The Teams
EHC Biel-Bienne plays in the top Swiss ice hockey league, the National League. Founded in 1939, the club boasts three championship titles: 1978, 1981, and 1983. In the 2024/2025 season, they narrowly missed the playoffs, finishing 11th in the regular season standings.
HC Dynamo Pardubice was founded in 1925 and has won the Czech championship six times (1973, 1987, 1989, 2005, 2010, and 2012). Pardubice finished the 2024/25 season as runners-up after a close final series against Kometa Brno.
EHC Red Bull Munich has won the German championship four times. From 2016 to 2018, Bayern Munich achieved a three-peat in the PENNY DEL, followed by a fourth in 2023. Among their greatest international successes is reaching the CHL final in 2018/19. Red Bull Munich has participated in the Red Bulls Salute since 2017 and has already won the tournament twice.
EC Red Bull Salzburg is the most successful team in the win2day ICE Hockey League and crowned themselves league champions for the tenth time last season. Salzburg made history by winning the title four times in a row, following their first three-peat in 2023/24. The Red Bulls Salute is inextricably linked to Salzburg, who have won the tournament twice.
History of the Tournament
The "Red Bulls Salute" was held from 2005 to 2013 as an international invitational tournament for top European teams. A notable exception was the participation of the two-time Stanley Cup champion and tournament winner, the Los Angeles Kings, in 2007. From 2010, it served as the final tournament of the European Trophy, but then gave way to the newly founded Champions Hockey League (CHL) in 2014. After a four-year hiatus, it resumed in 2017. Since then, the format, with its proven four-team format, has become a fixture on the ice hockey calendar.
