The IIHF Continental Cup has announced its field of competitors for the 2025-26 season. The tournament will include 14 teams – down from 20 in each of the last three seasons – and will be staged in three rounds instead of four.
The IIHF has announced its field of competitors for the 2025-26 edition of the Continental Cup – a European club hockey tournament open to teams that don’t qualify for the Champions Hockey League. It also does not include teams from any of Europe’s top six national leagues (the Swedish Hockey League, Finland’s Liiga, Switzerland’s National League, Germany’s DEL, the Czech Extraliga and the Austrian-based multi-national ICEHL).
The 2025-26 Continental Cup will include 14 teams – down from 20 in each of the last three seasons – and will be staged in three rounds instead of four.
Whereas in past years, the first round has taken place in September followed by a second round in October, this year’s first round will be played Oct. 17-19, with the following eight teams divided into two groups:
First Round:
HK Mogo (Latvia)
Budapest JAHC
(Hungary)
Gyergyói
HK (Romania)
HC Kremenchuk
(Ukraine)
Hockey Punks Vilnius
(Lithuania)
KHL Sisak (Croatia)
SKHL Crvena Zvezda
(Serbia)
Narva PSK (Estonia)
The winners of those two groups will then join the following six teams for the semifinal round, which will take place in November. The following six teams will enter the tournament at that point:
Semifinal Round:
GKS Katowice
(Poland)
Nottingham Panthers
(Great Britain)
Herning Blue Fox
(Denmark)
Ducs d’Angers
(France)
Torpedo
Ust-Kaminogorsk (Kazakhstan)
SC Cortina (Italy)
The top two teams in each semifinal group will advance to the final round, which will be held Jan. 15-18, 2026.
Of the 14 teams, only the Nottingham Panthers have won the Continental Cup before, doing so in 2016-17.
Group allocations and venues will be announced soon.
This season, the Panthers will try to keep the Cup in Britain after the Cardiff Devils’ win on home ice last year.
Photo by Mathis Benguigui: IIHF President Luc Tardif presents the Continental Cup winners' plate to players from Slovak club HK Nitra in 2023.
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