Mountfield HK

In the summer of 2013, a hockey club with no history in Hradec Králové suddenly had a season to play there. HC Mountfield had been forced out of České Budějovice by the "War of the Beers" — the Czech Extraliga's sponsorship deal with Radegast collided head-on with the naming rights České Budějovice already held with Budweiser Budvar. To make the arrival feel less like an import, the club reached back to 1925 and Bruslařský klub Hradec Králové, the city's first dedicated ice hockey club, and built its identity on that older foundation rather than its own recent past in South Bohemia.

Before the current name settled, the side briefly played as Královští Lvi — the Royal Lions — and the nickname stuck even after the branding changed to Mountfield HK. Vladimír Růžička , an Olympic champion and former NHL player, coached the club through part of this transition.

The results followed gradually rather than immediately: third place in the Extraliga in 2016–17, then a run to the final of the Champions Hockey League in 2019–20, where Mountfield HK finished runners-up, and a second Extraliga final appearance in 2022–23. Further back, the club's predecessors had already won the second-tier Czechoslovak league twice in the late 1960s and topped the national league in 1992–93.

Every autumn now brings the Východočeské derby against HC Dynamo Pardubice .