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We're finally inching closer towards the start of the new Elite season and excitement is in the air! We'll get our season previews started by looking over teams that we expect to finish outside of the playoff race first. Season information To find out about the prize pool specifics, check out our earlier prize pool info article. For a look at the whole ECL framework, check out the sign-ups article. Notable dates for the ECL '22: Spring Elite season: Regular season: 10.4-25.5. Playoffs: Quarterfinals: 30.5-2.6. Semifinals: 5.-8.6. Live Finals: 17.-18.6. Grand finals (if needed): 19.6. Default gamedays for the ECL '22: Spring Elite division will be on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with feature broadcasts on every gameday at the SportsGamer Twitch at 17:45 CEST on Sundays and 19:45 CEST on Mondays and Wednesdays. Stay tuned for the season opening broadcast on 10.4. You can access the rulebook, schedule, standings, statistics and full rosters from the ECL ‘22: Spring Elite league page. Socials Here's an update to the social media instructions. Our sponsors this season are Kouvolan Lakritsi, St Hockey & Wilhelm. Twitter: When posting tweets of your lineups, matchups, recaps, clips, articles - or any other content you might want to create - please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Instagram: When posting on Instagram, please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Note: It is very helpful and critical for us to succeed in getting our partners tagged, so they get the necessary mentions and interaction to validate their participation in the future. That being said, it is understandable that there may be circumstances due to your other partners where you are unable to tag competition etc. Your support is appreciated. As there are quite a few hashtags by now, especially from a Twitter perspective with limited characters, we recommend using at least #ECL22Spring in the text part of the tweet and leave the sponsor tags for the end. If you need to cut out tags, remove #esports and #NHL22. For Instagram this shouldn't be an issue. Teams out of the playoff picture - on the outside looking in After an unusually short break between ECL season, we're back already, continuing into the Spring on our intense virtual hockey fiesta that is the ECL '22 Spring season. Our other divisions have already seen their start, but we'll still have to wait for one week to get the action started in the crown jewel, the pinnacle of European virtual hockey - the ECL Elite. In the winter season, hREDS were crowned the Champions and they punched their ticket to the first ever Grand Finals, while simultaneously making history as the first ever squad to secure consecutive ECL titles. Now it's time to shift our sights towards the future and take a look at what the Spring season and an influx of fresh talent could bring us. Will a new challenger emerge or are we in for another duel between Frölunda HC and the reigning Champions? Can a team like YMCA Esports snap out of their downward spiral and gain back the form of their glory days? What about the welcome comeback of Falun Coal Miners - how will they fare in their first strides on ECL ice since 2018? In this first part of our season preview, we'll be taking a look at teams that are expected to be out of the playoff picture - on the outside looking in. These rankings are made based on an average score from a number of panelists and doesn't exactly represent the individual views of the writers. 11. Stargazing (Written by @jahajaha93) ECL '22 Winter Pro season: Semifinals (promoted through Qualifiers) Stargazing is one of those squads that have climbed the divisional ranks in quick pace, after first emerging in Core back in ECL 12, and taking the Pro division by storm in ECL '22 Winter, they are now in the European top 16. Already that is a success story unlike any other in the ECL history books to this date, but they also look to be in somewhat of a decent position to challenge for a potential playoff spot this season. The starting lineup will see no changes, which should serve the newcomers well despite the lack of Elite experience in their ranks. The forward trio Miro @Flopper71 Heikkinen - Oskari @ose16 Juntunen - Miikka @xColeslaww Kolehmainen is lethal and should have no issue whatsoever translating their game to a higher level, whereas Toni @Pirtsa89 Pirttimäki's ability as an Elite netminder has already been questioned and proven back in ECL 12 with IQUE. Defense is the biggest question mark for this squad, Niklas @Bobiraataja (nikhaa27) Haataja is a highly touted prospect with an excellent stick on defense, while Kalle @James (Jamechkin) Riihelä possesses great puck skills acquired while playing on offense, but can they manage to gel together for a defensive unit that is sufficient at this level? Player to watch: Miro @Flopper71 Heikkinen The left winger has a knack for scoring big goals and coming in clutch at the most important moments. The chemistry up front for these guys is great, so realistically any one of their forwards could be their finisher, but the 200-foot play and clutch ability of Flopperii- earns him this spot over his linemates. 