The clubs will be divided among 16 groups by three clubs per each. Top two of them will advance into the first play-off round (1/16 finals). All play-off rounds except for the final game will be played in the home & away system as usual.

In group stage, the clubs will play two home and two away games, therefore there will be only 96 games (132 in 2014/15). The amount of games in total will be 157 (161 in 2014/15). In the play-offs, there will be 61 games instead of current 29. „This change in competition format should make the CHL more attractive for the fans. That’s why the play-off stage will start earlier and it will contain more games,“ Anders Ternbom – chairman of the CHL board – explained.

The new format with expanding of the CHL leans towards future invitations for the KHL clubs. In the spirit of motto „Where Europe comes to play“ the will be again clubs from Slovakia, France, Norway, Denmark or the United Kingdom. „The CHL wants to continue in its mission to support club ice hockey in Europe by expanding and inviting clubs outside those six founding leagues. This year’s results showed to us there is a great potential in clubs from untraditional ice-hockey countries as well,“ Ternborn said.

CHL 2015/16 participants:

• 26 founding clubs with license A (six from Finland and Sweden, four from the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland, two from Austria)
• 12 clubs with license B (mostly champions and regular season winners) from six founding leagues (Austria, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic)
• 10 clubs with license C / wild card from other European leagues, which will be determined later