French website HockeyArchives.info has compiled a ranking system for the top 250 club teams in European hockey every year since the 1994-95 season. Although the exact formula is not explained, the website assigns a value to most relevant national leagues in Europe, as well as inter-league club tournaments such as the Champions Hockey League, the Continental Cup and the Spengler Cup, the results from which produce point values for each team.
On the basis of winning the Swedish Hockey League championship and finishing second in the Champions League, Skellefteå AIK received the number 1 ranking in 2023-24. They were followed by Czech club Dynamo Pardubice, who won the Extraliga regular season by a wide margin but fell in the finals to Oceláři Třinec, who ranked 10th.
The top 53 teams all come from Sweden, Czechia, Switzerland, Russia, Finland or Germany, before Belarusian KHL club Dinamo Minsk slots in at 54. The top team from outside of Europe’s top six major leagues is Brynäs Gävle at 78, who played last season in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan but gained promotion to the SHL for this season. They are soon followed by Austrian club Klagenfurt, which plays in the ICEHL, in 83rd.
While these rankings do generally correlate to the strength of different leagues and their clubs within, it’s definitely up for debate whether different competitions are accurately weighted and, indeed, whether such a task is even possible.
In the table below, teams that have qualified for the Champions Hockey League in 2024-25 are so designated. If the table does not load, you can find the original data here.
In all, teams from 20 countries make the list. Feel free to agree or disagree.