The Competition Format
- 32 teams from 13 leagues
- Teams qualify on sporting merits alone
- No shareholder club shall automatically be granted playing rights
- A maximum of 5 teams per country
- The CHL Champions are automatically qualified for the next CHL season. However, this will not grant one extra place for the league of the CHL winners.
The Qualification System
Teams must earn their place in the CHL on the ice, based on sporting merits alone. Teams must reach one of the following criteria in order to become a CHL contestant:
| 1. CHL champions |
| 2. National league champions |
| 3. Regular season winners |
| 4. Regular season runners-up |
| 5. Regular season third-placed |
| 6. Regular season fourth-placed |
| 7. Regular season fifth-placed |
The United Kingdom is the lone exception as the EIHL, in line with their tradition, determines their national champion through the regular season (not in the playoffs).
The CHL League Ranking
The number of places per league is allocated with the help of the CHL league ranking. This tool calculates the performance of teams in every CHL season and the better the teams perform, the more spots a league can achieve. However, the six shareholder leagues remain ranked 1-6 while all challenger leagues follow in accordance. Every year, the previous four CHL seasons are taken into consideration (weighted 100, 75, 50 and 25 percent – in which the newest season counts the most).
Note: Due to Covid-19 impacts on the 2021/22 CHL league ranking, the CHL Board decided to allocate the places for 2022/23 based on the CHL league ranking at the end of the 2019/20 season.
The Playing Format
A total of 125 games will be played over the course of 13 Game Days between September and February. Four teams in each of the eight groups will battle to make the Playoffs in the Group Stage. The top two teams in each group advance to the Round of 16.
With the exception of the Final, all match-ups in the Playoffs stage are played in a two-game, home-and-away aggregate scoring series format.
The Group Stage Draw
Every year in May, the Group Stage Draw is held to determine which four teams will face each other on the first six Game Days of the CHL. The 32 participants are seeded in four pots according to the following criteria:
Pot 1 | The CHL Champions of the previous season, national champions of the shareholder leagues, following the regular season winners of the highest ranked club from shareholder leagues |
Pot 2 | The following best clubs from the shareholder leagues in order of their ranking and of their respective league's placing in the CHL league ranking |
Pot 3 | The remaining clubs from the shareholder leagues in order of their ranking and of their respective league's placing in the CHL league ranking |
Pot 4 | The teams from challenger leagues in order of their respective league's placing in the CHL league ranking and the IIHF Continental Cup Winner |
The Playoff Draw
The eight group winners and runners-up in the Group Stage advance to the Playoffs. In order to determine the Round of 16 match-ups and not have any repeat Group Stage pairs, the eight winners are seeded into Group A and the eight runners-up into Group B. They are then randomly drawn against each other according to the Sport Regulations.
The pairings are then placed into the Playoff tree, which shows their potential path to the Final - from the Round of 16 to the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and the all-decisive Champions Hockey League Final.
The Playoff Aggregate Score
The Round of 16, Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals are played in a home-and-away two-game series format and are decided on combined aggregate score of the first and second leg. Overtime and shootouts are used in the return game if the aggregate score is tied after regulation.
Overtime is played as 10 minute sudden-death, 3-on-3. The team that score the first goal is declared the winner of the series. Should no goals be scored, a shootout (5 shooters each team) will determine who advances to the next round.