With just six days to go until the draw for next season’s Champions Hockey League Group Stage, the CHL can officially reveal the Group Stage seedings.
Reigning, and now three-time CHL Champions, Frölunda Indians, sit atop of the pile as 2019/20’s top seed. They are joined in Pot 1 by the national champions of the six Founding Leagues: Sweden (regular season winners Färjestad Karlstad due to Frölunda’s SHL victory), Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria (EBEL).
The final team in Pot 1 is Luleå Hockey, who finished second in the SHL regular season. The number of places per league, and seeding of their teams, is calculated from the CHL Ranking Tool.
The seedings:
Pot 1: Frölunda Indians (CHLW) Färjestad Karlstad (SWE1) SC Bern (SUI1) HPK Hämeenlinna (FIN1) Oceláři Třinec (CZE1) Adler Mannheim (GER1) KAC Klagenfurt (AUT1) Luleå Hockey (SWE2)
Pot 2: EV Zug (SUI2) Kärpät Oulu (FIN2) Bílí Tygri Liberec (CZE2) Red Bull Munich (GER2) Graz99ers (AUT2) Djurgården Stockholm (SWE3) Lausanne HC (SUI3) Tappara Tampere (FIN3)
Pot 3: HC Pilsen (CZE3) Augsburger Panther (GER3) Vienna Capitals (AUT3) Skellefteå AIK (SWE4) EHC Biel-Bienne (SUI4) Lahti Pelicans (FIN4) Mountfield HK (CZE4) HC Ambrì-Piotta (SUI5)
Pot 4: Yunost Minsk (BLR1) Frisk Asker (NOR1) HC05 Banska Bystrica (SVK1) Grenoble (FRA1) Rungsted Seier Capital (DEN1) Cardiff Devils (UK1) GKS Tychy (POL1) Belfast Giants (CC)
How does the draw work?
- There will be four pots containing 8 teams each.
- Pot 1: Teams ranked 1-8 | Pot 2: Teams ranked 9-16 | Pot 3: Teams ranked 17-24 |
Pot 4: Teams ranked 25-32; the CHL ranking tool applies. - Draw order: Teams from Pot 4 will be drawn first, teams from Pot 1 last.
- The Draw will provide 8 groups of four teams each.
- Clubs from the same league cannot be drawn into the same group.
- Should a league conflict occur then the club in question will be placed in the next possible group available, determined by the help of software.
The draw itself takes place on 22 May live from the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia, starting at 16.00 CEST. A live stream will be available on both the CHL website and official Facebook page.