Cardiff Devils Seeded For European Champions Hockey League Draw

Cardiff Devils are seeded 29th for the 2017-18 European Champions Ice Hockey League.

Devils are among 32 clubs who have qualified for the CHL and the group stage draw will be made at the Laxness Arena, Cologne on Wednesday, May 17.

Elite League champions Devils and Nottingham Panthers, who earned their place by winning the Continental Cup, are in pot four.

There are eight teams in each of four pots and the top seeds are reigning champions Frolunda Gothenburg from Sweden.

The draw will be shown live on the CHL’s digital channels.

The group stage starts on August 24 and finishes on October 11.

The 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four and all play six games, home and each against each of the other clubs.

Winners and runners-up in each section go forward to the p;lay-off stage.

The playoffs then begin on October 31 with the round of 16 followed by quarter-finals and semi-finals when they are all two-game, home-and-away, aggregate-scoring series.

The final will a one-off game on February 6, 2018.

Devils have announced only one signing so far with forward Joey Martin confirming his place on the team, but player-coach Andrew Lord will also be in the team and he is certain to bring back a large core of the 2016-17 title winning roster.

Champions Hockey League:

Pot one: Frolunda Gothenburg (Sweden), HV71 Jonkoping (Sweden), Tappara Tampere (Finland), SC Bern (Switzerland), Kometa Brno (Czech Republic), Red Bull Munich (Germany), Vienna Capitals (Austria), Vaxjo Lakers (Sweden).

Pot two: TPS Turku (Finland), ZSC Lions Zurich (Switzerland), Bili Tygri Liberec (Czech Republic), Adler Mannheim (Germany), Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), Brynas IF (Sweden), Kalpa Kuopio (Finland), EV Zug (Switzerland).

Pot three: Ocular Trinec (Czech Republic), Grizzlys Wolfsburg (Germany), KAC Klagenfurt (Austria), Malmo Redhawks (Sweden), Jyp Jyvaskyla (Finland), HC Davos (Switzerland), Mountfield HK (Czech Republic), IFK Helsinki (Finland).

Pot four: Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), Stavanger Oilers (Norway), Neman Grodno (Belarus), Esbjerg Energy (Denmark), Cardiff Devils (Great Britain), CD Gap Rapaces (France), Comarch Cracovia (Poland), Nottingham Panthers (Nottingham Panthers).