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| Most recent season or competition: 2024 Spengler Cup | |
 Spengler Cup logo | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1923 |
| Founder | Dr. Carl Spengler |
| First season | 1923 |
| Organising body | HC Davos |
| Motto | ThePeak of Hockey |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Countries | Switzerland,Canada, various otherEuropean countries |
| Venue(s) | Eisstadion Davos (Davos, Switzerland) |
| Most recent champion(s) |  Fribourg-Gottéron (1st) |
| Most titles | HC Davos Team Canada(16 each) |
| Qualification | Invitation only |
| TV partner(s) | SUI:Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen Europe:Eurosport 2 RUS:Match TV &NTv2 GER:Sport1 CAN:TSN &RDS USA:ESPN+ CZE /SVK /HUN:Sport1 DEN:TV2 SLO:Šport TV SRB /CRO /BIH /MNE /MKD:Arena Sport GBR:Viaplay |
| Official website | www |
TheSpengler Cup is an annual invitational ice hockey tournament held inDavos,Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitationalice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss teamHC Davos and played each year in Davos from 26 December to 31 inclusively. Currently, all games are held at theEisstadion Davos.
It was originally devised by Dr.Carl Spengler as a means to promote teams fromGerman-speaking Europe, who might have suffered ostracism in the aftermath ofWorld War I. Eventually, the tournament grew well beyond expectations. Many of Europe's most prestigious clubs and national programs have appeared, including Soviet, Czechoslovak, Swedish, German, and Finnish powerhouses. Through its history, club or national teams from 13 countries have won the tournament, withHC Davos tied withTeam Canada in winning the most cups as a club (16) while various teams from Switzerland have won the most cups for one country (22).
Among non-European organizations, Team Canada,Team USA, nationally rankedU.S. collegiate teams, reigningAHLCalder Cup andOntario Hockey Association champions, and evenTeam Japan (in 1971, building international experience before playing as hosts of the1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics) have competed for the Spengler Cup. Since at least 1990, Team Canada has been the only participant from North America, with the exception of the AHL'sRochester Americans in1996 and2013. Futureparticipation of the AHL has been discussed by tournament organisers and the league.[1]
In the2018 tournament,Finnish club teamKalPa from the city ofKuopio defeatedTeam Canada 2–1 in the final. The game was decided in the 8th round of ashootout, the first series of game-winning shots in tournament history that determined the winner of the Spengler Cup.
The Spengler Cup tournament was not played in 2020 or 2021 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. In the2024 tournament,Swiss club teamHC Fribourg-Gottéron defeatedGerman club teamStraubing Tigers 7–2 in the final.
Many participating teams are club teams, rather than national teams, where a club team might have players from many nations on the roster. The first tournament was won in 1923 by theOxford University Ice Hockey Club, composed ofCanadians studying at theUniversity of Oxford.[2]
The first 24 tournaments were dominated by hostHC Davos (7 wins, 12 runners-up) and the Czechoslovak club teamLTC Prague (7 wins, 2 runners-up). The LTC Prague team was shut down by theCzechoslovak communist authorities after playersdefected at the 1948 Spengler Cup tournament. Between 1965 and 1983, the tournament was dominated by variousCzechoslovak andSoviet teams. Since joining the tournament in 1984,Team Canada has been the dominant participant, with 16 wins and 10 runners-up. Team Canada is made up of Canadians predominantly playing in Europe, as the tournament occurs during theNHL andAHL seasons, though active NHL starsJoe Thornton andRick Nash played for HC Davos during the2004–05 NHL lockout.
From its inception until 1978, the tournament was played on anoutdoor rink. The outdoor rink still exists outside the indoor arena, and is one of the largest outdoor rinks in the world. Starting in 1978, all tournament games have been played indoors.
The Spengler Cup was cancelled in 2020 due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. While the tournament was scheduled to return in 2021, Team Canada withdrew from the competition due to problems scheduling a quarantine isolation period before the start of play, andHC Ambrì-Piotta withdrew from the competition due to COVID-19 cases among the club's players.[3][4] The 2021 event was ultimately cancelled on 25 December due to COVID cases within HC Davos.[5]
The Spengler Cup is the second-largest sporting event in Switzerland, after tennis'Swiss Indoors in Basel. The tournament had a budget ofCHF 11 million in 2016. About 40% of the total tournament budget amount comes from corporate sponsors.[6] Since 1985,UBS has been the main sponsor and presenting partner of the Spengler Cup.[7] Other current major sponsors areWürth, Schenker Storen,Škoda,Calanda, and Hostpoint.ch – each of whom, along with UBS, are the main tournament sponsor of one of the six teams each year.
The Spengler Cup is broadcast onSchweizer Radio und Fernsehen in Switzerland, onEurosport 2 in most of Europe, onMatch TV andNTv2 in Russia, onSport1 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, onŠport TV in Slovenia, onTSN andRDS in Canada and on the streaming serviceViaplay in the United Kingdom.
Notes
Notes
| Nation | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
 Switzerland | 22 | 32 |
 Czechoslovakia1 | 19 | 10 |
| Canada2 | 16 | 11 |
 Soviet Union3 | 13 | 5 |
 Germany4 | 6 | 11 |
 Italy5 | 5 | 1 |
 Russia6 | 4 | 5 |
 United Kingdom | 4 | 2 |
 France7 | 3 | 1 |
 Sweden | 2 | 8 |
 Finland | 1 | 1 |
 Belarus | 1 | 0 |
 United States | 1 | 0 |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 4 |
 Austria | 0 | 1 |
 Belgium | 0 | 1 |
 Latvia | 0 | 1 |
 Poland | 0 | 1 |
Notes
