, and turned the series around to a 3–2 victory. Finally they managed a decisive sudden death victory in the final against Brynäs IF in the fourth period of the fifth game to win the championship. The name of the historical scorer was Johan Lindbom, but other big heroes during the play-offs were the goalie Boo Ahl and the Finnish center-forward Esa Keskinen.

2003–04 season

The second championship was won during the season 2003–04 after beating Modo Hockey with a 4–2-game series, Frölunda HC with 4–2 in games in the semi-finals, and then winning the finals with a 4-3 match series against Färjestads BK. In the quarter-finals HV71 set a new Swedish record for scoring the most goals in one period with seven in the first period of the second game against Modo Hockey. In fact they scored the seven goals during the last ten minutes of the period. The game ended with a 10–1 victory. In the final, goalie Stefan Liv managed to keep his goal empty in all four games that the team won, the two last games ending 1-0 and 5-0 respectively. He also kept the goal empty in the last semi-final, which means he managed this for five consecutive wins.

2006–07 season

HV71 ended the regular season as the second placed team after Färjestads BK. HV chose to meet Brynäs IF in the quarter-finals and managed after seven games (4 wins and 3 losses) to continue to the semifinals. The team faced Modo Hockey and even with home advantage HV did not manage to proceed to the finals having lost four out of seven games. This meant that HV for the second consecutive year lost a seven games series in the semifinal to the eventual Swedish champion. During the season the newly acquired defenceman Johan Åkerman was a trendsetting player and also made his national debut for Sweden at the age of 34. HV's starting goaltender, Erik Ersberg, had his breakthrough and played for the national team; and was awarded with the Honken Trophy as Sweden's best goaltender. During the off-season he signed with the NHL team Los Angeles Kings.

Season-by-season record

''This is a partial list, featuring the five most recent completed seasons. For a more complete list, see List of HV71 seasons.''

Players and personnel

Current roster

Updated 14 November 2024

Team captains

Retired numbers

Club records and leaders

Individual season records

Source:

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in club's history. Figures are updated after each completed SHL regular season. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current HV71 player

Trophies and awards

Team

Le Mat Trophy Regular SHL Season Titles HockeyAllsvenskan Division 1 Division 1 Playoffs Division 2

Individual

Coach of the Year Guldhjälmen Håkan Loob Trophy Andreas Karlsson: 2005–06 Guldpucken Guldskridskon Stefan Liv Memorial Trophy Johan Davidsson: 2009–10 Simon Önerud: 2016–17 Honken Trophy Rinkens riddare Årets Gentleman Johan Davidsson: 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05 Salming Trophy Mikko Luoma: 2007–08 Lawrence Pilut: 2017–18 Swedish All Star Team Fredrik Stillman: 1992–93 Boo Ahl, Per Gustafsson: 1995–96 Ulf Dahlén: 1997–98 Johan Davidsson: 2002–03 Per Gustafsson, Johan Davidsson: 2003–04 Andreas Karlsson: 2005–06 Johan Åkerman, Johan Davidsson: 2006–07 Stefan Liv, Johan Åkerman, Johan Davidsson: 2007–08 Johan Davidsson, David Petrasek: 2009–10 Årets Poängkung Fredrik Forsberg: 2021–22 Årets Forward Fredrik Forsberg: 2021–22 Guldgallret Emil Andrae: 2021–22 Rookie of the Year Source: