Hockey Europe is a collaboration of ice hockey leagues within Europe. It was formed by six European Leagues to help negotiate for their rights with the NHL and KHL.
Hockey Europe was founded in 2008 by six European hockey leagues to promote cooperation, amicable relations, and unity of these leagues and their member clubs in the middle of the heavy heated competition between then newly launched Russian ice hockey league KHL and the North American NHL. [1]
Hockey Europe will furthermore concentrate to help the six founding members and possible new members to promote and improve professional ice hockey competitions in all its aspects and safeguard the general interests of its members and European ice hockey as a whole. An improvement for Hockey Europe is in the exchange of information and promotion the cooperation and relations of its members with the National Hockey League, USA/Canada (NHL), Kontinental Hockey League, Russia (KHL) and other sports institutions or other professional ice hockey leagues and the clubs, as well as with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and its National Member Associations. [1]
Current president and voluntary general manager of Hockey Europe is the league manager of the Erste Bank Hockey League, Christian Feichtinger. Hockey Europe has its registered office in Cologne, Germany, and is governed by EU law as a European Economic Interest Group. [2]
Hockey Europe currently has 6 full and 1 associated members: [2]
Full Members
Finland - SM-liiga 
Slovakia - Slovak Extraliga 
Sweden - Swedish Hockey League 
Czech Republic - Czech Extraliga 
Germany - Deutsche Eishockey Liga 
Austria - ICE Hockey League (with clubs from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia)Associate Member
The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. From 1920 to 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.
The 2004 World Cup of Hockey was an international ice hockey tournament. It was the second installment of the National Hockey League (NHL)-sanctioned competition, eight years after the inaugural 1996 World Cup of Hockey. It was held from August 30 to September 14, 2004, and took place in various venues in North America and Europe. Canada won the championship, defeating Finland in the final, held in Toronto.
The Russian men's national ice hockey team is the national men's ice hockey team of Russia, overseen by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. As of 2021, they were rated third in the IIHF World Ranking. The team has competed internationally from 1992 until a 2022 ban, and is recognized by the IIHF as the successor to the Soviet Union team and CIS team. Russia has been one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called "Big Six," the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. The European nations of the Big Six participate in the Euro Hockey Tour, which Russia won nine times since 2005. Since September 2021, the head coach is Alexei Zhamnov, who took over from Valeri Bragin.
The Triple Gold Club is the group of ice hockey players and coaches who have won an Olympic Games gold medal, a World Championship gold medal, and the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers them to be "the three most important championships available to the sport".
Ján Lašák is a Slovak former professional ice hockey goaltender.
Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which three points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is drawn, each team receives one point. Many leagues and competitions originally awarded two points for a win and one point for a draw, before switching to the three points for a win system. The change is significant in league tables, where teams typically play 30–40 games per season. The system places additional value on wins compared to draws such that teams with a higher number of wins may rank higher in tables than teams with a lower number of wins but more draws.
Václav Nedorost is a Czech former professional ice hockey center. He played in the National Hockey League with the Colorado Avalanche, who selected him 14th overall at the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, and the Florida Panthers between 2001 and 2004. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1998 to 2019, was spent in the Czech Extraliga and the Kontinental Hockey League. Internationally Nedorost played for the Czech national junior team, and won the gold medal at the 2000 and 2001 World Junior Championships.
Hockey Club Slovan Bratislava is a professional ice hockey club based in Bratislava, Slovakia. In 2012, it left the Slovak Extraliga and joined the international Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). In 2019, it returned to the Tipos Extraliga. The club has won nine Slovak championships, one Czechoslovak championship (1979) and one IIHF Continental Cup (2004), making it the second most successful hockey club in Slovak history after their biggest rival HC Košice. The team plays its home games at Ondrej Nepela Arena, also known as Slovnaft Arena. The team is nicknamed Belasí, which means the "sky blues" in English.
Professional ice hockey (hockey) is the competition of ice hockey in which participants are paid to play. Professional competition began in North America in the United States in Pennsylvania and Michigan and in Canada around 1900. Professional ice hockey expanded across Canada and the United States and eventually to many other countries. There are major leagues around the world, including the National Hockey League in North America, the Kontinental Hockey League in Europe and Asia, and the Swedish Hockey League in Europe, as well as minor leagues such as the American Hockey League and ECHL in North America, and the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in Canada. High-level professional hockey is also present in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland and Switzerland; professional hockey is also played in many other countries, as diverse as Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Austria, Australia and Japan.
The Victoria Cup was a game or series of games played between professional ice hockey teams from Europe and the North American National Hockey League (NHL). The event was held twice, in 2008 and 2009.
The International Ice Hockey Federation is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 member countries.
Denis Parshin is a Russian professional ice hockey left wing who currently playing for HC Košice of the Slovak Extraliga.
The potential of including additional franchises to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has been an ongoing topic since the league's inception. In June 2012, the league presented a plan that would see expansion to as many as 64 teams in up to 22 countries. It has later been stated that the league only can comprise 32 teams, because of problems with logistics with more teams.
Roman Červenka is a Czech professional ice hockey player currently playing for the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the National League (NL). He formerly played with Slavia Praha of the Czech Extraliga, Avangard Omsk and Lev Praha both of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He was the leading goal scorer in the KHL in 2010–11 and was named to the All-Star team in 2011–12 before moving to North America after signing a contract with the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Calgary Flames. He played 39 games in the NHL during the 2012–13 season before returning to Europe.
Martin Bakoš is a Slovak professional ice hockey player currently under contract with HC Oceláři Třinec of the Czech Extraliga (ELH).
Michal Čajkovský is a Slovak professional ice hockey defenceman for HC Sibir Novosibirsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Hockey Club Lev Poprad (Lion), was a professional ice hockey team and a former member of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) based in Poprad, Slovakia. The Lev existed for only one year, playing in the 2011–12 KHL season.
The ice hockey (hockey) competitions of the 2018 Winter Olympics were played at two venues within the Gangneung Coastal Cluster in Gangneung, South Korea. The Gangneung Hockey Centre, which seats 10,000, and the Kwandong Hockey Centre, which seats 6,000, were both originally scheduled to be completed in 2016 but appear to have been completed in early 2017. Both venues contain Olympic-sized rinks.
The men's tournament in ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics was held in Gangneung, South Korea between 14 and 25 February 2018. Twelve countries qualified for the tournament; eight of them did so automatically by virtue of their ranking by the International Ice Hockey Federation, one, South Korea, automatically qualified as hosts, while the three others took part in a qualification tournament.
These were the team rosters of the nations participating in the men's ice hockey tournament of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Each team was permitted a roster of 22 skaters and 3 goaltenders.
