Caen

Before Caen's hockey club was the Drakkars, it was the Léopards. The club dates from 1968. It won Division 1 in 1979, 1989 and 1998.

The 1999–2000 season lifted it out of that pattern. Caen finished second in the Ligue Magnus, and in the Coupe de France final it beat the Dragons de Rouen 4–1. Rouen are the club's fiercest rivals, and their meetings are called the Derby Normand, so the only cup in Caen's cabinet came against the team it most wants to beat. The Continental Cup followed in 2000–01, and Caen reached its first round.

That same year Brice Chauvel, a defenceman from the club's own academy, won the Trophée Jean-Pierre-Graff. He later came back as general manager. Luc Tardif played for Caen in the 1980s, long before he became president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

The top flight did not last. In 2015 Caen lost a play-down series to Lyon and went down. It won Division 1 again in 2010 and has stayed near the top of that division since relegation. Twice it has reached the promotion play-off final, in 2023 and in 2025, and lost to Tours and then to Cholet.