The memory of last week's Champions Hockey League Final is still live and vivid. The packed Swiss Life Arena in Switzerland's Zurich hosted home team ZSC Lions Zurich and visitors Färjestad Karlstad for the biggest game of the 2024/25 season with the entire European hockey community watching on.
The result? We think you already know by now.
Despite being regarded as one of Europe's very best ice hockey organisations, 2009 winners of the old-format CHL Zurich only made their first Champions Hockey League Final since the competition was launched in 2014/15, proving just how tough Europe's elite club ice hockey competition is even on the continent's very best teams.
Apart from a hard-fought win for Zurich, the crowning of a Swiss CHL Champion in CHL Final 2025 resulted in the European Trophy staying in Switzerland for another year, moving from Geneva where it enjoyed a year-long stay with Genève-Servette.
This is also a huge result for Switzerland's top tier of club ice hockey - the National League. Trophy aside, Swiss teams in the CHL have been extremely strong, with all four Swiss clubs making it to the Playoffs (three finishing in the Top 5 places of the Regular Season Standings) and 2/4 of the Semi-Finals clubs coming from the National League.
A strong showing in the CHL isn't new for Swiss clubs, as they already had a strong season in 2023/24 when all of the Swiss clubs participating also made it out of the Regular Season.
Their success hasn't come out of the blue and isn't a surprise for anyone who follows Swiss hockey. The National League teams have been investing, developing and attracting star players for some seasons now and we've witnessed it in the Champions Hockey League.
We don't see this as a coincidence, but rather a culmination of something that's been coming for some time now, as a chapter of Swedish (and Finnish) dominance may be coming to an end on Europe's biggest club ice hockey stage.
Some may argue that in the case of Sweden, there hasn't been a big shift of power, as Färjestad's extremely strong season and run all the way to the Final kept an unimaginable record going - each and every Final of the pan-European competition has featured at least one Scandinavian team.
But with the 2025/26 line-up slowly starting to take shape, everything is possible next season as all together we start a new decade of top-tier European club ice hockey!
Who would you like to see lift the European Trophy next year?