European Women's Hockey League

Upcoming season or competition: 2023–24 EWHL season
Formerly	Elite Women's Hockey League, 2005–2019
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2004 (2004)
Founder	International Ice Hockey Federation
Inaugural season	2004–05
Director	Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation
President	Martin Kogler
No. of teams	12
Countries	Austria, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovakia
Headquarters	Göstingerstraße 111 Graz, Austria
Most recent champion(s)	HK Budapest (2022–23)
Most titles	EHV Sabres (6)
Sponsor(s)	Tippmix
International cup(s)	EWHL Super Cup
Official website	Official website

The European Women's Hockey League, abbreviated EWHL, is an international ice hockey league. Created as the Elite Women's Hockey League in 2004 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the EWHL comprises clubs from several countries in Central Europe and one team from Kazakhstan, and is played in parallel to national championships.

History

The EWHL was created in 2004 on the same principle as the men's ice hockey Interliga. For its first season, the EWHL featured teams from Austria, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. Teams from additional countries joined the league during the following seasons, including HC Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia in 2005, KHL Grič Zagreb from Croatia in 2006, and HC Slavia Praha from the Czech Republic in 2007. In the 2008–09 season, the Italian and Hungarian teams gave way to two clubs from Germany, OSC Berlin and ESC Planegg. During the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, the Netherlands national team participated in the EWHL.^[1]

Before the 2019–20 season, the Elite Women's Hockey League was renamed, becoming the European Women's Hockey League to reflect its unique position within European women's ice hockey.^[2] Also, the Polish women's national team joined the league in 2019, playing as the Silesia Brackens and later under the name Silesian Metropolis Katowice.^[3] The Hungarian team KMH Budapest rejoined the league, and MAC Budapest was added.

The EWHL is mostly played in a championship format with home and away matches, with the exception of the 2005–06 season where the teams were distributed in two regional divisions followed by qualifying rounds. For the 2010–11 season, the regular season was followed by a play-off between the four teams at the top of the league table.

Though they joined the league in the 2015–16 season, Kazakh team Aisulu Almaty has played only two EWHL games from their home arena, Baluan Sholak Sports Palace in Almaty, due to the significant travel distance. The 2019–20 season provided the first opportunity for Aisulu to play EWHL matches in front of a home crowd, when they hosted the EHV Sabres for a two game series during 19–20 October 2019.^[4]

Since the 2019–20 season, the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation has overseen the league. The league president is Martin Kogler.^[5]

Teams

2023–24 season

Team name	Location	Home venue	Head coach
Aisulu Almaty	Almaty	Baluan Sholak Sports Palace	Alexander Maltsev
Budapest Jégkorong Akadémia	Budapest	Tüskesátor	Zoltán Fodor
DEC Salzburg Eagles	Salzburg	Eisarena Salzburg	Eva-Maria Verworner
EC Graz Huskies[6]	Graz	Merkur Eisstadion	Paul Mocher
EVB Eagles Südtirol	Bolzano	PalaOnda	Stefano Daprà
HC ŠKP Bratislava	Bratislava	Zimný štadión Vladimíra Dzurillu (Ružinov)	Miroslav Mosnár
Hokiklub Budapest	Budapest	Tüskesátor	Levente Szilágyi
KEHV Lakers	Villach	Heidi Horten-Arena (Klagenfurt)	Günther Ropatsch
KSV Neuburg Highlanders	Neuberg an der Mürz	Eishalle Kapfenberg (Kapfenberg)	Philipp Holper
MAC Budapest	Budapest	Kisstadion	Andrea Kiss
SKN Sabres St. Pölten	Sankt Pölten	Sportzentrum NÖ	Stephan Brozovsky
TAURON Metropolia Silesia	Katowice	OSIR Bytom (Bytom)	Zbigniew Wrobel

Source: ÖEHV^[7]

Championship

Years	Gold	Silver	Bronze	No. of teams
2004	EHV Sabres	HK Terme Maribor	HC Agordo	8
2005–06	HC Slovan Bratislava	HK Terme Maribor	HC Eagles Bolzano	11
2006–07	HC Slovan Bratislava	The Ravens Salzburg	HK Terme Maribor	12
2007–08	Slavia Praha	The Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres	11
2008–09	Slavia Praha	OSC Berlin	ESC Planegg	8
2009–10	ESC Planegg	The Ravens Salzburg	EHV Sabres	6
2010–11	EHV Sabres	Slovan Bratislava	ESC Planegg	8
2011–12	EHV Sabres	Slovan Bratislava	HK Pantera Minsk	6
2012–13	HK Pantera Minsk	EHV Sabres	Salzburg Eagles	6
2013–14	EV Bozen Eagles	Neuberg Highlanders	EHV Sabres	7
2014–15	EHV Sabres	EV Bozen Eagles	Salzburg Eagles	6
2015–16	EHV Sabres	Salzburg Eagles	Aisulu Almaty	7
2016–17	EV Bozen Eagles	DEC Salzburg Eagles	HC ŠKP Bratislava	8
2017–18	EHV Sabres	EV Bozen Eagles	KMH Budapest	8
2018–19	KMH Budapest	EHV Sabres	EVB Eagles Südtirol	9
2019–20	KMH Budapest	MAC Budapest	Aisulu Almaty	10
2020–21	KMH Budapest	EHV Sabres	ŠKP Bratislava	9
2021–22	KMH Budapest	Aisulu Almaty	EHV Sabres	11
2022–23	Hokiklub Budapest	MAC Budapest	ŠKP Bratislava	10

Source: ^[8]

Medal table by club

	Club	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
1	EHV Sabres	6	2	4	12
2	Hokiklub Budapest[lower-alpha 1]	5	0	1	6
3	ŠKP Bratislava[lower-alpha 2]	2	2	3	7
4	EVB Eagles Südtirol[lower-alpha 3]	2	2	1	5
5	Slavia Praha	2	0	0	2
6	ESC Planegg	1	0	2	3
7	HK Pantera Minsk	1	0	1	2
8	DEC Salzburg Eagles[lower-alpha 4]	0	5	2	7
9	MAC Budapest	0	2	1	3
9	HK Terme Maribor	0	2	1	3
10	Aisulu Almaty	0	1	2	3
11	OSC Berlin	0	1	0	1
11	Neuburg Highlanders	0	1	0	1
12	HC Eagles Bolzano	0	0	1	1
12	HC Agordo	0	0	1	1

1. ↑ Includes record as KMH Budapest
2. ↑ Includes record as Slovan Bratislava
3. ↑ Includes record as EV Bozen Eagles
4. ↑ Includes record as Ravens Salzburg/The Ravens Salzburg

See also

• EWHL Super Cup
• Austria women's ice hockey Bundesliga
• German women's ice hockey Bundesliga

References

External links

• EWHL News
• EWHL Website
• European Women's Hockey Journal (in German)