Champions Hockey League

This article covers the Champions Hockey League introduced in 2014; for the competition of the same name, which was held in 2008/09, see Champions Hockey League (2008–2009) .

Champions Hockey League

Current season	2019/20
sport	ice Hockey
abbreviation	CHL
Association	IIHF
League foundation	2014
Teams	32
Country countries	Europe
Title holder	Frölunda HC
Record champions	Frölunda HC (4)
Record player	Joel Lundqvist (65)
Record scorer	Ryan Lasch (29 goals)
Website	www.championshockeyleague.com
↓ IIHF Continental Cup

The Champions Hockey League ( CHL for short , also: Ice Hockey Champions League ) is the highest European Cup competition for ice hockey teams . It has been held since 2014 .

prehistory

After the European Hockey League , the follow -up competition to the European Ice Hockey Cup , was discontinued in 2000, a high-quality European Cup competition was not held again until 2005, although it was only held in one weekend tournament under the name IIHF European Champions Cup . In April 2007, the world association IIHF announced that it would introduce a new competition called the Champions Hockey League (CHL). In the CHL, high premiums were advertised for ice hockey conditions, which should ensure the attractiveness of the competition for the participants. The premiums are covered by sponsors, including the Russian Gazprom .

The winner of the first and only event was the ZSC Lions from Zurich. The 2009/10 season was canceled in summer 2009 due to the ongoing financial crisis and a lack of sponsors. Later plans of the IIHF to restart the CHL came to nothing.

As an alternative, some of the top European clubs organized the European Trophy independently from 2010 . This competition emerged from the Nordic Trophy , which is limited to Scandinavia, and the Red Bulls Salute . Finally, the IIHF, clubs and the leagues of Hockey Europe agreed in autumn 2013 on a new European Cup competition, which again bears the name Champions Hockey League .

Game mode

Each season begins with a group stage with everyone against everyone in the first and second leg. Since 2015 the participating 48 clubs have been divided into 16 groups of three teams. From 2017/18 there will be eight groups of four teams. The best two teams in each group qualify for the knockout phase in the first and second leg. The final will be played in one game, and the team with the highest points has home rights.

Attendees

logo	league	country
	Liiga	Finland
	SHL	Sweden
	DEL	Germany
	NL	Switzerland
	Extra league	Czech Republic
	EBEL	Austria with foreign participants

From the six best ice hockey leagues in Europe that were also involved in the founding of the CHL (so-called founding leagues), three to five clubs qualify for the CHL. The distribution of the starting places in these leagues is based on a league ranking based on the results of the CHL over the past three years. There are also eight wild cards , which are usually awarded to the champions of another seven leagues, the so-called Challenger leagues, as well as the winner of the IIHF Continental Cup . Since 2017, the field of participants has comprised a total of 32 teams.

For the first three seasons (up to and including 2016/17), 26 clubs that had founded the CHL were automatically qualified for the competition. In addition, there were two more teams from each of the founding leagues via sporting qualifications and wild cards, which were given to other leagues or the winners of the Continental Cup.

In June 2020, the shareholders of the Champions Hockey League decided that the number of participating teams should be reduced from 32 to 24 at the beginning of the 2023/24 season .

League ranking

Since the 2017/18 season, the 24 participants from the founding leagues can only qualify in sports. The number of clubs per league is assigned according to a league ranking. The two strongest leagues get 5 starting places each, the next two 4 places each, the remaining two 3 places.

Current ranking of the founding leagues after the 2019/20 season (previous year's position in brackets)

1. (1) Svenska Hockeyligan - 249 points - 5 starting places 
2. (2) National League - 226 points - 5 starting places 
3. (5) German Ice Hockey League - 217 points - 4 starting places 
4. (3) Liiga - 212 points - 4 starting places 
5. (4) Tipsport Extraliga ledního hokeje - 210 points - 3 starting places 
6. (6) Erste Bank Eishockey Liga - 192 points - 3 starting places 

qualification

For the athletic qualification the following order is used per league:

• Defending champion of the CHL
• Champions of the league
• Main round winner
• Second in the main round
• Main round third
• Main round fourth
• Main round fifth

The leagues can differ; For example, in the Erste Bank Ice Hockey League, due to the split main round, the starting places are awarded to the master, the winner of the preliminary round and the winner of the intermediate round (pick round).

