After nearly 19 agonizing months without Champions Hockey League hockey, the wait is finally over – the 2021/22 season starts TODAY! Here’s five things to look forward to from the new season.
Back and better than ever
The CHL is back with a bang, maybe even making the long wait worthwhile. Apart from the usual European hockey excitement, the CHL will bring together 32 teams from 13 leagues from a total of 14 countries for seven months of international hockey.
The new season begins today, 26 August, and will culminate after 128 Games with the Final sometime towards the end of February/beginning of March.
New Faces
There will be six teams making their debut in the CHL this season – Rögle Ängelholm, Leksands IF, Pinguins Bremerhaven, JKH GKS Jastrzębie, HC Donbass Donetsk and Slovan Bratislava, who will all get their first taste of premier European hockey in the coming days and weeks.
New teams bring new challenges to the league, interesting destinations for fans to visit during away games and they help broaden the CHL’s outreach to new fanbases.
In the case of HC Donbass Donetsk, they bring the league to new countries altogether – Donbass are the first Ukrainian team to ever qualify for the CHL!
Fans return
League’s ending prematurely, playoffs being cancelled, empty arenas – this was all a reality not so long ago. But times have changed (at least for now) and the start of the new CHL season will be with fans back in the stands!
Not only that, the CHL Board and Staff have worked hard to ensure that fans will be able to travel to away games whilst respecting each country’s COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines. So, if you’re craving some European hockey adventures with your friends, you should be good to go!
New CHL Mobile App and Webpage features
Tuesday’s CHL Press Conference highlighted new features of the CHL Mobile App and Webpage. CHL CEO Martin Baumann presented new statistics features, tools for media, season three of the CHL Fan Challenge, new push notifications, in-game video action in Gamecentre and an upcoming milestone tracker.
Watch from minute 29:00 until 34:30 to see all the new features and tools for yourself:
End of Nordic dominance?
It’s no secret Nordic teams have dominated in the CHL over the last six seasons – teams from the cold North have won the league each season. In 2014/15 it was Luleå Hockey who lifted the European Trophy for the first time, they were promptly followed by Frölunda Gothenburg, who with four titles are the most decorated team in CHL History and rounding everything out are 2017/18 Champions JYP Jyväskylä from Finland.
It’s not that non-Nordic teams have had trouble reaching the Finals – they haven’t! Sparta Prague came the closest back in 2016/17 when they were denied the Championship in OT, two seasons later DEL side Red Bull Munich contested the Final and in 2019/20 Czech side Mountfield HK tried their best, but all to no avail.
But all runs and records end somewhere, right? Could it be this season?
Don’t forget – the CHL returns TONIGHT! Go to the Gamecentre to find out when your favourite team is playing and where to watch the game. Also, follow our social media channels to keep up to date on all the latest CHL news.