After a close race for the final playoff spots, the round of 16 matchups are now known
The 2025/26 Champions Hockey League regular season concluded this week, where eight of the 16 playoff spots were determined. Lulea Hockey and Storhamar on Tuesday, followed by six more teams on Wednesday – Kometa Brno and Red Bull Salzburg by winning and Pinguins Bremerhaven, Grenoble, EV Zug and the defending champion ZSC Lions through favourable results on the day.
As a result, eight different countries will be represented among the competition’s last 16 teams.
This is the third season that the CHL is using the “groupless” format, where all 24 teams play six different opponents and pooled together.
Finland produced this year’s only two unbeaten teams. Ilves Tampere, which has played in the shadow of more successful cross-town rival Tappara for years, was the class of the regular season, winning all six games in regulation by a combined score of 24-7, to secure the top seed. Ilves is followed closely by KalPa Kuopio, who needed overtime to win once and took 17 of 18 possible points.
They were followed by Sweden’s Frolunda Gothenburg – who won the CHL four times in five seasons from 2015/16 to 2019/20 – and Czechia’s Sparta Prague, who each lost once and are seeded third and fourth, respectively.
Other teams to advance include Lukko Rauma, ERC Ingolstadt, SC Bern and Brynas Gavle.
The 2025/26 Champions Hockey League regular season concluded this week, where eight of the 16 playoff spots were determined. Lulea Hockey and Storhamar on Tuesday, followed by six more teams on Wednesday – Kometa Brno and Red Bull Salzburg by winning and Pinguins Bremerhaven, Grenoble, EV Zug and the defending champion ZSC Lions through favourable results on the day.
As a result, eight different countries will be represented among the competition’s last 16 teams.
This is the third season that the CHL is using the “groupless” format, where all 24 teams play six different opponents and pooled together.
Finland produced this year’s only two unbeaten teams. Ilves Tampere, which has played in the shadow of more successful cross-town rival Tappara for years, was the class of the regular season, winning all six games in regulation by a combined score of 24-7, to secure the top seed. Ilves is followed closely by KalPa Kuopio, who needed overtime to win once and took 17 of 18 possible points.
They were followed by Sweden’s Frolunda Gothenburg – who won the CHL four times in five seasons from 2015/16 to 2019/20 – and Czechia’s Sparta Prague, who each lost once and are seeded third and fourth, respectively.
Other teams to advance include Lukko Rauma, ERC Ingolstadt, SC Bern and Brynas Gavle.
The path towards the CHL Final is set 🏆#ChampionsGoBeyond pic.twitter.com/OkHbffMyCy
— Champions Hockey League (@championshockey) October 15, 2025
Individuals
Incredibly, seven players finish the regular season tied for the CHL points lead with eight each: Jan Urbas of Bremerhaven, Francois Beauchemin and Christophe Boivin of Grenoble, Riley Barber of Ingolstadt, Eric Gelias of Lukko and Max Friberg of Frolunda. Urbas, a veteran of Slovenia’s national team, led the competition with six goals, three power-play goals, and his 29 shots on goal tied Zug’s Dominik Kubalik for the lead.Several established international veterans left their marks on this year’s CHL. Brynas Gavle’s Jakob Silfverberg and Nicklas Backstrom played in the competition for the first time and will continue into the playoffs. EV Zug’s roster featured newcomers Tomas Tatar and Kubalik, Emil Bemstrom played for SC Bern, while Finns Teemu Hartikainen and Antti Raanta returned to hometown clubs KalPa and Lukko, respectively. Veteran French national team star Sacha Treille put up big offensive numbers for Grenoble, while in Austria, Michael Raffl joined brother Thomas with Red Bull Salzburg.
Despite several big names on the team, Brynas’ leading scorer so far is 19-year-old Anaheim Ducks prospect Lucas Pettersson. In goal, Brynas also has fellow Anaheim prospect Damian Clara, who plays for the Italian national team.
Filip Eriksson of Lulea, Joona Saarelainen of KalPa, Basile Sansonnens of Lausanne HC, Noah Dower-Nilsson and Max Westergard of Frolunda and Vinzenz Rohrer of Zurich are other notable prospects who appeared. Frolunda’s Ivar Stenberg, a top-rated prospect for next summer’s NHL Entry Draft, scored his first CHL goal on Tuesday.
Round of 16 matchups
- (1) Ilves Tampere vs (16) Pinguins Bremerhaven
- (2) KalPa Kuopio vs (15) ZSC Lions Zurich
- (3) Frolunda Gothenburg vs (14) Grenoble
- (4) Sparta Prague vs (13) EV Zug
- (5) Lukko Rauma vs (12) Storhamar Hamar
- (6) ERC Ingolstadt vs (11) Red Bull Salzburg
- (7) SC Bern vs (10) Brynas Gavle
- (8) Kometa Brno vs (9) Lulea Hockey
KalPa’s reward for finishing second is a date with defending European champion Zurich. Other intriguing matchups include Sparta vs Zug, Bern vs Brynas and Kometa vs Lulea.
The CHL's round of 16 will be played in November in the form of two-game home-and-away series with the winners on aggregate scores advancing. Beyond that, the quarter-finals will be played in December and the semi-finals in January.
The one-game final is scheduled for Tuesday, 3 March 2026, after the Olympic break.
Starting this season, CHL games are streamed on IIHF.tv. You can find more information about the availability of IIHF.tv streams here: