Växjö Lakers

In 2015 they beat Skellefteå AIK to lift the Le Mat Trophy for the first time. Three more followed, in 2018, 2021 and 2023, along with regular-season titles in 2017, 2021 and 2023. The club exists at all because its predecessor, Växjö HC, went bankrupt in 1997. Founded that September, the new organisation started in Division 4, the fourth tier, and climbed one level at a time — Division 2 in 1999, Division 1 in 2001, HockeyAllsvenskan in 2003 — before winning promotion to the top flight in 2011. Ahead of that first season among Sweden's elite, the club dropped its old red, yellow and blue for blue and orange, adopted a lion holding a crossbow from the Småland coat of arms, and moved into the newly built Vida Arena, seating 5,750. Robert Rosén scored the goal that clinched the 2023 championship and went on to make 618 league appearances for the club, one of four numbers now retired alongside those of former captain Johan Markusson, who runs the club today as chief executive.