Race for 2023/24 | Final Five Places!

Following a busy Easter break with four new qualifiers for the upcoming season, only five final places remain in the line-up for the 2023/24 season of the Champions Hockey League.

Here's an in-depth breakdown of who can fill those spots in the coming days.

Grenoble need to win the next two games to qualify (Photo: Moritz Eden)

France

First up is France's Ligue Magnus where the question of who will represent the nation in Europe's biggest club ice hockey competition could be decided as early as tonight!

After losing their first two games in the finals series to Grenoble, the Rouen Dragons have bounced back and won three in a row to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Rouen, who last played in the CHL in 2021/22 when they made it to the Quarter-Finals, have a chance to seal the title and with it their country’s sole qualification spot in tonight's game - stay tuned to our social channels to see how this plays out!

Ex-finalists Mountfield HK could keep their qualification hopes alive if they win tomorrow’s game (Photo: : Philipp Hegglin)

Czechia

The situation in Czech's Extraliga is still open following two nerve-wracking and extremely close semi-finals series, but tonight's game in Pardubice and tomorrow's in Vítkovice will make everything clearer.

Already-qualified Dynamo Pardubice and Vítkovice Ridera are both in the semi-finals, battling with Oceláři Třinec and Mountfield HK respectively for a place in the final.

Both series are tied 3-3 meaning the next games will decide it all.

If Třinec or Mountfield want to return to the CHL for 2023/24, they have to win the championship - no ifs, buts or maybes.

If Pardubice and Vítkovice both make it to the finals, or either of them beat Třinec or Mountfield to the title, regular season third-place finisher Sparta Prague, who surprisingly exited the Extraliga playoffs in the quarter-finals, qualify for their seventh season of elite European club ice hockey.

Storhamar Hamar could qualify tomorrow! (Photo: Fredrik Olastuen)

Norway

In Norway's GET-ligaen, Storhamar Hamar are 3-2 up over last season's CHL participants the Stavanger Oilers.

Stavanger fought back after losing the first two games of the series but still find themselves in a do-or-die situation ahead of game six.

Storhamar could seal the deal tomorrow, otherwise, we'll just have to wait for an all-deciding game seven on Monday.

The Aalborg Pirates are still in the reace for the Metal Ligaen crown and with it CHL qualification (Photo: Sara Aarøe)

Denmark & Slovakia

In our last update, we mentioned that we'd still have to wait before these two leagues gave us their qualifiers and that is still true today, despite both determining their finalists in the meantime.

The finals series are yet to start in Slovakia's Extraliga and Denmark's Metal Ligaen so we can expect another week or so before we find out which two names we will be adding to our Who's Qualified summary.

Stay tuned to our website and social media channels to be the first to know about any new qualifiers for the upcoming 2023/24 season of the Champions Hockey League.