12. Falun Coal Miners ECL '22 Winter Elite season: Semifinals Falun came to replace Granit Gaming in Elite and are now making their return after a long absence. The only skater left from the Granit lineup is 1/2 of last season's cover player duo Hampus @l-Furyan-l Duvefelt. Three players came from Northern Ascendancy, who were relegated to Pro after last season. Last but not least, the Swedish group managed to get Andrè @Foppatofflan Liljegren, reuniting with several of his old friends after a season with Färjestad BK. He will pla a huge role in how this team is going to play next season and has a lot of responsibility with he puck. It will be also interesting to see foppatofflan and Connor @MartindalexC Martindale playing together after a short break. Captain l-Furyan-l is definitely one of the best defensemen in the division at supporting offense. We can expect Jonas @poliskontroll Lindström to share goaltending responsibilities with Reittu @Roisto999 Hynynen and Pontus @LastMandalorian Duvefelt, so there's lots of room for rotation down low. Player to watch: Jim @SadaPoika Leskinen Last season definitely wasn’t what he expected even though individially, Sada had a good season as he was 9th in the league when it comes to goals scoring. Has a lot of experience and is looking to finally elevate himself to the discussion of the very best in the league with this team. 13. HV71 ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 14th HV71 avoided relegation to Pro by winning their relegation series against RCTIC in game 7. The Swedish team hailing from Jönköping had changes in their defense because both defensemen from last season transferred to Rögle BK. An interesting addition to the HV71 roster is talented Anton @antoniomannen004(antoniomannen_) Svensander ,who played last season with Granit Gaming and got a taste of the ECL Elite semifinals there. Their reaction with defensive changes could very well have been warranted because HV71 surrendered 96 goals in 30 games last season, which was the most in the league by a clear margin. There could be potential for better season but also goaltending has to get better. Player to watch: Tuukka @Tukexi(MATILAISKA_) Matilainen Had a great Elite debut last season individually and scored 20 goals in 30 games and produced most points in his team. Was on fire especially in the relegation series by scoring eight goals in seven games including one hat-trick. Like the entire team, is looking to take the next step this season. 14. Örebro Hockey ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 11th Last season wasn't good for Örebro. After being one of favourites to have a breakout season, they were not able to get to the playoffs. For this season Örebro got Väinö @Pikkardz(pikkarii) Pikkarainen from Dynastia, and he is definitely a very mechanically skilled forward who will suit their system well. This team has many dangerous individuals especially in the offensive zone and Örebro is one the best counterattacking teams in the league. I think the key point for these guys next season will be how they can shut their doors in the defensive zone. Last season this team allowed three goals per game, which was second most in the league and is too much. You can find a lot of experience from Örebro's defense as captain Tero @Terodee Dahlström is a season 1 ECL veteran. Player to watch: Väinö @Pikkardz Pikkarainen The skilled forward is back at the highest level. @Pikkardz already has some Elite experience split between KOVA Esports, Almost Famous and Tunnel Vision. Last season he spent in Pro with Dynastia and was a massive offensive producer there. Their season ended in the quarterfinals and now this young gun is looking for a new chance to shine among the best players. 15. Conquer Gaming ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 15th Last season, conquer had acquired a trio from Otukset and their expectations were set high. In the end, their season didn’t go how Conquer wanted and they ended up battling for their Elite spot in the relegation series, which they managed to win. Now, there's a wind of change blowing as the entire Otukset trio has left and the team has replacements coming in. An interesting new face on offense is Jere @Jerax13 Hellström who came from GHETTO FIREBIRDS and has some extnesive previous history with several other Conquer players. The question mark for Conquer is their defense and Eren @Kucherov86(jalkkin-) Yalcin needs to take some big leadership there. In the offense once again team captain Valtteri @Vire30 Vireaho needs to take big role on point producing without forgetting to tighten up the middle defensively. It's hard to see that this season would be any easier for Conquer, but we'll have to wait and see. Player to watch: Axel @MonkeyHeadAF Falck A solid Elite goalie that made some big saves for his team in the relegation series. Has a lot of experience and even though he is a goalie, could bring some ideas to the skaters as well. Once again, has to be on fire throughout to keep Conquer away from the relegation spots. 