Photo: NICO MEIER / Champions Hockey League
The 2026-27 season of the Champions Hockey League – Europe’s official club ice hockey championship – begins on Thursday, 3 September.
For the fifth time since the competition was rebooted in 2014, Frolunda Gothenberg enters the season as the reigning champion, having defeated rival Swedish club Lulea Hockey 3-2 in overtime in last year’s final at Gothenberg’s Scandinavium.
“Playing and winning the CHL final at home in front of my friends and family is a memory I will carry with me,” said Nicklas Lasu, the CHL’s all-time leader with 94 games played, who has been a member of four of Frolunda’s five European titles.
The new season begins with six games on Thursday, starting with Czech club HC Plzen hosting Rogle Angelholm and Finnish champion Tappara Tampere hosting Bili Tygri Liberec – both games facing off at 17:30 CET, 18:30 EET. Frolunda then begins its title defence in one of six games on Friday, hosting SaiPa Lappeenranta.
“Every game counts, right from game day 1,” Lasu said during the CHL’s press conference on Tuesday. “As a club, we always want to win and play against the best players and the best teams.”
For the fourth straight season, the CHL will feature 24 teams competing in a “groupless” regular season, meaning each team will play six games against six different opponents, which were determined at a draw during the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Zurich.
This CHL’s competitors in 2026-27 include clubs from 11 different European national leagues:
Frolunda and Skelleftea are both competing for the 10th time in 12 CHL seasons – one less than Tappara and Salzburg, which will both compete for a record 11th time. Berlin and Vaxjo are both entering the competition for the ninth time. At the other end of the scale, KooKoo, Bordeaux and Herning are all playing for the first time. Kolner Haie from Cologne, Germany, are in for the second time – their first since 2014-15.
“Being part of this competition again means a lot to me,” said Haie captain Moritz Muller, who played four CHL games in 2014-15. The Olympic and World Championship silver medalist also noted in the press conference that the Cologne fans are “thirsty for European hockey.”
The “Sharks” faced some experienced opponents early on, starting with road games in Salzburg and Tampere before playing their first CHL home game in 12 years on 10 September against Frolunda.
As is always the case, the CHL will feature some of the biggest names in European hockey that should be familiar to fans around the world.
Geneve-Servette, the CHL champion in 2023-24, has a veteran roster that includes Finnish forwards Jesse Puljujarvi and Markus Granlund, Czech defenceman Jan Rutta, American Jimmy Vesey and Canadian Josh Jooris. Czech champion Pardubice’s roster includes centre Roman Cervenka, a two-time IIHF World Champion and Male Player of the Year in 2023-24, and Austrian brothers Thomas and Michael Raffl will again suit up together in Salzburg.
Other ex-NHLers in the competition include Brandon Davidson in Berlin and Patrick Brown in Mannheim.
Last season, the CHL added an interesting twist to games that went into overtime. Under the new rule, a team in possession of the puck in the attacking zone is not able to retreat back to the neutral zone, either by passing or carrying the puck back across the blueline. For a violation of the rule, play is stopped, the offending team is denied a line change, and the following face-off takes place in the offending team’s zone.
Other unique on-ice rules relate to penalties, which were introduced three years ago. In the CHL, a scoring a power-play goal or on a delayed penalty does not cancel the penalty. A penalty does expire, however, when a shorthanded goal is scored. These same rules have since been adopted by the PWHL.
This season, the CHL begins streaming games on IIHF.TV, with availability depending on location.
The CHL regular season begins Thursday and ends on Wednesday, 14 October. After that, the round of 16 will be played in November, the quarter-finals in December and the semi-finals in January, all in the form of two-game, home-and-away series, with the winners on aggregate scores advancing.
The one-game final is scheduled for Tuesday, 23 February. Check the CHL schedule for more details.
For the fifth time since the competition was rebooted in 2014, Frolunda Gothenberg enters the season as the reigning champion, having defeated rival Swedish club Lulea Hockey 3-2 in overtime in last year’s final at Gothenberg’s Scandinavium.
“Playing and winning the CHL final at home in front of my friends and family is a memory I will carry with me,” said Nicklas Lasu, the CHL’s all-time leader with 94 games played, who has been a member of four of Frolunda’s five European titles.
