The 2020/21 Champions Hockey League season will be launched next week with the Draw to establish the Round of 32 matchups and the path to the Final. Follow all the action via our livestream on Wednesday at 18:00 CEST on the CHL’s official digital platforms.
The 2020/21 CHL Draw takes place on Wednesday, 3 June 2020, starting at 18:00 CEST. The live show, which will be broadcast on both the CHL website and on the league’s official social media channels, will be presented by Jann Billeter, anchor and reporter for Swiss national broadcaster SRF. He will be joined on stage by CHL President Peter Zahner and CHL CEO Martin Baumann who will draw the 32 teams randomly to create the 16 pairings that will battle it out to start the season.
Ahead of the CHL Draw, all qualified teams have been allocated into two pots according to their achievements in their national leagues and the respective league’s standing in the CHL League Ranking. Reigning CHL champions Frölunda Indians (SWE) sit atop the rankings, and are therefore the highest-seeded team, followed by the regular season winners of the six Shareholder Leagues: Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Draw Rules
- There will be two pots containing 16 teams each.
- Pot 1: Teams ranked 1-16 | Pot 2: Teams ranked 17-32. The seedings are based upon the CHL Ranking Tool.
- Draw order: Teams from Pot 1 will be drawn alternately at random against teams from Pot 2.
- The Draw will provide the Round of 32 pairings.
- As the pairings are drawn, they are placed in the Playoff Tree, starting with the top-left bracket, followed by the top-right bracket, the third pairing will be placed in the bottom-right bracket and the fourth in the bottom-left bracket.
- Clubs from the same league cannot be drawn into a Round of 32 pairing.
- Should a league conflict occur, then the club in question will be placed in the next possible pairing available, determined by the help of software.
- No further Draws will take place; the Playoff Tree leads the teams from the Round of 32 through the Round of 16, the Quarter-Finals, the Semi-Finals and all the way to the Final.
2020/21 Playing format
In the 2020/21 Champions Hockey League season, a total of 61 games will be played over the course of nine game days between October and February. The season will start with an immediate knockout Round of 32, which will comprise two-game, home-and-away, aggregate score series up to the Semi-Finals. The season culminates on 9 February 2021 with the ultimate one-game Final to determine the European club champions.