It's not just Frölunda who go into this year's Champions Hockey League as European champions. The Nottingham Panthers qualified for this season's competition by winning the IIHF Continental Cup last season -the first British side to do so. They come up against some serious opposition now in the CHL though: NLA champions, Liiga finalists, and perennial Extraliga contenders. We take a look at the teams contesting Group F.
SC Bern
- Two-time reigning NLA champions, 15 overall titles
- 4th CHL appearance, Quarter-Finals in 2016/17
- Club information
SC Bern not only broke the CHL attendance record last year, they were also part of a trio of Swiss teams to make the CHL Quarter-Finals for the first time. Disappointment there was overcome with domestic success - winning the NLA regular season and playoffs under Kari Jalonen in his first year with the team. Jalonen returns home to Turku as part of this year's draw, and, while Ryan Lasch has left, the team has brought in Finnish forward Mika Pyörälä, who hit 55 points in the Liiga last year and has 36 NHL games under his belt. League top scorer Mark Arcobello is back with the team, as is national team goalie Leonardo Genoni, who led the league with a .936 save percentage last season. Bern were knocked out in last year's CHL by Sparta Prague in the Quarter-Finals, but will again be dangerous this season.
TPS Turku
- Liiga regular season runners up, 11 titles overall
- 4th CHL appearance, Quarter-Finals in 2015/16
- Club information
The franchise part-owned by NHL legend Saku Koivu has gone out in the Liiga playoffs at the quarter-final stage the past two seasons, and has consistently made the CHL playoffs in all three years. TPS maintains the majority of last year's roster and has brought back veteran forward Ilari Filppula to Finland after spells with Lugano and Malmo - notching 33 points in the SHL last year. They have also kept 41-year-old Stanley Cup champion Éric Perrin, who also played for Bern some 13 years ago. TPS has a history of international success, winning the European Cup in 1993/94 and the European Hockey League in 1996/97.
Mountfield HK
- Extraliga semi-finalists; five straight Top 5 regular season finishes
- 1st CHL appearance
- Club information
Mountfield HK celebrate their fifth season of the franchise by welcoming European hockey to the town of Hradec Králové. A fixture in the Extraliga's top five since the franchise moved there, last season they finally made it to the semi-finals before going out to Kometa Brno in six games. The team has kept the combination of Jaroslav Bednář and Richard Jarůšek, who put up over 90 points between them last season, and also re-signed Latvian international Andris Džerinš. He is joined by another Latvian, Oskars Cibulskis, who played in the KHL last season, as did Slovak Tomáš Zigo and Czech Petr Koukal. Lukáš Cingel was a CHL finalist with Sparta Prague last year. Mountfield will certainly be in the mix for qualification to the playoff stage despite no previous CHL experience, although they have previously played in both the Spengler Cup and European Trophy.
Nottingham Panthers
- Continental Cup Champions; 4 British titles
- 2nd CHL appearance - Group Stage in 2014/15
- Club information
The lowest seeds for this year's CHL, the Nottingham Panthers qualified by making history as the first team from Great Britain to win the IIHF Continental Cup. They also took part in the first CHL season, famously upsetting the Hamburg Freezers, and did pull Lukko Rauma back to 2-2 in their opening game. This season they've brought in starting goalie Michael Garnett, who was signed to SC Bern midway through last year but didn't play, after eight and a half years in the KHL. The Panthers have also brought over young Russian Alexander Mokshantsev, who split last season between the KHL and VHL, while Raphael Bussieres was a second round NHL draft pick just five years ago. The team also has a solid British core, with five players who grew up in the city, and will be aiming to at least equal their one win of three years ago.