View source for Champions Hockey League

''This article is about the tournament that was launched in the 2014–15 season. For the tournament that was cancelled after the 2008–09 season, see [[Champions Hockey League (2008–09)]].''
{{Infobox Sports league
| title          = Champions Hockey League
| current_season = 2015–16 Champions Hockey League
| logo           = Champions_Hockey_League_logo.jpg
| pixels         = 300px
| caption        =
| Formerly       =
| sport          = Ice hockey
| founded        = 2013
| fame           =
| motto          =
| inaugural      = 2014
| teams          = 48
| country        = Multiple in Europe
| venue          =
| champion       = {{flagicon|SWE}} [[Frölunda HC]]
| most_champs    = {{flagicon|SWE}} [[Luleå Hockey]] (1) [[Frölunda HC]] (1)
| qualification  = 
| folded         = 
| website        = [http://www.championshockeyleague.net/ ChampionsHockeyLeague.net]
| ceo            = Martin Baumann<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.championshockeyleague.net/about/about_chl/|title=Staff|publisher=Champions Hockey League}}</ref>
| Director       = 
| TV             =  '''Europe:''' various
| related_comps  = 
| Founder        = [[International Ice Hockey Federation|IIHF]]
}}
The '''Champions Hockey League''' is a European ice hockey tournament launched by the [[International Ice Hockey Federation]] (IIHF), which started in the [[2014–15 Champions Hockey League|2014–15 season]].

== Background ==
The IIHF launched [[Champions Hockey League (2008–09)|a tournament with the same name]] in 2008 to coincide with the IIHF's 100th anniversary. [[2008–09 Champions Hockey League|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 Champions Hockey League|2014–15 season]].<ref name="Season announced">[http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/recap/8242.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=187&cHash=2bf2ed1463 New era dawns for Europe]</ref>

=== 2014–15 season ===
{{main|2014–15 Champions Hockey League}}

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.<ref name="Season announced" /><ref name="Ready for takeoff">{{cite web |url=http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8589&cHash=ab1d824eaa32562f1c7a4e373ce62cf5 |title=Ready for takeoff |date=2014-02-27 |publisher=International Ice Hockey Federation}}</ref>

=== 2015–16 season ===
{{main|2015–16 Champions Hockey League}}

For the 2015–16 season, the tournament has been 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.<ref name="CHL to play with 48">{{cite web |url=http://www.championshockeyleague.net/news/chl-to-play-with-48-teams-in-2015-16/674/ |title=CHL to play with 48 teams in 2015–16 |publisher=Champions Hockey League |date=4 December 2014 |accessdate=4 December 2014}}</ref> 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. The champions from Norway, Denmark, Slovakia, France and the United Kingdom, like the previous season, received wild card berths.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tv2.no/a/6534754|title=Norge får to plasser i Champions Hockey League|publisher=TV2|date=10 February 2015|accessdate=16 February 2015|language=Norwegian}}</ref> From Slovakia, Norway, France and the United Kingdom, a second team also received a wild card berth.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hockeyslovakia.sk/sk/clanok/v-lige-majstrov-bude-mat-slovensko-od-sezony-2015-2016-dvoch-zastupcov|title=V Lige majstrov bude mať Slovensko od sezóny 2015/2016 dvoch zástupcov|publisher=Slovak Ice Hockey Federation|date=13 February 2015|accessdate=16 February 2015|language=Slovak}}</ref> One wild card license was also assigned to [[IIHF Continental Cup 2015]] winner [[HK Neman Grodno]].<ref name="CHL to play with 48"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=9360&cHash=91953f6440355014cd40cfbefc5b5539|title=Neman wins Continental Cup|publisher=IIHF|date=10 January 2015|accessdate=10 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://eng.belta.by/all_news/sport/HC-Neman-Grodno-to-play-in-2015-16-CHL-season_i_79279.html|title=HC Neman Grodno to play in 2015-16 CHL season|publisher=Belarus News (BelTA)|date=5 February 2015|accessdate=16 February 2015}}</ref>