The new season begins with six games on Thursday, starting with Czech club HC Plzen hosting Rogle Angelholm and Finnish champion Tappara Tampere hosting Bili Tygri Liberec – both games facing off at 17:30 CET, 18:30 EET. Frolunda then begins its title defence in one of six games on Friday, hosting SaiPa Lappeenranta.
“Every game counts, right from game day 1,” Lasu said during the CHL’s press conference on Tuesday. “As a club, we always want to win and play against the best players and the best teams.”
Teams and players
For the fourth straight season, the CHL will feature 24 teams competing in a “groupless” regular season, meaning each team will play six games against six different opponents, which were determined at a draw during the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Zurich.
This CHL’s competitors in 2026-27 include clubs from 11 different European national leagues:
- Sweden: Frolunda Gothenburg (CHL champion), Skelleftea AIK (national champion), Vaxjo Lakers (regular season 3rd place), Rogle Angelholm (regular season 4th place).
- Switzerland: Fribourg-Gotteron (national champion), HC Davos (regular season winner), Geneve-Servette (regular season 3rd place).
- Finland: Tappara Tampere (national champion), KooKoo Kouvola (regular season 2nd place), SaiPa Lappeenranta (regular season 3rd place).
- Czechia: Dynamo Pardubice (national champion), HC Plzen (regular season 2nd place), Bili Tygri Liberec (regular season 3rd place).
- Germany: Eisbaren Berlin (national champion), Kolner Haie (regular season winner), Adler Mannheim (regular season 2nd place).
- Austria: Graz 99ers (national champion), KAC Klagenfurt (regular season 2nd place), Red Bull Salzburg (regular season 3rd place).
- Challenger leagues (national champions only): Storhamar Hamar (Norway), Bordeaux Boxers (France), Herning Blue Fox (Denmark), GKS Tychy (Poland), HK Nitra (Slovakia).
Frolunda and Skelleftea are both competing for the 10th time in 12 CHL seasons – one less than Tappara and Salzburg, which will both compete for a record 11th time. Berlin and Vaxjo are both entering the competition for the ninth time. At the other end of the scale, KooKoo, Bordeaux and Herning are all playing for the first time. Kolner Haie from Cologne, Germany, are in for the second time – their first since 2014-15.
“Being part of this competition again means a lot to me,” said Haie captain Moritz Muller, who played four CHL games in 2014-15. The Olympic and World Championship silver medalist also noted in the press conference that the Cologne fans are “thirsty for European hockey.”
The “Sharks” faced some experienced opponents early on, starting with road games in Salzburg and Tampere before playing their first CHL home game in 12 years on 10 September against Frolunda.
As is always the case, the CHL will feature some of the biggest names in European hockey that should be familiar to fans around the world.
Geneve-Servette, the CHL champion in 2023-24, has a veteran roster that includes Finnish forwards Jesse Puljujarvi and Markus Granlund, Czech defenceman Jan Rutta, American Jimmy Vesey and Canadian Josh Jooris. Czech champion Pardubice’s roster includes centre Roman Cervenka, a two-time IIHF World Champion and Male Player of the Year in 2023-24, and Austrian brothers Thomas and Michael Raffl will again suit up together in Salzburg.
Other ex-NHLers in the competition include Brandon Davidson in Berlin and Patrick Brown in Mannheim.
CHL-specific rules
Last season, the CHL added an interesting twist to games that went into overtime. Under the new rule, a team in possession of the puck in the attacking zone is not able to retreat back to the neutral zone, either by passing or carrying the puck back across the blueline. For a violation of the rule, play is stopped, the offending team is denied a line change, and the following face-off takes place in the offending team’s zone.
Other unique on-ice rules relate to penalties, which were introduced three years ago. In the CHL, a scoring a power-play goal or on a delayed penalty does not cancel the penalty. A penalty does expire, however, when a shorthanded goal is scored. These same rules have since been adopted by the PWHL.
This season, the CHL begins streaming games on IIHF.TV, with availability depending on location.
The CHL regular season begins Thursday and ends on Wednesday, 14 October. After that, the round of 16 will be played in November, the quarter-finals in December and the semi-finals in January, all in the form of two-game, home-and-away series, with the winners on aggregate scores advancing.
The one-game final is scheduled for Tuesday, 23 February. Check the CHL schedule for more details.