Neuwied

Jens Hergt played more games for Neuwied than anyone else who has ever pulled on the jersey, and the club retired his number 24 for it — a shirt kept out of circulation in a dressing room that has otherwise emptied and refilled itself more times than most. Three insolvencies have run through the club's history: the original EHC Neuwied folded in January 2000 while sitting in the top four of the 2. Bundesliga, its successor SC Mittelrhein-Neuwied went the same way in 2006 after losing its grip on the stadium contract, and EHC Die Bären Neuwied followed in 2016. Each collapse produced a new legal entity rather than an end; the current club, formed after that 2016 insolvency, took the name Eishockey Club Neuwied in 2024.

The Bären, as they are still known around the Andernacher Straße rink, had their sharpest spell under coach Ľubomír Pokovič, who took them to back-to-back 1. Liga Nord titles in 1997 and 1998. Since then the honours have come from further down the pyramid — a Regionalliga Hessen title in 2001, Regionalliga West in 2023 — but the club has kept finding ways to win something. Number 22, worn by Mario Naster, and number 71, worn by Andreas Halfmann, hang retired alongside Hergt's; so does number 5, worn by Arno Lösch, who later coached the team himself.

Matches against Moskitos Essen and EG Diez-Limburg carry derby weight on the Rhineland ice, but the club's most recent test came from further afield. Neuwied topped the CEHL regular season in 2024/25 before losing the final to Liège Bulldogs, then went back to defend the CEHL title into 2025/26. Domestically, the club has returned to the Oberliga Nord for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons under head coach Jeffrey van Iersel.