REMA 1000-ligaen 2025/26: The teams and players who shaped the regular season

Elverum were clearly the best team in the regular season of the men's REMA 1000-ligaen 2025/26. With 47 points, the most goals scored and the fewest conceded, they won the league four points ahead of Kolstad.

Behind the two leading teams, Bergen finished third, while several players delivered seasons that clearly stood out. Simon Jeppsson was both the top scorer and voted player of the year by the players in the league.

The main analysis covers the regular season. The play-offs are summarised separately because they produced a different winner.

Elverum were the best at both ends of the court

Elverum finished their 26 league matches with 23 wins, one draw and only two defeats. They scored 868 goals and conceded 677. Their goal difference of plus 191 was by far the best in the league.

What stands out is the combination. Elverum had both the league's most productive attack and its best defence measured in goals. Kolstad came closest with 852 goals scored and 712 conceded. They finished on 43 points – four behind Elverum – after 21 wins, one draw and four defeats.

Per match, Elverum scored 33.4 goals and conceded 26.0. Kolstad were close in attack with 32.8 goals, but conceded 27.4. The difference between the teams was therefore not one single extreme strength, but that Elverum kept a slightly higher level at both ends of the court throughout the regular season.

Elverum's average goal difference was 7.3 goals per match, against Kolstad's 5.4. Over 26 matches, small differences add up: Elverum scored 16 more goals and conceded 35 fewer than Kolstad. That explains much of the 51-goal gap in overall goal difference.

The top five teams in the regular season were:

Bergen took third place with 16 wins and four draws. Drammen won as many matches but finished one point behind. Runar scored 861 goals – the second most in the league – but also conceded 813. That explains why a highly productive attack was not enough for a top-three finish.

The race behind the top two

The gap from Kolstad in second to Bergen in third was seven points. After that the field was tighter: only three points separated Bergen from Runar in fifth. Bergen and Drammen both won 16 matches, but Bergen’s four draws gave them one point more than Drammen’s three.

Runar also show why it is risky to judge a team by goals scored alone. Their 861 goals were only seven fewer than Elverum's, but Runar conceded 136 more. The attack was top level in terms of output, while the balance between attack and defence left the team in fifth place.

Simon Jeppsson: top scorer and player of the year

Kolstad's Simon Jeppsson was named player of the year in a vote among the players in REMA 1000-ligaen. He was also the official top scorer with 207 goals in 26 matches – one goal ahead of Emil Havsgård of Bækkelaget.

Norsk Topphåndball also lists 123 assists and a 68.5 percent shooting percentage for Jeppsson. That describes a player who not only took a lot of shots, but also created chances for his teammates.

The top five on the official top scorer list were:

Jeppsson's season becomes even more interesting when you look at the team's results. Kolstad had the league's second-best goal difference, and Jeppsson alone scored almost a quarter of the team's goals.

207 goals is almost eight goals per league match. At the same time, the gap to Emil Havsgård was just one goal. The top scorer title was decided by the smallest possible margin, even though both were well ahead of David Walstad Haugstvedt in third.

Goal totals should still be read together with role and responsibility. A player who takes penalty throws and many shots can build a high total, while another may contribute more through assists, defensive work or by creating space. Jeppsson's 123 recorded assists are therefore important context for his 207 goals.

Jeppsson also topped the 3Steps Score

3Steps Score combines several recorded contributions into one measure. Goals, saves, assists, steals and blocks count up, while misses, technical errors and suspensions, among other things, count down. That gives the score a broader picture than a plain top scorer list.

The five highest scores among court players in the regular season were:

Jeppsson kept first place when more parts of the game were counted. David Walstad Haugstvedt came closest, while Emil Havsgård, August Lind Oma and Ciljan Sagosen completed the top five. Drammen having two players on the list adds context to the team's fourth place.

For goalkeepers, the analysis uses an adjusted version that also accounts for goals conceded. Thomas Grahn had the highest adjusted score with 74.50, just ahead of Rasmus Bech with 73.84 and Richard Frisk with 63.36.

3Steps Score is a cumulative season score, so it rewards both quality and playing time. It should be used as a supplement, not as the final word on who was best. Role, number of matches and the situations the player was involved in are still important context.

Wings and line players had high shooting percentages

Among players with at least 100 recorded shots, these were the most efficient in the dataset:

The list has to be read in light of player roles. Wings and line players often shoot from different situations than back players, while players who take many contested long-range shots normally end up with a lower percentage. Shooting percentage alone therefore does not decide who was best.

