The 2022–23 Champions Hockey League was the eighth season of the Champions Hockey League, a European ice hockey tournament. The tournament is competed by 32 teams, with qualification being on sporting merits only. The six founding leagues will be represented by between three and five teams (based on a four-year league ranking), while seven "challenge leagues" will be to be represented by one team each.
Finnish team Tappara won their first Champions Hockey League title, defeating Swedish team Luleå HF 3–2 in the final. This made Tappara the second Finnish side to win the title. The title holders Rögle BK were defeated by Tappara in the quarterfinals with the total score 7–4.
American right winger Ryan Lasch from Swedish team Frölunda HC became the top scorer for the fifth time, scoring 22 points.
Team allocation A total of 32 teams from different European first-tier leagues will participate in the 2022–23 Champions Hockey League. Besides the Continental Cup champions and wild card invitee Olimpija Ljubljana, 24 teams from the six founding leagues, as well as the national champions from Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will participate. Belarusian teams were not invited to participate due to the current political situation in Belarus while a Ukrainian team HC Donbass was forced to withdraw from the competition due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and was replaced with the Slovenian champions Olimpija Ljubljana.
The qualification criteria for national leagues is based on the following rules:
CHL champions National league champions (play-off winners) Regular season winners Regular season runners-up Regular season third-placed team Regular season fourth-placed team Regular season fifth-placed team
Note: the national league champions of the United Kingdom are determined following the regular season.
Teams On 12 January 2022 it was decided that the 2021–22 season would not be accounted for in the league ranking and the status at the end of the 2019–20 season was taken into consideration to allocate places for the season.
Team City/Area League Qualification Participation Previous best Rögle BK Ängelholm Swedish Hockey League 2022 CHL winners 2nd Champion Färjestad BK Karlstad Swedish Hockey League Play-off winners 5th Round of 16 Luleå HF Luleå Swedish Hockey League Regular season runners-up 5th Champion Skellefteå AIK Skellefteå Swedish Hockey League Regular season third 7th Semi-finals Frölunda HC Gothenburg Swedish Hockey League Regular season fourth 8th Champion EV Zug Zug National League Play-off winners 8th Quarter-finals HC Fribourg-Gottéron Fribourg National League Regular season runners-up 5th Semi-finals ZSC Lions Zürich National League Regular season third 7th Quarter-finals Rapperswil National League Regular season fourth 1st First appearance HC Davos Davos National League Regular season fifth 4th Semi-finals Eisbären Berlin Berlin Deutsche Eishockey Liga Play-off winners 6th Round of 16 Red Bull München Munich Deutsche Eishockey Liga Regular season runners-up 7th Final Grizzlys Wolfsburg Wolfsburg Deutsche Eishockey Liga Regular season third 3rd Round of 32 Straubing Tigers Straubing Deutsche Eishockey Liga Regular season fourth 1st First appearance Tappara Tampere Liiga Play-off winners 8th Final Jukurit Mikkeli Liiga Regular season runners-up 1st First appearance Ilves Tampere Liiga Regular season third 1st First appearance TPS Turku Liiga Regular season fourth 7th Quarter-finals Oceláři Třinec Třinec Czech Extraliga Play-off winners 7th Semi-finals Mountfield HK Hradec Králové Czech Extraliga Regular season winners 4th Final Sparta Praha Prague Czech Extraliga Regular season third 5th Final Red Bull Salzburg Salzburg ICE Hockey League Play-off winners 7th Semi-finals Villach SV Villach ICE Hockey League Regular season runners-up 2nd Group stage Fehérvár AV19 Székesfehérvár ICE Hockey League Regular season third 1st First appearance Belfast Giants Belfast Elite Ice Hockey League Regular season champions 2nd Group stage Brûleurs de Loups Grenoble Ligue Magnus Play-off winners 3rd Group stage Slovan Bratislava Bratislava Tipos Extraliga Play-off winners 2nd Group stage Stavanger Oilers Stavanger Fjordkraftligaen Play-off winners 5th Round of 32 GKS Katowice Katowice Polska Hokej Liga Play-off winners 1st First appearance Aalborg Pirates Aalborg Metal Ligaen Play-off winners 2nd Group stage MKS Cracovia Kraków Polska Hokej Liga Continental Cup winner 3rd Group stage Olimpija Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenian Ice Hockey League Wild card 1st First appearance
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition is as follows. PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legGroup stageMatchday 125 May 20221–2 September 2022Matchday 23–4 September 2022Matchday 38–9 September 2022Matchday 410–11 September 2022Matchday 54–5 October 2022Matchday 611–12 October 2022PlayoffRound of 1613 October 2022Quarter-finals6–7 December 202213 December 2022Semi-finals10–11 January 202317–18 January 2023Final18 February 2023
Group stage
For the group stage, the teams were drawn into 8 groups of 4 teams. Each team will play home and away against every other team for a total of six games. The best two teams will qualify to the round of 16.
The draw of the group stage took place on 25 May 2022 in Tampere, Finland.