16. YMCA Esports ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 12th Last season ended luckily for YMCA as they ended up having same amount of points that Northern Ascendancy and HV71 but didn’t have to play relegation series as they already secured spot in the Elite for this season by being 12th by tiebreakers. A very positive thing for YMCA is that they will get to play this season with the exact same roster as the last one. That wasn’t guaranteed for any Elite team because especially this offseason was a wild one. It's interesting to see how the chemistry has developed during the offseason, but practice has shown some shaky form. Their start needs to be way better than that of last season, when they only got three points out of their first eight games. YMCA's weakness is that they feel a bit dull at the moment and are missing that last piece of the puzzle that would elevate the game and make them a serious threat. Las season, their scoring was atrocious at 1.5 goals per game, so they need new ways to finish. Especially getting the defensemen Jukka @Jugeh_ Salokoski and Julius @Exel56(julius97_) Rissanen more involved with the offensive game. Player to watch: Ben @benu(benuh_) Rinnet Saved over 300 shots last season and had the best saving percentage out of the goalies whose teams didn’t make it to the playoffs. Has to make big saves this season again if YMCA wants to keep their Elite spot. You can expect the next part of our three part season preview to drop already this evening! In the meantime, please let us know what you thought about this one and if our ranking looks similar to yours, we'd love to hear from you regardless!

It's time to get underway with he second part of our ECL '22 Spring Elite Season Preview, consisting out of teams predicted to finish in the middle of the pack. Find out who we've put outside of the playoff picture, and who will grab the last available postseason spots. Season information To find out about the prize pool specifics, check out our earlier prize pool info article. For a look at the whole ECL framework, check out the sign-ups article. Notable dates for the ECL '22: Spring Elite season: Regular season: 10.4-25.5. Playoffs: Quarterfinals: 30.5-2.6. Semifinals: 5.-8.6. Live Finals: 17.-18.6. Grand finals (if needed): 19.6. Default gamedays for the ECL '22: Spring Elite division will be on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday with feature broadcasts on every gameday at the SportsGamer Twitch at 17:45 CEST on Sundays and 19:45 CEST on Mondays and Wednesdays. Stay tuned for the season opening broadcast on 10.4. You can access the rulebook, schedule, standings, statistics and full rosters from the ECL ‘22: Spring Elite league page. Socials Here's an update to the social media instructions. Our sponsors this season are Kouvolan Lakritsi, St Hockey & Wilhelm. Twitter: When posting tweets of your lineups, matchups, recaps, clips, articles - or any other content you might want to create - please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Instagram: When posting on Instagram, please make sure to tag the following accounts and hashtag: @SportsGamerGG #ECL22Spring #NHL22 #esports #kouvolanlakritsi #MukanaWilhelm Note: It is very helpful and critical for us to succeed in getting our partners tagged, so they get the necessary mentions and interaction to validate their participation in the future. That being said, it is understandable that there may be circumstances due to your other partners where you are unable to tag competition etc. Your support is appreciated. As there are quite a few hashtags by now, especially from a Twitter perspective with limited characters, we recommend using at least #ECL22Spring in the text part of the tweet and leave the sponsor tags for the end. If you need to cut out tags, remove #esports and #NHL22. For Instagram this shouldn't be an issue. Teams battling for playoff position - Throwing down the gauntlet It's time to introduce the middle of the pack, the positions where we expect the fiercest battles to go down, where all teams will be throwing down the collective gauntlet so to speak. As usual, we should see quite the fight go down all season long and into the very final rounds of the regular season. In the winter season, a rather unusually large gap was formed between the 9th and 8th spot, but with all teams seeing exponential growth over the offseason, we're expecting a tough grind to the finish line. Some of these squads are still young and possess the tools to go all they way if they end up clicking, but they have fallen short in previous seasons. This is the time to do all they can and see if all of their potential and hard work will come to fruition. 5. HAVU Gaming (Written by @ose16) ECL '22 Winter Elite season: Quarterfinals The long-time contenders have seen a steady decline over the past few seasons and with the transfer of former captain Tuukka @FlyerKungen Kuha to rival Frölunda HC, it appears that the glory days of HAVU Gaming would be over, at least for now. As a result, it's seemed that the team has rotated their lineup wildly over the course of the offseason, and they still might not have a final answer for which ensemble they're going to go with come opening night. Regardless of what they will choose, we are certain that the sheer routine level in their roster will be enough to earn them at least a playoff position. Player to watch: Ilmari @Buantso(Puantso) Lehkonen A massive comeback to ECL Elite and the familiar HAVU. After many championships in the black and green, played one season with JYP Jyväskylä in the Pro division. Like you could predict, he was on a completely different level among the Pro players and was the biggest factor for JYP winning the championship. Looking to help HAVU climb back toward the top. 6. IQUE (Written by @ose16) ECL '22 Winter Elite season: Quarterfinals IQUE was one of the most pleasant surprises last season, as they managed to gain fifth place finish for a rather favorable postseason push, but didn't quite find their game against the notoriously difficult opponent Färjestad BK. Like almost all the teams also IQUE had some movement happening in the offseason as Teemu @Teemuyy Polttila already came to IQUE from Frölunda HC but before the start of the season moved on to SAWO ESPORTS. Now it's expected that IQUE will continue with exact same lineup. Goalie Teemu @ITemeI Laukkanen had his breakout last season and if not earlier at least now has proven to be a solid Elite netminder. It's interesting to see could last season's biggest dark horse renew their playoff spot and maybe get to the next round. Player to watch: Aaro @Ikavalko Ikävalko After a couple of Pro and Lite seasons, he made the comeback to Elite last season and did so in successful fashion as he was the best goal scorer and point producer for his team. If IQUE was the surprise team last season, Ikavalko was the surprise individual. 