With four more teams qualified in the past week, we are now up to 15 teams qualified for the 2020/21 season. There are only five spots left to be earned in the regular season – two in Sweden, two in Finland and one in the United Kingdom. The rest will be earned in the playoffs.
Follow the #RaceToQualify and see who's already secured a spot for the 2020/21 season here.
In the Swedish Hockey League, spots have already gone to CHL champions Frölunda Indians and regular-season leaders Luleå Hockey, and two more will come from the final two rounds of the regular season. There are five teams in the running for those two spots, with Skellefteå AIK, Färjestad Karlstad and Rögle BK all tied with 89 points, HV71 Jönköping with 86 and Djurgården Stockholm with 84.
In the Finnish Liiga, Kärpät Oulu have re-qualified and four teams are in the running to finish in second or third places – Tappara Tampere, Lukko Rauma, Ilves Tampere and KooKoo Kouvola. Tappara could potentially qualify on Tuesday with a win and some other results going their way, and both remaining spots will be known by Saturday at the latest, when the regular season schedule comes to an end.
In the Elite Ice Hockey League, the Cardiff Devils only have a one-point lead over the Sheffield Steelers but they have games in hand on all the teams chasing them. They could potentially widen their lead with two games next weekend, but the league title will not be decided yet this week. The schedule closes out at the end of the month.
In all other leagues, the remaining qualifier will come from the playoffs. In the cases of the founding leagues and the Danish Ligaen – where SønderjyskE Vojens have already qualified as winners of the IIHF Continental Cup – if a team that has already qualified wins the championship title, the next team in the regular-season standings will qualify.