Wildcards

Challenger Leagues  GET-ligaen (Norway)  Metal Ligaen (Denmark)  Ligue Magnus (France)  Extraliga (Slovakia)  Elite Ice Hockey League (Great Britain)  Extraliga (Belarus) (since 2016)  Polska Hokej Liga (Poland) (since 2016)

A wildcard has been reserved for the winner of the IIHF Continental Cup since 2015 (unless this one does not come from Europe, like the Kazakh representative HK Arlan Kökschetau in 2019 ). The remaining wild cards are given to the so-called Challenger Leagues. This is where the national champion usually qualifies.

Founding clubs

The 26 founding clubs that came from the six founding leagues were automatically qualified up to and including 2016/17, provided they belonged to one of the leagues ( Djurgårdens IF Stockholm was only promoted to the SHL in 2014):

Liiga	SHL	DEL	NL	Extra league	EBEL
6 teams: Oulun Kärpät Helsingfors IFK Helsinki JYP Jyväskylä Kalevan Pallo Tappara TPS Turku	6 teams: Djurgårdens IF Stockholm Färjestad BK Karlstadt Frölunda HC Gothenburg HV71 Jönköping Linköpings HC Luleå HF	4 teams: ERC Ingolstadt Adler Mannheim Polar bears Berlin Krefeld penguins	4 teams: ZSC Lions EV train Friborg-Gottéron SC Bern	4 teams: Bílí Tygři Liberec HC Pardubice HC Sparta Prague HC Vítkovice Steel	2 teams: EC Red Bull Salzburg Vienna Capitals

Participants per country per season

season															total
2014/15	8th	8th	6th	6th	6th	3	1	-	2 C	1	1	1	-	1 A	44
2015/16	8th	8th	6th	6th	6th	4th	2	1 C	2	2	1	2	-	-	48
2016/17	8th	8th	7 A	6th	6th	3	2	1	2	1	1	2 C	1	-	48
2017/18	5	5	4th	4th	3	3	1	1	1	2 C	1	1	1	-	32
2018/19	5	5	4th	4th	3	2	1	2 C	1	1	1	1	1	1 A	32
2019/20	5	4th	4th	5	3	3	1	1	1	2 C	1	1	1	-	32
2020/21	5	4th	3	5	4th	2	-	2	1	1	2 C	1	1	1 A	32

^A. One team qualifies through the Austrian Ice Hockey League.

^C. One team qualifies via the Continental Cup.

In the list of participants in the Champions Hockey League , the teams are listed in detail by country and season.

Successful clubs

Winners list

season	final				Semi-finalists 1
	Venue	winner	Erg.	finalist
2014/15	Luleå , Sweden	Luleå HF	4: 2	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	Skellefteå AIK	Oulun Kärpät
2015/16	Oulu , Finland	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	2: 1	Oulun Kärpät	HC Davos	Rauman Lukko
2016/17	Gothenburg , Sweden	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	4: 3 a.d.	HC Sparta Prague	Friborg-Gottéron	Vaxjo Lakers
2017/18	Vaxjo , Sweden	JYP Jyväskylä	2-0	Vaxjo Lakers	HC Oceláři Třinec	Bílí Tygři Liberec
2018/19	Gothenburg , Sweden	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	3: 1	EHC Red Bull Munich	HC Plzeň 1929	EC Red Bull Salzburg
2019/20	Hradec Králové , Czech Republic	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	3: 1	Mountfield Hradec Králové	Luleå HF	Djurgårdens IF Stockholm

¹There will be no match for third place. Among the listed semi-finalists, the first named was subject to the later CHL winner, the second named to the other finalist.

Leaderboards

As of 2019/20

by clubs

rank	team	title	2nd place	Semi-finalist
1	Frölunda HC Gothenburg	4th	1
2	Luleå HF	1		1
3	JYP Jyväskylä	1
4th	Oulun Kärpät		1	1
	Vaxjo Lakers		1	1
6th	HC Sparta Prague		1
	EHC Red Bull Munich		1
	Mountfield Hradec Králové		1
9	Skellefteå AIK			1
	HC Davos			1
	Rauman Lukko			1
	Friborg-Gottéron			1
	HC Oceláři Třinec			1
	Bílí Tygři Liberec			1
	HC Plzeň 1929			1
	EC Red Bull Salzburg			1
	Djurgårdens IF Stockholm			1

according to league

rank	league	title	2nd place	Semi-finalist
1	Svenska hockey clothes	5	2	4th
2	Liiga	1	1	2
3	Extra league		2	3
4th	German ice hockey league		1
5	National League			2
6th	Erste Bank Ice Hockey League			1

Successful players

All statistics are current after the 2019/20 season.

