Defending CHL champions Frölunda Gothenburg will meet 2009 winners ZSC Lions Zurich in the first clash of the former winners. Despite eyes being drawn to these two clubs, however, tricky customers in KAC Klagenfurt and Gap Rapaces await.
Frölunda Gothenburg
- Two-time reigning CHL champions; 4 SHL titles
- 4th CHL appearance, 3 Finals and 2 titles
- Club information
A team that needs barely any introduction, the back-to-back CHL champions finished third in the regular season in last year's SHL, and then made it to the semi-finals as well. From last year's team, CHL Top Scorer Casey Wellman has departed to Sochi, Johan Sundström to Omsk, while Christoffer Ehn, Carl Grundström, John Nyberg and Lias Andersson have all gone to the NHL. However, the Indians haven't sat still, bringing back CHL 15/16 Top Scorer & MVP Ryan Lasch from Bern, and 2011 Anaheim Ducks draft pick Max Friberg, who put up 31 points as he captained the St. John's IceCaps in the AHL last season. Adam Almqvist and Lias Andersson were SHL champions with HV71 in 16/17 and have also moved to Gothenburg. Indians Goalie Coach Kristoffer Martin played in Gap in 2005, although the team has yet to meet French opposition in the CHL thus far. In 14/15 they beat Villach of the EBEL comfortably in both games.
ZSC Lions Zurich
- NLA regular season runners up, 8 titles overall
- 4th CHL appearance, Quarter-Finals in 2016/17
- Club information
The Lions threw away a two-goal lead in last year's Quarter-Finals as they were eliminated by Växjö, and were then somewhat shocked as they exited the NLA post-season at the same stage. Former Skelleftea coach Hans Wallson goes into this season as his second with the team looking to go deeper in both competitions. ZSC maintain the majority of last year's team aside from a couple of departures, but have also made some big signings over the summer - defenceman Kevin Klein joining from the New York Rangers, while forward Drew Shore played 14 games for the Vancouver Canucks but spent most of the season in Kloten last time around. Two years ago the Lions faced Gap and came through the away leg with a very narrow win, howeve winning comfortably on their own ice. Their experience against Austrian opposition so far saw them lose home and away to Vienna in 14/15.
KAC Klagenfurt
- EBEL finalists, 30 titles overall
- 2nd CHL appearance, Group Stage in 2015/16
- Club information
Klagenfurt are back for their second CHL appearance after taking part in the 15/16 season, where they finished behind Munich and Košice in the group with only a shootout loss point to show for their efforts. Qualifying after an excellent middle-round and then run to the EBEL finals, KAC's biggest off-season change was the departure of coach Mike Pellegrims to Dusseldorf - the new man behind the bench for this season is former Mannheim Assistant Coach Steve Walker. The vast majority of last season's team has stayed together, with the 'Red Jackets' adding forwards Julian Talbot (Berlin) and Jon Rheault (Visp), while Richie Regehr comes in from Munich. Veteran defenceman Mark Popovic has retired while Ziga Pance, who played in the 14/15 CHL for Bolzano, also doesn't return. The team will again rely on experience in the form of Austrian forward such as Tommy Koch and former NHL-er Jamie Lundmark. With a solid core group of Austrian players and some good imports, Klagenfurt will look to at least get their first CHL win this season.
Gap Rapaces
- French champions
- 3rd CHL appearance, Group Stage 2015/16 & 2017/18
- Club information
Back for their third straight CHL season, the reigning Ligue Magnus champions' biggest result in the competition was beating Eisbären Berlin 3-1 in 2014/15. Last year they were soundly beaten in Linköping and Jyväskylä, but made both teams work hard for the win in the French mountains. Among others, last season's top scorers in the league, Marc-André Bernier (retired) and Anthony Rech (Schwenningen), don't return; neither do Sean Ringrose and Kevin King - taking out four of the team's top five scoring players in domestic competition last season. Les Rapaces have therefore brought no less than 14 new faces to the roster, including netminder Jeff Lerg, defenceman David Glenn and forward Eric Scheid from the ECHL. French international Damien Raux has played over 200 games for the national team and has previous CHL experience from stints in Braincon and Rouen. Gap have never faced a team from Austria in the CHL, and perhaps games against Klagenfurt will be ones they target for another European scalp. GM Sebastian Opdrandi explains: "Austrian hockey is not that far from French hockey and Klagenfurt will be a great opponent to compete with."