Champions Hockey League

Champions Hockey League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2018–19 Champions Hockey League
Formerly European Trophy
Champions Hockey League
Sport Ice hockey
Founded 2013
Founder IIHF
Inaugural season 2014–15
CEO Martin Baumann[1]
Claim to fame EICC
No. of teams 32
Countries 13
Most recent
champion(s)		 Finland JYP (1st title)
Most titles Sweden Frölunda HC (2)
Qualification Top teams in first-tier leagues
TV partner(s) Austria: LAOLA1.tv (online livestream)
Brazil: ESPN[2]
Canada: Sportsnet
Central America: TD Centro
Czech Republic: SlovakSport.TV
Europe: Eurosport
Finland: MTV
France: L'Équipe 21
Germany: Sport1 (TV) and LAOLA1.tv (online livestream)
Great Britain: Premier Sports and FreeSports[3]
Mexico: Televisa Deportes Network
Romania: TVR1 HD
Slovakia: SlovakSport.TV
South America: DirecTV
Sweden: SVT
Switzerland: SRG SSR and Teleclub[4]
Turkey: Sportstv
USA: ONE World Sports[5] and Univision Deportes Network
Official website ChampionsHockeyLeague.com

The Champions Hockey League is a European ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams from the first-tier leagues of countries across Europe.

Background

The IIHF launched a tournament with the same name in 2008 to coincide with the IIHF's 100th anniversary. The tournament's only season was played between 8 October 2008 and 28 January 2009, and was won by the ZSC Lions who got to play in the 2009 Victoria Cup game as a result. The IIHF planned to launch another season but was ultimately forced to cancel the tournament due to problems finding sponsors during the concurrent global economic crisis and failure to agree on a tournament format. On 9 December 2013, a new tournament with the same name was launched by a group of 26 clubs from six different countries, born out of the European Trophy, starting in the 2014–15 season.[6]

Seasons

Overview

Season Teams Games Att. avg. Champion Runner-up Semi-finalists
2014–15 44 161 3,049 Sweden Luleå HF Sweden Frölunda HC Finland Oulun Kärpät, Sweden Skellefteå AIK
2015–16 48 157 3,261 Sweden Frölunda HC Finland Oulun Kärpät Switzerland HC Davos, Finland Lukko
2016–17 48 157 3,240 Sweden Frölunda HC Czech Republic HC Sparta Praha Switzerland Fribourg-Gottéron, Sweden Växjö Lakers
2017–18 32 125 3,369 Finland JYP Sweden Växjö Lakers Czech Republic Oceláři Třinec, Czech Republic Bílí Tygři Liberec
2018–19 32

2014–15 season

The 2014–15 season was played between August 2014 and February 2015. 44 clubs from 12 different European countries participated in the season, divided into 11 groups of four teams each. Each team played a double round-robin in their group, for a total of 6 games per team. The 11 group winners as well as the top five group runners-up qualified for the playoffs. The playoffs were as a single-elimination tournament, with all rounds leading to the final played in two-game, home-and-away, total-goal series. The final was a single game. In total, 161 games were played, including the group and playoff stages.[6][7] The season was won by Luleå HF which defeated Frölunda HC in the final.

2015–16 season

For the 2015–16 season, the tournament was expanded to 48 teams, divided into 16 groups with three teams in each group. The two first teams in each group advanced to the playoff round of 32.[8] The 48 teams consisted of the 26 founding A-licence clubs, 12 B-licensed clubs from the founding leagues, and 10 C-licensed "Wild card" teams from other leagues. In total, 157 games were played. Frölunda HC won their first Champions League title by beating Oulun Kärpät in the final.

2016–17 season

The 2016–17 season was once more played with 48 teams, using the same format as in the previous season. The season started on 16 August 2016 and ended with the final game on 7 February 2017 with Frölunda defeating Sparta Prague, 4–3 in overtime.[9]

2017–18 season

Starting with the fourth CHL season, the championship was reduced to 32 teams, and qualification was on sporting merits only. The six founding leagues were represented by between three and five teams (based on a three-year league ranking), while eight teams from the "challenge leagues" were represented by one team each. No founding team was qualified automatically.[10]

Finnish side JYP Jyväskylä won the title defeating Swedish team Växjö Lakers 2-0.

Teams

Since the 2017–18 season, 32 teams participate in the group stage, with 24 of the entries coming from the six founding leagues (Swedish Hockey League, Finnish Liiga, Swiss National League A, Czech Extraliga, German DEL and Austrian/international EBEL) and all berths being earned through on-ice achievement: the "founding clubs" are no longer guaranteed a place in the competition. A maximum of five teams from each country are permitted, with the entries allotted to each country according to a coefficient system (best two leagues get five berths, next two get four, last two get three). The remaining eight places are given to the champions of the Norwegian, Slovakian, French, Belarusian, Danish, British and Polish leagues, as well as the champion of the Continental Cup. The teams are then be drawn into eight groups of four, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the knockout stage, which is contested as two-legged ties until a one-match final.[10]

In the first 3 years of the competition, the 26 founding teams had guaranteed spots in the group stage ("A license"). Additional teams from the founding league, that qualified based on sporting merits ("B license") and the champions from other European leagues ("C license") completed the field.

