Metal Ligaen is the premier league in
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
. The league consists of 9 professional teams. The name of the league has changed many times, but is being sponsored by
Dansk Metal and therefore got the name Metalligaen.
History
It is also known as Superisligaen or Eliteserien, which is the name used in the past and in times where no naming rights agreement is in place. On 1 January 2014 Danish Metal (Dansk Metal) became the sponsor of the Danish ice hockey league, which changed the name to Metal Ligaen, replacing the previous name AL-Bank Ligaen which was named for the sponsorship deal with the Danish bank
Arbejdernes Landsbank
Arbejdernes Landsbank () is a Danish bank founded in 1919 with approximately 250,000 customers and 1,075 employees. It is the 7th largest bank in Denmark. As of 2014 the bank has 70 branches in Denmark.
History
The bank was founded by Danish tr ...
.
The Danish Ice hockey league has become one of the better leagues in Europe, often compared to leagues such as the Swedish
HockeyAllsvenskan
HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system (after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL). Since the 2009–10 ...
and the German
DEL2
DEL2 (also known as DEL II) is the second tier ice hockey league in Germany, below the '' Deutsche Eishockey Liga'' (DEL) and ahead of the '' Oberliga''. Founded in 2013 to replace the defunct '' 2nd Bundesliga'', DEL2 is administered by ESBG, ...
. The league is more of a springboard for foreign players and a place to start their European careers, before traveling to other bigger leagues such as the
Swedish Hockey League
The Swedish Hockey League (officially SHL; sv, Svenska Hockeyligan) is a professional ice hockey league, and the highest division in the Swedish ice hockey system. The league currently consists of 14 teams. The league was founded in 1975, an ...
or
DEL
Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...
. The teams rely mostly on foreign talent, but there is still a lot of skilled professional Danish players. It is mostly the older Danish players, who are full-time professional. Most younger players are semi-professional because of the tight economy in Danish hockey and most of the money is spent on more talented foreign players.
In the past, the league has consisted of as many as 10 teams. Despite the introduction of a salary cap as well as a limit to the number of import players allowed, several teams have struggled financially in recent years. As a result, the
Herlev Hornets
The Herlev Hornets were a Denmark, Danish professional ice hockey team playing in the top Danish ice hockey league Oddset Ligaen, AL-Bank Ligaen. The team is located in the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev.
In 2011, the team returned to the top Danish ...
and the
Rungsted Cobras have withdrawn from the league, reducing the number of active teams from 10 to 8. Teams from the second-tier league were offered the empty spots, but no team were able to accept the offer, citing financial issues as their main concern.
On 9 January 2015
TV2 Sport debuted as a new sports channel on Danish TV. Same day,
HockeyNight
HockeyNight is a Danish ice hockey program, that presents games from the Danish ice hockey league, Metal Ligaen
Metal Ligaen is the premier league in Danish ice hockey. The league consists of 9 professional teams. The name of the league has ch ...
also aired for the first time, with a match between
Odense Bulldogs
The Odense Bulldogs are a professional ice hockey team based in Odense, Denmark. They currently play in Ret&Råd Fyn Arena in the Bolbro area, as a part of the best Danish league Metal Ligaen, and they are furthermore the only hockey team from Fu ...
and
Rungsted Rungsted, also known as ''Rungsted Kyst'' is an affluent suburban neighborhood in Hørsholm Municipality on the Øresund coast north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The center of Hørsholm is located two kilometers west of Rungsted. At the Øresund coast i ...
. Since 2015 TV2 Sport has been the place to watch icehockey and other sports.
On 18 June 2016 it was made clear that the foreign player limit of 8, was against EU law and it was therefore removed. The 2016–17 season was the first time, since 2009, that a Danish ice hockey team could have an unlimited number of foreign players. The salary cap was created to regulating the league. The salary cap of the 2016–17 season, was 6 million DKK.
On June 3, Metal Ligaen was expanded once again, to an historic number of 11 teams.
Hvidovre Fighters, who had previously left the league in 2013 because of bankruptcy, got their submitted papers approved, making them the 11th team of the 2017/18 season.
League format
The league consists of 9 teams. The latest expansion was in 2014, when
Gentofte Stars
The Gentofte Stars are an ice hockey team in the , the second-highest men’s ice hockey league in Denmark. They play in Gentofte, a northern suburb in the Copenhagen urban area, at the ('Gentofte Skating Hall'). The team previously played in ...
joined the league after being relegated in 1999. The league format has changed many times. The current structure was implemented in the 2011–12 season. Often it is changed depending on how many teams that are represented in the league. There has never been more than 10 teams in the Danish ice hockey league, making it fairly small structured league compared to other leagues in Europe.
The Danish hockey league is structured so that every team meet 5 times, making the seasons after 2014, 45 games long. The season typically starts in September and ends in February. The top 8 teams of the regular season makes the playoffs. First place gets to pick who they want to play in the quarterfinals. second place pick next and so on. The Metal Ligaen playoffs consists of 3 rounds: quarterfinals, semifinals and the finals. The winner will raise The Prince Henrik's Cup.
As of the 2017/18 Metal Ligaen expansion, the Metal Ligaen regular season was extended from 45 games to a historic 50 games. The playoff format was also changed, where previously the top 8 teams made the playoffs. Now the top 6 teams advanced directly to the Quarterfinals and teams ranking from 7 to 10 would play for the last two wildcard spots.
Metal Cup
The Metal Cup is a tournament held every year. It consists of 12 teams, where all Metal Ligaen teams are represented. Two teams from the
1.division are also represented. The top 4 teams the year before will go straight to the quarterfinals. The 8 other teams will by draw be divided into 4 groups each one of them with a letter from A to D. 4 teams will advance on from first round to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals the last seasons champs will play winner of group A. second-place winner of group B and so on. games in the quarterfinals and semifinals consists of two games. The winner of the tournament will receive the Metal Cup.
In 2017, the Metal Cup format was changed. Because of Hvidovre Fighters joining the league, the format would now only consist of teams from the Metal Ligaen and, instead of a playout format, the top 4 teams after 20 regular season games would be invited to a final four tournament.
Teams
Notable players
List of notable players who have played in the Danish icehockey league.
Danish Champions
By club
References
External links
League website
{{Ice Hockey Leagues
Professional ice hockey leagues in Denmark
Top tier ice hockey leagues in Europe