Zürich Lions

Zürich's ice hockey loyalties used to run through two clubs rather than one, and it took a financial crisis to fuse them. In 1997, with the Zürcher SC on the edge of bankruptcy, its board merged with the ice hockey section of Grasshopper Club Zürich, a rescue made possible by the backing of entrepreneur Walter Frey. Traditionalists would not accept the old acronym vanishing altogether, so the merged side settled on a compromise name: ZSC Lions.

The championships won before that date belong to the club under its previous identity: as Zürcher SC it took the Swiss title in 1936, 1949 and 1961. As ZSC Lions it has since added eight more, including back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025. The Champions Hockey League has gone to Zürich twice, eras apart. The first, in 2009, was settled with a 5–0 win over Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the decisive leg, 7–2 on aggregate. The second came in 2025, a tighter 2–1 final against Färjestad BK.

October 2022 closed a 72-year chapter at the Hallenstadion, when the club moved into the Swiss Life Arena in Altstetten. Captain Patrick Geering came through the club's own academy before taking the armband, and the fixture that still sharpens attention in the city is the derby against EHC Kloten.