Pots The participating teams were seeded into Pots 1 to 4 according to their achievements in their national leagues and their respective league’s standing in the CHL league ranking. The reigning CHL champions Rögle BK were the top seeded team and therefore given a place in pot 1. In the top pot there were also the reigning champions of the six founding leagues and the regular season winner of SHL. The 16 remaining teams from the founding leagues were placed to pots 2 and 3. The fourth pot included the playoff champions from the seven challenge leagues and MKS Cracovia, winners of 2021–22 IIHF Continental Cup.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4 Rögle BK Färjestad BK EV Zug Eisbären Berlin Tappara Oceláři Třinec Red Bull Salzburg Luleå HF HC Fribourg-Gottéron Red Bull München Jukurit Mountfield HK Villach SV Skellefteå AIK ZSC Lions Grizzlys Wolfsburg Ilves Sparta Praha Fehérvár AV19 Frölunda HC SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers Straubing Tigers TPS HC Davos Belfast Giants Brûleurs de Loups Slovan Bratislava Stavanger Oilers GKS Katowice Aalborg Pirates Olimpija Ljubljana MKS Cracovia
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group stage tie-breaking criteria Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win in regulation time, 2 points for a win in overtime, 1 point for a loss in overtime, 0 points for a loss in regulation time). If two or more teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see 8.4.4. Tie breaking formula group stage standings): Points in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among the tied teams; The higher number of goals in one of the matches among the tied teams; The most goals in the two game winning shot series; If more than two teams are tied, head-to-head criteria 1, 2 and 3 are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; If more than two teams are tied, and after applying head-to-head criteria 1, 2 and 3, a subset of teams are still tied, goal difference and goals scored then the results between each of the three teams and the closest best-ranked team outside the subset was applied; best-ranked team outside the sub-group was applied; The higher position in the 2021–22 Champions Hockey League club ranking; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Regulation time wins in all group matches; Overtime wins in all group matches; Overtime losses in all group matches.
Playoffs Qualified teams The knockout phase involves the 16 teams which qualify as winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage.
GroupWinners(seeded in round of 16 draw)Runners-up(unseeded in round of 16 draw)A Luleå HF JukuritB EV Zug Grizzlys WolfsburgC Tappara Red Bull MünchenD Rögle BK ZSC LionsE HC Fribourg-Gottéron Red Bull SalzburgF Straubing Tigers Färjestad BKG Mountfield HK Frölunda HCH Skellefteå AIK HC Davos
Format In each round except the final, the teams play two games and the aggregate score decides which team advances. As a rule, the first leg is hosted by the team who has the inferior record in the tournament with the second leg being played on the home ice of the other team. If aggregate score is tied, a sudden death overtime follows. If the overtime is scoreless, the team who wins the shoot out competition advances.
The final will be played on the home ice of the team who has the better record in the tournament.
Bracket The eight group winners and the eight second-placed teams advanced to the round of 16. The teams were divided into two seeding groups and group winners were randomly drawn against runners-up. Teams who had faced each other in the group stage could not be drawn against each other in the round of 16.
Round of 16 The draw for the entire playoff was held on 13 October 2022 in Zürich. The first legs were played on 15 and 16 November with return legs played on 22 and 23 November 2022.
First Leg
Second Leg
Quarter-finals First legs were played on 6 and 7 December with return legs played on 13 December 2022.
First Leg
Second Leg
Semi-finals First legs were played on 10 January with return legs played on 17 January 2023.
First Leg
Second Leg
Final
Statistics Scoring leaders The following players are leading the league in points.
Player Team Frölunda HC 11 7 15 22 4 +8 1 0 0 27 25.93% EV Zug 12 6 11 17 8 +12 3 1 0 23 26.09% Luleå HF 11 5 9 14 +4 9 1 1 0 20 25.00% Tappara 13 8 5 13 2 +10 2 3 0 35 22.86% Skellefteå AIK 9 7 5 12 2 +7 0 0 0 17 41.18% Frölunda HC 12 5 7 12 2 +3 1 3 1 30 16.67% Tappara 13 3 9 12 6 +5 2 0 1 20 15.00% Eisbären Berlin 6 8 3 11 6 +4 0 1 0 17 47.06% HC Davos 8 5 6 11 6 +5 1 0 1 14 35.71% Skellefteå AIK 10 2 9 11 4 +1 0 1 0 17 11.76%
Leading goaltenders The following goaltenders are leading the league in save percentage, provided that they have played at least 40% of their team's minutes.
Player Team HC Fribourg-Gottéron 6 2 2 115 4 96.64% 0.80 2 300 Tappara 12 9 2 312 16 95.12% 1.33 4 724 Grizzlys Wolfsburg 5 2 3 165 11 93.75% 2.22 0 297 Stavanger Oilers 6 2 4 189 13 93.56% 2.14 1 364 Skellefteå AIK 4 3 1 105 8 92.92% 1.92 1 250
Awards
MVP The winner of the LGT MVP Award was announced on 18 February 2023. Player Team Christian Heljanko Tappara
Team of the Season The Team of the Season was announced on 23 February 2023. Position Player Team Goaltender Christian Heljanko Tappara Defenceman Julius Honka Luleå HF Defenceman Valtteri Kemiläinen Tappara Forward Brian O'Neill EV Zug Forward Juhani Tyrväinen Tappara Forward Ryan Lasch Frölunda HC
References