League ranking

RankLeaguePoints 2014–15 (25%)Points 2015–16 (50%)Points 2016–17 (75%)Points 2017-18 (100%)Total pointsBerths for 2018–19
1Sweden SHLF100 (25)100 (50)95 (71)1002465
2Finland LiigaF95 (24)95 (48)90 (68)852255 TH
3Czech Republic ELHF80 (20)85 (43)85 (64)952224
4Switzerland NLAF85 (21)80 (40)100 (75)802164
5Germany DELF65 (16)75 (38)75 (56)902003
6Austria EBELF90 (23)65 (43)65 (49)751803
7Slovakia Tipsport Liga75(19)70 (35)70 (53)601671
8Belarus BXL–65 (33)80 (60)701632CC
9Norway GET-ligaen70 (18)90 (45)50 (38)551561
10United Kingdom EIHL55 (14)45 (23)60 (45)651471
11Denmark Metal Ligaen60 (15)65 (33)60 (45)501431
12France Ligue Magnus50 (13)65 (33)45 (34)501301
13Poland Polska Hokej Liga––40 (30)50801

F founding leagues
TH as JYP Jyväskylä qualified as titleholder, four best teams from Liiga, beside JYP Jyväskylä, will qualify as maximum number of teams from one league is five
CC Yunost Minsk of BXL qualified as 2017–18 IIHF Continental Cup champion so BXL will have two berths (other being the regular season champion)

League ranking points calculation

Each match is counted for league ranking points. Points collected by all teams from a specific league are summed up and then divided by number of teams from that league. The final result represents the league's coefficient for that year. Coefficients are then sorted from highest to lowest: the best league gets 100 points with each following getting five points less than previous one (95, 90, 85...).

Points are awarded as follows:

  • win in regulation time – 3 points (group stage, playoffs)
  • win in overtime – 2 points (group stage only; no overtime in playoffs)
  • tie in regulation time – 1 point (playoffs only)
  • loss in overtime – 1 point (group stage only)
  • loss in regulation time – 0 points (group stage, playoffs)

Additionally, each team is awarded 1 point for reaching each of next rounds.

The last four seasons are taken into account for berth allocation for the 2018–19 season. League points are made of 25% of points won in first season, 50% of points won in second season, 75% of points won in third season and 100% of points won in last, fourth season.

For the 2018–19 season, each of the four previous seasons will be taken into account and starting with 2019-20 season each will be based on points from last five seasons.

Prize money

In the 2014–15 season, 40 teams competed for a grand total of 1.5 million euros.[7]

European Trophy

The winner of the Competition receives the "European Trophy".[11]

Records and statistics

Winners

Performance in the Champions Hockey League by club
Club		 Winners Runners-up Semi-finalists Years won
Sweden Frölunda HC 2 1 0 2015–16, 2016–17
Sweden Luleå HF 1 0 0 2014–15
Finland JYP 1 0 0 2017–18
Finland Oulun Kärpät 0 1 1
Sweden Växjö Lakers 0 1 1
Czech Republic HC Sparta Praha 0 1 0
Sweden Skellefteå AIK 0 0 1
Switzerland HC Davos 0 0 1
Finland Lukko 0 0 1
Switzerland Fribourg-Gottéron 0 0 1
Czech Republic Bílí Tygři Liberec 0 0 1
Czech Republic Oceláři Třinec 0 0 1

By nation

Performance by nation
Nation Winners Runners-up Semi-finalists Quarter-finalists Eighth-finalists
 Sweden 3 2 2 5 5
 Finland 1 1 2 5 9
 Czech Republic 0 1 2 2 5
  Switzerland 0 0 2 4 4
 Germany 0 0 0 0 4
 Austria 0 0 0 0 3
 Norway 0 0 0 0 1
 United Kingdom 0 0 0 0 1

See also

  • European Trophy, a similar tournament played annually from 2006, disbanded after 2013. European Trophy is the precursor to Champions Hockey League. The names of all four recent European Trophy winners are engraved in the Trophy.[12]

References

  1. ↑ "Staff". Champions Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2014-07-01.
  2. ↑ "Semi-final referees and TV listings: Brazil among countries to watch CHL!". Champions Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13.
  3. ↑ "FreeSports Ice Hockey". Twitter. 29 August 2017. Archived from the original on 9 May 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  4. ↑ "SRG and Teleclub gain exclusive CHL broadcasting rights in Switzerland". Champions Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18.
  5. ↑ "New broadcast agreements in Germany and Austria on SPORT1 and LAOLA1.tv". Champions Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18.
  6. 1 2 "New era dawns for Europe". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on 2013-12-17.
  7. 1 2 "Ready for takeoff". International Ice Hockey Federation. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on 2014-09-07.
  8. ↑ "CHL to play with 48 teams in 2015–16". Champions Hockey League. 4 December 2014. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Gustav Orbring (7 February 2017). "Frölunda försvarade CHL-titeln" (in Swedish). SVT Sport. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  10. 1 2 "New CHL format for 2017–18! 32 teams & on-ice qualification only". championshockeyleague.net. 2016-06-14. Archived from the original on 2016-11-30.
  11. ↑ O'Brien, Derek (2015-01-28). "Make way, the European Trophy is here!". Champions Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  12. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-12-23.
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