after struggling through the 2011–12 season, djurgården finished eleventh and had to play in the 2012 kvalserien. subsequently, the team was relegated to the second-tier league hockeyallsvenskan for the 2012–13 season after failing to make the top two spots in the kvalserien. this ended a 35-year run of consecutive elitserien seasons for djurgården. as a result, djurgården fired general manager jan järlefelt and replaced him by charles berglund. big budget cuts were also made, the player salary budget was cut in half. djurgården set the goal to return to elitserien immediately the following season. the team reached fifth place in the regular season, and djurgården had to play qualification games for the 2013 kvalserien. however, djurgården failed to reach the final spot and the season was over.