== Teams ==
From the 2015-16 season, 48 clubs from the first-tier leagues of at least ten different European countries will participate. Teams can qualify for the tournament by obtaining either an A, B or C license.<ref name="Ready for takeoff" /><ref name="CHL to play with 48" />

* '''A license''': The 26 founding clubs are granted an "A license", provided that they play in the first-tier league of their respective system.<ref name="Djurgarden not eligible to play unless promoted">{{cite web |url=http://www.difhockey.se/artikel/3002/ |title=CHL: Ny era i europeisk klubbhockey |publisher=[[Djurgårdens IF Hockey]] |work=difhockey.se |language=Swedish |date=2013-12-09 |accessdate=2013-12-19}}</ref>
* '''B license''': Two teams—the top regular season team and the top playoff team in the previous season without an A license—from each of the founding leagues (Austrian [[Austrian Hockey League|EBEL]], [[Czech Extraliga]], Finnish [[Liiga]], German [[Deutsche Eishockey Liga|DEL]], Swiss [[National League A|NLA]] and Swedish [[Swedish Hockey League|SHL]]) will also participate.<ref name="Ebel Qualifikationskriterien">[http://www.erstebankliga.at/de/news/detail/2014/02/20/qualifikationskriterien_fuer_die_champions_hockey_league Qualifikationskriterien für die Champions Hockey League]</ref> If these top teams are already founding clubs with A licenses, other teams from the league can take the B license spots. The order the B licenses will be handed out is:<ref name="Ebel Qualifikationskriterien"/><ref name="IIHF new clubs">[http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8660&cHash=4740b1f34301de6c890940cbc9b9d9ae New clubs join CHL]</ref> 
# National champion
# Regular season winner
# Runner-up, regular season
# Play-off finalist
# Best placed semifinal loser
# Worst placed semifinal loser
:If the leagues after that still don't reach their guaranteed number of places (EBEL: 4; DEL, NLA and Extraliga: 5; SHL and Liiga: 6) the third and fourth placed team in the regular season also can be considered.<ref name="Växjös chanser">{{cite web |url=http://www.hockeysverige.se/robert-pettersson/2014/03/26/sex-nya-lag-klara-for-champions-league-sa-ser-vaxjos-chanser-ut/ |title=Sex nya lag klara för Champions League – så ser Växjös chanser ut |date=2014-03-26 |publisher=Hockeysverige.se |language=sv}}</ref>

* '''C license''': The rest of the places will go to "wild card" teams, from European first-tier leagues other than the founding ones. The C license teams will be drawn from amongst the champions of the [[IIHF Continental Cup]], [[Elite Ice Hockey League]] (United Kingdom), [[GET-ligaen]] (Norway), [[Ligue Magnus]] (France), [[Metal Ligaen]] (Denmark), and [[Slovak Extraliga]] (Slovakia).<ref name="Ready for takeoff" /><ref name="Belarus’ Neman">{{cite web |url=http://www.championshockeyleague.net/news/belarus-neman-grodno-marks-chl-foray-into-eastern-europe/820/ |title=Belarus’ Neman Grodno marks CHL foray into Eastern Europe |date=2015-02-19 |publisher=Champions Hockey League }}</ref>

== Prize money ==
In the [[2014–15 Champions Hockey League|2014–15 season]], 40 teams competed for a grand total of 1.5 million euros.<ref name="Ready for takeoff" />

== European Trophy ==
The winner of the Competition will receive the “European Trophy”.<ref>http://www.championshockeyleague.net/about/about_chl/</ref>

==Winners==
*[[2014–15 Champions Hockey League|2014–2015]]: {{flagicon|SWE}} [[Luleå Hockey]]
*[[2015–16 Champions Hockey League|2015–2016]]: {{flagicon|SWE}} [[Frölunda HC]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== See also ==
* [[European Trophy]], a similar tournament played annually since 2006

{{European Club Ice Hockey Tournaments}}
{{Euro Leagues}}
{{IIHF}}
{{Wikipedia}}
[[Category:Champions Hockey League| ]]
[[Category:International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments]]