Champions Hockey League
Current season, competition or edition: 2016–17 Champions Hockey League
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| Formerly |
European Trophy Champions Hockey League (2008–09) |
|---|---|
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | IIHF |
| Inaugural season | 2014–15 |
| CEO | Martin Baumann |
| Claim to fame | EICC |
| No. of teams | 48 |
| Country | 13, in Europe |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Frölunda HC
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| Most titles |
Frölunda HC (2) |
| Qualification | Top teams in first-tier leagues |
| TV partner(s) |
Austria: LAOLA1.tv (online livestream) Brazil: ESPN 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 Mexico: Televisa Deportes Network Slovakia: SlovakSport.TV South America: DirecTV Sweden: SVT Switzerland: SRG SSR and Teleclub Turkey: Sportstv USA: ONE World Sports and Univision Deportes Network |
| Official website | ChampionsHockeyLeague.net |
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.
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, 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.
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. The season was won by Luleå HF which defeated Frölunda HC in the final.
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