Morzine-Avoriaz

Morzine-Avoriaz start this season in Division 1, the second tier of French hockey, four years after winning Division 2 in 2022. The Pingouins have been higher than this and lower, sometimes within a few years of each other.

The peak came in 2006–07. Promoted in 2004 after winning the promotion playoffs undefeated, they won the regular season three years later and reached the Ligue Magnus Final, where they lost to Grenoble. Jonathan Zwikel took the Albert Hassler Trophy as the best French player that year. The club has never won the Ligue Magnus, and the League Cup final of 2012, lost to Briançon, is the other trophy match they missed.

The falls were sharper. Financial trouble in 1997 dropped them from Division 2 to Division 3, and Éric Lebey, as player-coach, rebuilt the side to win Division 2 in 2000. The larger blow came in 2016, when the club merged with Chamonix Hockey Club to form Chamonix-Morzine Hockey Club, after a 2013 renaming that had added the neighbouring resort of Les Gets. Disagreements over logistics, money and sporting matters led Morzine to withdraw after a single season. They lost their professional licence, went down to Division 3 in 2017, took back the name Hockey Club Morzine-Avoriaz (HCMA) and won Division 3 in 2018.

The nickname dates to 1950, when a local ski coach brought home a felt penguin mascot from the World Championships in Aspen. The youth system, HC74, has produced Sami Tavernier, Fabien Bourgeois, Thomas Suire and Théo Lanvers.

Among the imports, Brad Ference is the best known. He was an NHL player who joined during the 2004 lockout, the season the club returned to the top flight.