The Växjö Lakers were founded in 1997 after the former Växjö Hockey Club went out of business. The club first started playing in the 1997/98 season starting in Division 4, four divisions below today's top-tier SHL. Växjö worked their way up to HockeyAllsvenskan (2nd tier league) within six years.

The club then spent eight seasons in HockeyAllsvenskan, during which they missed out on qualifying for the SHL three times. After near misses in 2009 and 2010, Växjö were finally promoted to Sweden's top tier in 2011. Three years later, in 2013/14, the Lakers reached the SHL playoffs for the first time and in 2014/15, they won their very first title.

Since then, Växjö have won the SHL three more times, most recently in 2022/23.

The club originally played its home games at the Växjö Ishall, but prior to the 2011/12 season, they moved to the newly built Vida Arena where they play to this day.

They have played in seven Champions Hockey League seasons and made it all the way to the Final in 2018, where they narrowly missed out on the title to Finnish rivals JYP Jyväskylä. They played in last season's CHL where they cruised through the six-game Regular Season as the only unbeaten team, finishing in second place in the Regular Season Standings, and made it to the Quarter-Finals.