The volume in the table matters too. Lars Eirik Larsen combined 78.0 percent with 177 shots, while Eirik Kulvedrøsten Soløst had the highest percentage from 122 shots. Both are strong performances, but they describe different combinations of efficiency and workload.

For coaching staff, this is a good example of why thresholds are useful in analysis. Without the requirement of at least 100 shots, players with few attempts could have dominated the percentage list. A clear threshold makes the comparison more robust, while position and shot type still need to be taken into account.

Thomas Grahn led the goalkeeping statistics

Among goalkeepers who faced at least 400 recorded shots, these were the best in the dataset:

Context is needed here as well. A goalkeeper's percentage is affected by which shots the team allows, where the shots come from and how the defence and goalkeeper work together. Read more about how to interpret goalkeeper statistics.

Thomas Grahn and Joachim Søholm Christensen both ended on 35.2 percent after rounding, but from a different number of shots. Rasmus Bech had a lower percentage, but faced 892 shots and made 297 saves – the most among the goalkeepers in the table. That shows the difference between efficiency and total workload.

A goalkeeper analysis becomes more useful when the save percentage is split by shot position, type of attack and phase of the match, among other things. The coach can then tell an individual goalkeeping problem apart from situations where the defence consistently gives the opponent good shooting chances.

Kolstad won the play-offs

Elverum were the best team across the 26 regular-season matches, but Kolstad won the play-offs. The season therefore had two different winners: Elverum took the league title, while Kolstad finished the season as play-off champions.

Elverum beat Fjellhammer in two straight quarter-finals, but met Drammen in the semi-final. Both matches were decided by one goal: 36–35 and 33–32 to Drammen. After a regular season in which Elverum lost only twice, two close semi-finals were enough to stop them before the final.

Kolstad beat Nærbø 2–0 in the quarter-final. In the semi-final they first lost 30–33 to Bergen, before responding with wins of 33–30 and 38–32. Against Drammen in the final, Kolstad won both matches: 34–30 at home and 39–24 away. The play-offs showed a different strength than the league table alone: Kolstad performed best when every match could decide the season.

Drammen's route to the final was also worth noting. They finished fourth in the regular season, beat Runar after three quarter-finals and then knocked out league winners Elverum. It underlines that the play-off format rewards form, game plan and performance in short series differently from consistency over 26 league matches.

What does the season tell us overall?

The regular season had a clear leader in Elverum, but several different stories behind the league winners. Kolstad had the player of the year and the top scorer. Bergen combined consistency with the league's third-best goal difference. Runar showed that scoring a lot is not necessarily enough when the team also concedes a lot.

At player level, the numbers show why it is important to use several measures of performance. Total goals reward volume and responsibility. Shooting percentage says something about efficiency, but is affected by shot type and position. Save percentage needs information about the shots the goalkeeper faces.

The most accurate answer to who shaped the season is therefore a combination: Jeppsson earned his fellow players' recognition and the top scorer title, while the 3Steps data highlights several leaders in efficiency and goalkeeping.

What can coaches take from the numbers?

At team level, Elverum are the clearest lesson: consistent performance at both ends of the court makes a bigger difference over a full season than one isolated strength. Runar's numbers show the opposite. An attack that produces almost as much as the league winners' is not enough if the team also gives away too many goals.

At player level, totals and percentages should be used together. Total goals tell you who carried a lot of responsibility and delivered over time. Shooting percentage says more about how chances were converted, but needs to be split by role and shot type. The same applies to goalkeepers: percentage, volume and the quality of the shots they face describe different parts of the performance.

The practical value therefore lies not only in a final ranking. By following the same measures from match to match, coaching staff can spot development, compare periods and look into why results change. The season numbers give the overview; the match and event data give the explanation that can be used in training.

About the data

The league table and the official goal figures come from the Norwegian Handball Federation (NHF) and Norsk Topphåndball.

The analysis covers all 182 matches in the regular season. The match results are complete, while some matches have less detailed event data than the rest. Two matches are missing a total of five recorded goal events. That is a very small part of the dataset and does not change the overall picture, but some player figures may differ slightly from the official ones.

Sources: NHF's official final table for 2025/26, Norsk Topphåndball's top scorer overview and the player of the year award.