Ahead of the 2016–17 Champions Hockey League, competition officials are holding a series of press conferences around Europe to promote the event. First up, it was Germany’s turn.

by Jens Rohra

MUNICH – The Champions Hockey League has shown to be popular in Germany over the Champions Hockey League's first two seasons, and league CEO Martin Baumann is hopeful that can translate into on-ice success as well.

“I hope that the German teams can sometimes break the ‘Scandinavian Wall’ and generate surprises in the matches,” he told the gathered media. Baumann further explained the changes to the tournament that will come into effect in 2017–18 to the German journalists, concluding that it will make the competition stronger by reducing the number of team to 32. “This will result in concentrating the very best teams in Europe in the CHL, which in fact is just what teams and fans wished for a long time already,” he said.

Baumann also explained that teams will now have to also qualify via their national championship, removing the automatic qualifiers from founding leagues, and that plans to include KHL teams still remain under discussion. “Of course, Russian clubs are surely among the best in Europe,” concluded Baumann.

The CHL's ultimate prize, the European Trophy, was also on display at the event in the Bavarian capital, and German hockey fans will be hoping that one of their clubs may be able to bring it back to the country come February.

Members of the DEL clubs were also in attendance, looking ahead to this year's competition.

"We have learned, and taken a lot from our encounter with Lukko Rauma in last season's playoffs. Now we want to use what we learned last year in the CHL," said Don Jackson, head coach of Red Bull Munich. "We take the competition very seriously and our aim is to win every single game."

Adler Mannheim coach Sean Simpson had success in the European Trophy, and it's something that the team wants to emulate in the CHL. "The victory in the ET with ZSC was a huge success for such a small country as Switzerland. In Mannheim, we are now fully focused and motivated to improve DEL’s results from previous seasons," he stated earlier today. 

Stefan Ustorf, Esbären Berlin's Sport Director reflected on the group draw for his side this season. "With Lulea, we have one of the strongest competitiors, but even still we want to win these games. This means high-level hockey early in the season. We had a good camp, our guys worked hard and we’re looking forward to this." He added, "We need to show ourselves and gain belief in ourselves for the resto f the season."

"With the right approach and mental setup, everything is possible, as you saw when we beat Frolunda last season," recalled Claus Grobner, ERC Ingolstadt GM. "We want to go as far as possible this season again."

Wolfsburg debut in the CHL this season, and Kerl-Heinz Fliegauf noted how excited the club is to get going. "We can’t wait for the CHL season to start. We’re a small organization, we’re all looking forward to it. Now we just hope the fans are on the same page and will fill the arena for the CHL games," said the team's GM and sports director.

Finally Krefeld have not had so much sucess in the CHL so far, but maybe have a new way to approach games. "Our goal is to go through to the playoffs for the first time, so we’re going to treat to group stage as playoff games already," said assistant coach Elmar Schmitz.