Esbjerg

The split runs through everything about EIK. The club that grew out of Esbjerg Skøjte Klub in 1964 built five Danish Championships and three Danish Cups before its professional side was hived off in 2005, when the licence passed to Esbjerg fB's hockey section and the team eventually became Esbjerg Energy. What is left carries the old name, the old colours of yellow, black and blue, and a youth and amateur structure at the Granly Hockey Arena, formerly the Esbjerg Skøjtehal.

The championships came in 1969, 1988, 1993, 1996 and 2004 — the last of them the season before the split, a title won by a club that would not field a professional team again. Danish Wikipedia credits the Esbjerg name with two further titles, in 2016 and 2017, but those belong to Esbjerg Energy, a separate entity built on the transferred licence rather than a continuation of the 1964 club.

The rivalry with SønderjyskE Ishockey sits alongside the one with Herning, though it is the Jutland derby that fans still turn out for, gathered under the fan club name Yellow Inferno. Few players carry the club's name further than Philip Larsen, who came through Esbjerg's ranks before a career that took him into the NHL.