Champions Hockey League

The Champions Hockey League is a European ice hockey tournament launched by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which started in the 2014–15 season. The tournament features several teams from the first-tier leagues of at least six countries in 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 with finding sponsors and failure to agree on a format. On 9 December 2013, the IIHF officially announced that they had launched a new tournament with the same name, born out of the European Trophy, starting in the 2014–15 season.

Seasons

2014–15 season

The 2014–15 season's regulation round was played between 21 August and 7 October 2014. 44 clubs from 12 different European countries participated in the season, divided into 11 groups of four teams each. A draw took place in Minsk, Belarus, on 21 May 2014 to determine the groups. 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, which began on 4 November and ended with the final on 4 February 2015. 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.