Nice Hockey Côte d’Azur

The name on the club record for 2016 belongs to a team that had never set foot in the Ligue Magnus before. NHCA had just won the second-tier title and needed to get past Anglet in the promotion playoffs to make the top flight for the first time. They did, and they have not left it since — a run that has now stretched to quarter-final appearances in 2019, 2024 and 2025.

Getting there took a false start. The original Nice Hockey Club, founded in 1969, ran into financial trouble and folded in 2003. The city did not stay without a team for long: it was rebuilt the same year under the name Nice Hockey Côte d'Azur and sent back out in Division 3 before the 2016 breakthrough. In 2018 the professional side split off under the name Nice Hockey Élite, leaving NHCA to the reserve and amateur ranks.

One family has followed that whole climb from close up. Stanislav Sutor, Slovakian-French by background, spent years in Nice as goaltender and then coach, and his son Alexis grew up playing for the club before leaving for Meudon in 2025. Marc-André Lévesque took a different route through the same dressing room, captaining the side in 2024–25 before moving into the head coach's role himself.

The Eagles play in navy blue, red and yellow now, a switch made in 2014 from the old red, black and yellow. There is no fixed derby to point to, though matches against Briançon and Gap carry the weight of the regional rivalry, and the Palais des sports Jean-Bouin holds only 1,200 for them.