Which SHL coach used the most timeouts over five seasons?

Niklas Eriksson leads with 86 coach's timeouts in the 2020/21–2024/25 regular-season sample, ahead of Thomas Berglund (82) and Thomas Mitell (71).

Did timeout usage stay flat every season?

No. 2021/22 dipped to 56.7% of games with a timeout (0.62 per game). Other seasons sat closer to 60–68%.

After a late trailing timeout, how often do teams pull the goalie?

82.7% of the time (574 of 694 trailing third-period timeouts), then the empty-net ledger runs 254 against vs 93 for.

Is this the same dataset as the first timeouts post?

Yes — official SHL regular-season timeouts, goals and goalie changes for 2020/21–2024/25 in MotherDuck, exported as shl_timeouts_data.json.

SHL timeout sequel: the coaches who never leave it in the pocket

Part 1 asked whether a timeout changes the game. Spoiler: it mostly looks like a late, losing Hail Mary.

Part 2 asks a more human question: who keeps pressing the button, and did the league’s habit change year to year?

Same MotherDuck ledger. Same 1,303 timeouts in 1,854 SHL regular-season games.

The short version

Niklas Eriksson 86, Thomas Berglund 82, Thomas Mitell 71 — the loudest timeout users in the sample.
2021/22 was the quiet season: timeouts in only 56.7% of games.
After a trailing third-period timeout, coaches still pull the goalie 83% of the time — and the open net still bites 254–93.

The coaches who treat one timeout like a mandatory tool

Over five seasons, these coaches called it the most often (count of timeouts; each team still only gets one per game):

#	Coach	Timeouts
1	Niklas Eriksson	86
2	Thomas Berglund	82
3	Thomas Mitell	71
4	Roger Rönnberg	68
5	Robert Ohlsson	65
6	Björn Hellkvist	62
7	Klas Östman	58
8	Martin Filander	57

This is not a moral ranking. Some benches live in closer games; some coaches simply refuse to leave the tool unused. The point for fans: when you see these names grab the timeout board in minute 58, you are watching a pattern, not a one-off panic.

The season that forgot the timeout (a little)

Season	Games	Timeouts	Share of games with a TO	TO per game
2020/21	390	295	65.9%	0.76
2021/22	360	224	56.7%	0.62
2022/23	361	275	67.6%	0.76
2023/24	366	251	60.4%	0.69
2024/25	377	258	60.7%	0.68

Five-season average: a timeout in 62% of games. 2021/22 is the clear dip — almost ten points off the peak years. We are not claiming a rule-book change; we are saying the habit moved.

Reminder: the button still mostly buys an empty net

Among 694 trailing third-period timeouts:

574 (82.7%) were followed by a goalie pull
The gambling team scored 93 into the open attack
Opponents scored 254 into the empty net
Only 92 of those trailing late timeouts produced a 6-on-5 goal that tied it in the tracked outcome slice

Still a lottery ticket. Still the main product the timeout is buying on TV.

Read it with part 1

Part 1 showed coaches mostly call it while trailing (63%), mostly in the third (81%), and that “momentum” after the whistle does not show up in next-goal rates. Part 2 adds the cast list and the season plot twist.

Method

Identical to part 1: MotherDuck swe SHL regular season 2020/21–2024/25; timeouts, goals, goalie changes; artifact shl_timeouts_data.json from analyze_shl_timeouts.py.

Source: The Hockey Analytics · MotherDuck SHL · Stockholm.