Hammarby were giants in the early history of Swedish hockey, playing in Sweden's top league from the birth of Swedish organized hockey in 1922 until 1957.
During that period, they were crowned Swedish champions eight times (1932, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1945, and 1951) in 13 attempts.
The rest of their history was more modest, having qualified for play in Elitserien (Sweden's current top-tier league, now called the SHL) only twice, however during their entire existence, they never played in a lower league than the second tier.
As of 2013[update], five seasons after the club's bankruptcy, Hammarby is 17th in the Marathon standings for the highest division of Swedish ice hockey.
[3] By February 2008, the choice was to play in the third-tier league or file for bankruptcy, as the club was in a demotion spot in the standings and had announced that they were in no position to participate in the Kvalserien tournament to defend their spot in HockeyAllsvenskan.