Off-season changes & summary

The playing format for the 2025/26 Champions Hockey League Season remained unchanged from the previous year with 24 teams qualifying and participating.

Three teams qualified from each of the six Shareholder Leagues with the CHL Champions of the previous season earning an extra place for their league.

Five Wild Cards were open and were awarded to the national champions of Denmark, France, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Of the 24 qualified teams, one made their debut in the pan-European competition in 2025/26 – Odense Bulldogs – while 9 returned from 2024/25 and the remaining 14 teams of the line-up had played in the CHL in the past.

After a memorable 10th season anniversary the season prior, the Champions Hockey League entered a new decade of sporting excellence ready for an action-packed 11th season of Europe's very best club ice hockey.

Playing Format

Teams were ranked in a combined Regular Season Ranking, with the best 16 advancing to the Playoffs after all games had been played, and eight of the lowest-ranked teams being knocked out.

The Playoffs (Round of 16, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals) were played in a two-game, home-and-away, knock-out series, where the winner on goals aggregate advanced to the next round – the same as in the previous format.

Clubs faced each other in the Playoffs based on their position in the Regular Season Standings (1st vs 16th, 2nd vs 15th, etc.).

The Final was a one-game all-or-nothing showdown, played at the venue of the team with the best-accumulated Regular Season and Playoffs record.

Regular Season review | click here for Regular Season Standings 2025/26

Finnish teams dominated the Regular Season in 2025/26, with all three Liiga participants finishing in the Top 5, as Lukko Rauma finished 5th, KalPa Kuopio 2nd and Ilves Tampere finishing 1st, thus becoming Regular Season Winners.

Both Ilves and KalPa ended the first phase of the 2025/26 season unbeaten, with Ilves becoming the first-ever team to also secure a maximum 18 points in the CHL's new format in place since 2023/24.

All three Swedish clubs made the Playoffs, with eventual champions Frölunda Gothenburg (3rd place) playing an especially strong Regular Season, while Czechia, Switzerland and Germany all lost one participant each at this stage.

11th-placed Red Bull Salzburg were left as the only ICE HL participant following struggles from KAC Klagenfurt and HC Bolzano.

The Odense Bulldogs won on their CHL debut, beating Czech side Mountfield HK 4-3 on the road, while Challenger League side Grenoble played a strong Regular Season to make the Playoffs for the very first time. Alongside Storhamar Hamar, 2025/26 marked a strong season for Challenger League sides who troubled some of Europe's strongest clubs all season long.

Reigning CHL Champions ZSC Lions Zurich lost their opening game of the CHL season against German side Pinguins Bremerhaven and finished 15th after an up-and-down Regular Season.

A look at the rest of the field also reveals that all teams scored points and picked up at least one win over the course of the Regular Season - a first under the new playing format.

Playoff Review | click here for 2025/26 Road to the Final

Clubs from eight countries entered the Playoffs, but that was reduced to just four for the Quarter-Finals, while the Semi-Finals featured four teams from two countries.

The Round of 16 saw all Czech Extraliga competitors drop out, as Sparta Prague failed to hold back Swiss side EV Zug, suffering a heavy blow in the form of a 6-0 defeat in the First Game of their series. Compatriots Kometa Brno had a similarly tough time with eventual Finalists Luleå Hockey.

Reigning CHL Champions ZSC Lions Zurich were eliminated by KalPa Kuopio following 4-4 First Game and 4-2 Return Game results.

French side Grenoble really troubled Frölunda Gothenburg, keeping the heat on for most of the Return Game, looking to force overtime, but eventually were forced to exit the 4-3 series.

SC Bern vs. Brynäs IF was the closest match-up of the Round of 16. Following a 2-1 First Game in Bern's favour, Brynäs scored a number of late goals to flip the series on its head and then scored the OT game-winner to make the Quarter-Finals for only the second time ever. 

Ilves, Lukko and KalPa all played strong, convincing series in the Round of 16, and all made the Quarter-Finals in strong form, while ERC Ingolstadt held the flag high for Germany in the very first Playoffs round, beating Red Bull Salzburg to a spot in the Top 8.

Quarter-Finals

Ilves Tampere entered the Quarter-Finals unbeaten but back-to-back losses to a very strong and determined Luleå Hockey saw the team to beat and one of the biggest favourites to win the European Trophy that season exit ahead of the Semi-Finals, while their Swedish opponents gained a huge confidence boost.

Swiss side EV Zug faced Finns Lukko Rauma, going 3-1 down in the First Game, but strong mentality saw them flip their fortunes with a commanding 3-0 shutout victory at home to secure them their spot in the Semi-Finals for back-to-back CHL seasons.

ERC Ingolstadt did their best to overcome serial winners Frölunda Gothenburg, but a 3-1 loss in the First Game proved too much to overturn as the eventual champions yet again displayed how their tight defending and goaltending can help them grind out important results.

Brynäs played a perfect series, starting with a 5-1 First Game win over Finns KalPa Kuopio, followed by another Return Game win to make the Semi-Finals in style. 

All in all, heading into the Semi-Finals, all Finnish teams dropped out, as did the only remaining DEL side in the competition, ERC Ingolstadt, leaving the Semi-Finals as an all-Swedish party interrupted only by Swiss challengers EV Zug.

Semi-Finals

The Semi-Finals of the 2025/26 season showed how familiarity and past experience plays an important role in hockey, as both match-ups featured teams that very recently met. 

That was a given in the all-Swedish match-up between Frölunda and Brynäs. As we had come to see time and time again, Frölunda took an important 2-0 First Game win to give them the space they needed to hold out and fend off in the Return Game, but Brynäs really made them work for it, coming agonisingly close to cracking the most experienced team in CHL history, but ultimately failing to do so, ending their best-ever CHL season in the Top 4.

For Luleå Hockey vs. EV Zug, it was a rematch of their Game Day 1 clash just months prior, ending in a win for Zug on the road. This time, however, the Swedes were ready and beat the Swiss side home and away in a very tightly contested series to make the CHL Final for the third time in their history.

The Final

Two teams with serious CHL pedigree. Two teams that had won the Champions Hockey League before. The two teams that contested the very first CHL Final back in 2014/15 - this match-up had countless story angles going for it even before the pucked drop for the final time in 2025/26.

After the end of the Semi-Finals First Games, it was announced that the hosting rights of CHL Final 2026 would go to the team that ended the Semi-Finals with a better accumulated record over the Regular Season and Playoffs. After the end of the Return Games, it was confirmed that Gothenburg's Scandinavium would host the ultimate game of the season.

Tickets for CHL Final 2026 played on 3 March 2026 went on sale and the over 12,000 capacity was sold-out ahead of the event. The game started at 19:00 CET.

As the clock counted down to the start of the CHL Final, it was clear this was going to be a tense game. First-period action didn't offer any goals but did see both teams enter the game hungry and determined.

Nicklas Lasu scored the first goal of the game - a spectacular short-handed solo breakaway - in the second period, but an Eetu Koivistoinen equaliser early in the final frame levelled the playing field.

Frölunda jumped on a PP opportunity at 47:24, scoring to take back their win and looked set to drag this one out down to the final buzzer, but for the first time in a very long time, their near-perfect goaltending and defending was overcome, with Luleå striking the equaliser with just seconds left on the clock to force OT.

For just the second time in CHL history, the Final headed to overtime, played three-on-three. There, Jere Innala would ultimately become the hero with the game-winner under 5 minutes into the session.

Frölunda became European Club Champions for a record 5th time, further cementing themselves as the most successful team in Champions Hockey League history and one of Europe's elite hockey organisations.