A number of format changes were introduced this season. Instead of the top eight teams in the regular season qualifying for the playoffs and the teams ranked 9–10 ending their season, the top six teams qualified for the playoffs directly, and the four teams ranked 7–10 played a best-of-three series and battled for the two remaining playoff spots. The two teams ranked 11–12 still had to play in the Kvalserien round-robin tournament in order to requalify for the SHL. Also, the top three teams no longer got to pick their opponents in the quarterfinals; instead, the first-ranked team faced the lowest-ranked winner of the two best-of-three series, the second-ranked team faced the other winner of the two best-of-three-series, the third-ranked team faced the sixth-ranked team, and the fourth-ranked team faced the fifth-ranked team.
