Six teams have qualified for the CHL via their regular season finishes in their national leagues. The Champions Hockey League Draw takes place on 3 May in Zurich. 

Press Release

Skelleftea AIK from the Swedish Hockey League, Red Bull Munich from the German DEL, the Stavanger Oilers from the Norwegian Ligaen, HC Kosice from the Slovak Extraliga, HC Davos from the Swiss NLA and Czech club Orli Znojmo from the Austrian EBEL are, so far, the newest added participants for the 2016–17 Champions Hockey League. All of them qualified by finishing as regular season winners or runners-up in their respective leagues. The latter two earned their Champions Hockey League B-License status for the upcoming season as they were runners-up behind A-license (“Founding”) clubs (ZSC Lions Zurich won the regular season in the NLA, Red Bull Salzburg in EBEL).
 
There are no CHL additions after regular season out from the two founding leagues of Finland (Liiga) and the Czech Republic (Extraliga) as their first two positions are taken by CHL Founding Clubs. The decisions on both B-Licence spots of these two leagues will be taken at the end of the season, while the other founding leagues only have one B-Licence left (see qualification regulations at the end of the release).
 
For clarification: Orli Znojmo will represent the Austrian-based EBEL in the Champions Hockey League, even though the club is based in the Czech Republic. Their qualification does not affect the number of spots which the Czech Extraliga has in the CHL. Treatment as an Austrian EBEL team means consequently that intra-national clashes with teams from the Czech Republic are possible in the Group Stage of the 2016–17 Champions Hockey League for Znojmo.
 
The draw for the Champions Hockey League Group Stage will take place on 3 May 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.

33 teams have qualified so far

Apart from the 26 Founding Clubs, the following clubs have also so far qualified for next season’s competition: 

• Skelleftea AIK (SWE, B-License) – regular season winner of SHL
• Red Bull Munich (GER, B-License) – regular season winner of DEL
• HC Davos (SUI, B-License) – regular season runner-up of NLA
• Orli Znojmo (CZE, B-License) – regular season runner-up of EBEL (AUT)
• HC Kosice (SVK, C-License) – regular season winner of Slovak Extraliga
• Stavanger Oilers (NOR, C-License) – regular season winner of Norwegian Ligaen
• Rouen Dragons (FRA, C-License) – winner of the IIHF Continental Cup

This brings the current total of teams for 2016–17 to 33. The number of teams competing in the Champions Hockey League in its third year remains 48. Znojmo and the Rouen Dragons are new to the Champions Hockey League, while the other teams mentioned above have previously competed in Europe’s club hockey championship in the past.

No changes in format for 2016–17

The format for the 2016–17 Champions Hockey League remains the same as 2015–16. 48 teams compete in “Destination Final” to be crowned as Europe’s club champion. 26 A-License (founding) clubs are joined by 12 B-License clubs (in principle the national champions and regular season winners of the six Founding Leagues) and 10 C-License clubs.
 
The C-Licenses, also called Wild Cards, are in general awarded by the CHL to top teams from the “Challenge Leagues”, which are ranked below the six Founding Leagues. C-Licenses for 2016–17 are confirmed for the Leagues of Norway, Slovakia (champions and regular season winners of each), Denmark, France and Belarus (champions of each) as well as to the winner of the IIHF Continental Cup. The review for the two last C-License spots is still in progress and the recipients will be announced later on.
 
The Group Stage of the 2016–17 season will begin on 18 August (16 August for Swiss teams) and finish on 11 September. The total of 48 teams will be divided into 16 groups of three and each team will play four games – one home and one away against the other two teams in its group. The first- and second-placed teams in each group will then advance to the Playoff Stage.
 
With 32 teams in the playoffs, five rounds will be required to determine the European club champion. The first four rounds will all be two-game, home-and-away, total-goal series, similar to the previous seasons. The playoffs will begin on 4 October and finish with a one-game Final on 7 February. 

Criteria for B-License qualification (2 from each Founding League):

1. National/league champion
2. 1st place in regular season
3. 2nd place in regular season
4. Playoff runner-up
5. Higher regular season finish among losers of playoff semi-finalists
6. Lower regular season finish among losers of playoff semi-finalists
7. 3rd place in regular season
8. 4th place in regular season
9. 5th place in regular season
10. 6th place in regular season
11. Highest regular season finish among losers of playoff quarter-finals
12. 2nd-highest regular season finish among losers of playoff quarter-finals