Villard

Villard-de-Lans, already in financial difficulty, withdrew from the Ligue Magnus, the top tier of French hockey. The Ours dropped to Division 2.

For a club from a mountain town in the Isère, they took the French title in 1953, 1958 and 1960, then spent the next two decades finishing second: 1962, 1967, 1968, 1975 and 1978. The French Cup arrived in 1977, when the league title kept slipping away.

Part of that stretch was shared with Grenoble. From 1966 to 1968 the two clubs merged as the Grenoble-Villard Hockey Club. The rivalry with the Brûleurs de Loups, the derby isérois , has outlasted it.

The club's most recent great spell came at the turn of the century. Villard won the top division in 2001 and again in 2002, and added a second French Cup in 2003. Those were the last of the five league titles they hold. Eleven years later the sponsor's withdrawal ended their time in the top flight.

In 2024 they won Division 2 and moved up to Division 1, now the second tier, for the 2024-2025 season. That season went to a playoff against Brest, and Villard won it to stay up.