7. GOONS ECL '22 Winter Elite season: Quarterfinals Whereas IQUE were a pleasant surprise last season, GOONS definitely disappointed and there's no tip-toeing around that fact. The team led by Kristian @kriketski17 Veijola has all the tools to be a true contender, but is yet to fully come out of their shell. They have the experience in goaltender Mika @FinKonna Paasikontu and defenseman Joel @jtorro-_- Tourunen, whereas forwards Arttu @laitineen64 Laitinen and Roope @pikkuroger Bergström represent some of the most highly touted prospects in the game. Now, if ever, is the time for this team to start improving and inching towards performing at their own level, there is lots of room to improve and if these guys manage to hit a home run, they're championship caliber. Player to watch: Arttu @laitineen64 Laitinen After surprising with IQUE back in ECL 12, the young center decided that a move to GOONS would benefit his career. While his individual numbers were slightly better due to the higher production of the team, his overall play didn't progress as much as expected. Now is the season he should make the step to the top player discussion. 8. JYP Jyväskylä ECL '22 Winter Pro season: Champions After one season away from ECL Elite action, JYP Jyväskylä is back at the top where they arguably belong. The team has had an intensive offseason with a hard grind, mainly in order to facilitate the arrival of new left winger Aaro @xAaro89x Aarvala, who has some big boots to fill as the replacement of Ilmari @Buantso Lehkonen, without any competitive experience above ECL Lite for that matter. The rest of the team more than makes up for that experience and the fact that the other forwards Antti @tbnantti Kuittinen and Santeri @indi969 Pendolin have played side by side since late 2018 will certainly make the adjustment process much easier. As no other major changes happened for the squad, we are expecting them to be a fringe playoff team that could end up taking off big time if they are able to utilize their full potential. Player to watch: Aaro @xAaro89x Aarvala It's highly unusual to see such a green player entering Elite competition. The potential of the young man is undeniable and it's not like we haven't seen similar tricks from JYP in the past, this signing has some striking similarity to that of Valtteri @Vattuyy Virtanen back before ECL 11. It's easy to predict a breakout season incoming. 9. Roots Gaming ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 9th Roots Gaming took the Elite division by storm last season, as they managed to pave their way into the division through additional Qualifiers and immediately made an impact, falling just short of the playoffs. Since then, the team hasn't made any changes and frankly, why should they? They have everything going for them with their young roster and the generous amounts of untapped potential. We'd be surprised if this team hasn't only gotten better with the time they've spent together and they should definitely be able to challenge for a spot in the playoffs. Look for the great puck movement and individual skill between forwards Linus @Limu95 Christiansson, Santeri @xleksa35 Levänen and Samuli @ssampee37 Mäntylä. Player to watch: Santeri @xleksa35 Levänen The captain is arguably his teams most important player. After being the most productive forward last season, now is a good time to build on that accolade and rise to the discussion of the top players in the division. 10. ZSC Esports ECL '22 Winter Elite season: 10th The Swiss lions hailing from Zürich have successfully claimed their place in Elite. A 10th place finish in the winter season can be seen as a moderate success for them and they are definitely starting to get more comfortable competing against the big boys, despite still being in an underdog position in most of their matchups. Zürich have made only one change in the offseason, bringing in former noRex Gaming forward Kevin @Keuschemisch Berg, who is going to man the left wing besides captain Sven @Original-SnuS Julmi and Alex @IDangledYouOut Wagner. This entails that offensively, the team looks to be their most balanced ensemble yet, with the wingers having scoring responsibility and center supporting as the complete player he is. On defense, these guys continue going with Max @Toneee9 Tonitz and Reto @Haldeem Haldemann, which has worked for them in the past and in net Reto @afc_Tschitsch (eTschitsch) Ulrich hopes to continue building on a great last season. Player to watch: Alex @IDangledYouOut Wagner The winger is notorious for being very aggressive off the puck and plays a hard hitting game. Possesses a lot of mechanical skill and would definitely be eager to improve on the personal level after not really getting the scoring going in the winter season. Now we've only got one more to go! On Friday evening, we'll return for the final part of our ECL '22 Spring Elite season preview and with that, finish off our prediction rankings. Who do you think will be the call for Champion?