The Champions Hockey League (CHL) is a continental ice hockey tournament contested by the top teams in Europe.
📜 CHL History
The CHL was inaugurated in 2014 by the sport's global governing body, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), and a number of clubs in the top tiers of their respective country's hockey leagues. The IIHF had originally created a tournament of the same name in 2008 that was only played once and plans to continue it were scrapped due to a struggle to find sponsors. The current CHL was then created from the European Trophy concept (previously known as the Nordic Trophy) which ran from 2006 to 2013.
The tournament is competed by 24 teams that have each qualified by doing well in their own leagues. The majority of the teams come from the 6 founding leagues (Swedish Hockey League, Finnish Liiga, Czech Extraliga, German DEL, Swiss National League, and Austrian EBEL) with the remaining teams coming from leagues in Norway, Slovakia, France, Denmark, Britain, and Poland. The most successful club is Frölunda HC from Sweden's SHL.
💯 CHL Format & Scoring
The tournament is competed by 24 teams that have each qualified by excelling in their own leagues. The previous year's champion qualifies automatically. There are 18 teams qualifying from the 6 founding leagues (Swedish Hockey League, Finnish Liiga, Czech Extraliga, German DEL, Swiss National League, and Austrian EBEL) with the remaining 5 teams coming from challenger leagues in countries such as Norway, Slovakia, France, Denmark, Britain, and Poland. A maximum of 3 teams is permitted from each country and they compete for the European Trophy.
Teams initially play in a regular season league structure. To decide on the fixtures, teams will be allocated into 4 pots featuring 6 teams and each team is drawn against 6 opponents by drawing 2 opponents from each of the other 3 pots. Teams play one team per pot and home and the other away. There are 3 points awarded for a win, 0 for a loss in regulation time, and 1 for a loss in overtime.
The teams that finish the regular season in the top 16 positions will qualify for the playoffs. These begin with the Round of 16, followed by the quarterfinals and then semifinals. These matches are 2-legged ties before the 1-legged final. As well as a chance to lift a trophy, teams can pick up ranking points throughout the tournament to represent the league's coefficient.