Top scorer player Games Gates Assists Points Ryan Lasch 60 29 62 91 Joel Lundqvist 65 23 32 55 Mathis Olimb 27 12 28 40 Lino Martschini 39 19th 16 35 Andreas Johnsson 25th 14th 21st 35

Top goal scorers player Games Gates Assists Points Ryan Lasch 60 29 62 91 Joel Lundqvist 65 23 32 55 Milan Gulaš 32 20th 14th 34 Lino Martschini 39 19th 16 35 Chris Baltisberger 39 18th 6th 24

Top template provider player Games Gates Assists Points Ryan Lasch 60 29 62 91 Joel Lundqvist 65 23 32 55 Mathis Olimb 27 12 28 40 Robert Nilsson 28 5 25th 30th Rhett Rakhshani 34 11 24 35

Record player player Games Gates Assists Points Joel Lundqvist 65 23 32 55 Mats Rosseli Olsen 62 13 17th 30th Ryan Lasch 60 29 62 91 Sebastian Stålberg 60 6th 12 18th Nicklas Lasu 58 14th 19th 33

Penalty minutes player Penalty minutes Daniel Welser 96 Jiří Polanský 88 Philippe Dupuis 88 Daniel Rubin 72 Philippe Lakos 70

organization

The CHL is hosted by the Champions Hockey League (CHL) AG and is sanctioned by the international association IIHF. The 26 clubs with A license hold 63% of the shares in the CHL , the six participating leagues hold 25% and the IIHF 12%. The clubs contributed 80,000 euros each to the company. In October 2019, the Augsburg Panthers took over the shares in the Krefeld Pinguine.

Audience development

Due to the reduction in group size from 4 to 3 teams, there were 96 group games from the 2015/16 season, while 132 games were played in this phase in the 14/15 season. In the seasons 15/16 and 16/17, the first knock-out round was therefore a ¹ / ₁₆ final.
In the 17/18 season, the starting field was reduced from 48 to 32 teams - which qualified according to purely sporting criteria. In the group stage there are now groups of four with a total of 96 games.

Data status: February 5, 2020

Competition	2019/20	2018/19	2017/18	2016/17	2015/16	2014/15
Games total	125	125	125	157	157	161
spectator
total	429,896	425.282	422.354	510.005	513.758	489.772
Basic round	326,342	307.180	299,588	292,654	325,142	391.860
1 / 16 Final				094,265	089.187
1 / 8 Final	060,041	065,010	064,835	059,453	051,843	049,655
1 / 4 Final	027,100	023,426	034,058	037.040	026,223	024,661
1 / 2 Final	016,413	017,622	018.123	020,549	015.163	017,296
final	006,890	012,044	005,750	006,044	006,200	006,300
average
total	003,494	003,402	003,379	003,248	003,272	003,042
Basic round	003,399	003,200	003.121	003,048	003,387	002,969
1 / 16 Final				002,946	002,787
1 / 8 Final	003,753	004.063	004,052	003,716	003,240	003,103
1 / 4 Final	003,388	002,928	004,257	004,630	003,278	003,083
1 / 2 Final	004,103	004,406	004,531	005,137	003,791	004,324
final	006,890	012,044	005,750	006,044	006,200	006,300

See also

• List of participants in the Champions Hockey League
• List of German participants in European club competitions in ice hockey # Champions Hockey League

Web links

• www.championshockeyleague.com : Official homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Champions Hockey League starts in 2014. In: derStandard.at. December 9, 2013, accessed December 3, 2017 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} - ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ http://huvudstadsbladet.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/djurgarden-klart-for-chl/
4. ↑ CHL and Infront seal partnership until 2027/28. Retrieved June 11, 2020 . 
5. ↑ League Ranking. In: championshockeyleague.com. Retrieved January 22, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ http://www.moneyhouse.ch/u/champions_hockey_league_%28chl%29_ag_CH-020.3.039.545-0.htm
9. ↑ Change of shareholders at CHL. In: championshockeyleague.com. Retrieved October 31, 2019 .  
10. ↑ Data from the Wikipedia pages of the CHL seasons