Following the Group Stage Draw for the 2022/23 season of the Champions Hockey League, we spoke to representatives of the teams drawn into Group G to find out their thoughts about their opponents.

Group G features DEL champions Eisbären Berlin, 2020 CHL Finalists Mountfield HK, four-time CHL Champions Frölunda Gothenburg and Ligue Magnus side Grenoble, who return for their third season on Europe's biggest stage.

Watch their full reactions below

For Grenoble Head Coach Jyrki Aho, who last saw CHL action while with the Espoo Blues in 2015/16, he's excited about the upcoming challenge posed by some of the best clubs in Europe saying, "I’m proud to get those really, really good opponents and it’s helping our players to develop more and more." He went on to underline that, "Of course we will try to do our best in every game and that’s been the attitude."

The quality of the opponents in the CHL cannot be denied and as Aho recognises this, so too does Frölunda Head Coach Roger Rönnberg who admits, "It’s always tough nowadays in this tournament, there’s no easy game."

Tough opponents aside, with the season fast approaching, there are many reasons to be excited and Sports Director of Berlin, Peter John Lee, knows it saying, "Yea, it’s always fun. Excited to get the new season going and being involved in the Champions Hockey League." 

Unfortunately for his club, their showing in the 2021/22 campaign wasn't exactly what they'd hoped for so Lee is looking forward to a fresh start and a turnaround season for his organisation.

CEO of Mountfield HK Aleš Kmoníček is also looking forward to this season as he looked back on his club's past success during 2019/2020 noting, "Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. We played in the Final in 2020 and I hope we will have a good result this year.” Kmoníček went on to stress that similar success for his team is the goal going forward: "We want to move on from the Group Stage and then we’ll see."

Of course, winning and reaching the Final is what every club is vying for but it's especially true for Aho who has been, "waiting for this – going back and playing those international games." Grenoble's benchboss went on to say that, "it was nice to play those games and those different kinds of opponents. It’s always a pleasure and great to be in the Champions Hockey League."

Rönnberg was much more direct, albeit humble, saying, "it means something special for us to participate."

After seeing his team lose in the Semi-Finals last year, Ronnberg is not one to take any game, or any team for that matter, for granted when he says, "The goal is obviously to win, but we had to look forward to the first games and really be in the present and being humble to understand how good we need to play early in the season to have a chance to advance to the Playoffs."

Peter John Lee was a little more audacious with his goals for Berlin, declaring, "Yeah, you always want to try and win it. Sweden has dominated this competition and it’d be nice to be one of the teams that gets the chance to knock them off for a change.”

Each team will get their chance to do exactly that and prove themselves against Europe's elite when the puck drops for the 2022/23 CHL campaign!