2011–12 Elitserien season

The 2011–12 Elitserien season was the 37th season of Elitserien. The regular season began on 13 September 2011 and ended on 6 March 2012. The following playoffs began on 10 March 2012 and ended on 19 April. Färjestad BK were the defending Swedish Champions. Brynäs IF won their first Swedish Championship title since 1999, as well as their 13th in history, after defeating Skellefteå AIK in six games.

The regular season was won by Luleå HF, for the first time since 1996, while Djurgårdens IF and Timrå IK were forced to play in the 2012 Kvalserien for survival in the highest division.

In Kvalserien, Timrå IK requalified and Rögle BK qualified for the 2012–13 Elitserien season at the expense of Djurgårdens IF.

To allow for local music events as well as other ice hockey ones, this season had three mid-season breaks: the first between 8–14 November 2011, the second between 12–20 December, and the third between 5–14 February 2012. To increase interest for Elitserien, the 2011–12 season's schedule was more active: from 14–29 November 2011 and 16–31 January 2012, there were Elitserien games every day (except for two days, 20 November and 22 January). Also, in the playoffs, there were quarterfinals every day (the four quarterfinal series were split into two quarterfinals per day).

A significant change in this Elitserien season was that the clubs wouldn't be fined for supporter incidents as long as the clubs correctly followed the security rules.

On 17 October 2011, the Swedish Police Service decided that the police should be economically compensated for their efforts during sports events held by joint-stock companies (JSC). This mainly affected the league's two Stockholm clubs Djurgårdens IF and AIK. As a result, AIK were forced to sell forward Linus Videll to Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) on 24 October 2011.

Regular season
x – clinched playoff spot; y – clinched regular season league title; e – eliminated from playoff contention; r – play in relegation series

Playoff bracket
In the first round, the top-seeded team chose which of the four lowest remaining seeds to be matched against; the 2nd-seed chose any of the three remaining seeds; the 3rd-seed chose any of the two remaining seeds; and the 4th-seed was automatically matched against the remaining seed. In the second round, the highest remaining seed was matched against the lowest remaining seed, while two remaining seeds matched up against each other. In each round the higher-seeded team was awarded home ice advantage. Each best-of-seven series followed an alternating home team format: the higher-seeded team played at home for games 1 and 3 (plus 5 and 7 if necessary), and the lower-seeded team was at home for games 2 and 4 (plus 6 if necessary).