The Finnish entrepreneur Harry Harkimo opened the Color Line Arena in Hamburg in 2002, the Munich Barons from team owner Philip F. Anschutz, who did not get a new hall approved for his team in Munich and therefore cooperated with Harkimo, y-3 japan jersey moved to Hamburg and became the Hamburg Freezers and so main tenants of the Color Line Arena. The Hamburg Freezers, formerly the Munich Barons, only reached the play-offs three minutes before the end of the last day of play thanks to a Ted Drury equalizer against the Frankfurt Lions and pushed past the second surprise team of the season, the Iserlohn Roosters, who against Krefeld simultaneously won 8:1. On 26 January 2019, Quagliarella scored twice against Udinese – his 11th consecutive Serie A game with goals in the season, making him the most consecutive Serie A game with goals in a season. On the other hand, the frequent player changes, also during the season, also led to a decline in spectators. Successful trainer Lance Nethery switched to the Kölner Haie before the season and immediately led them to the final, in which they lost to the Munich Barons of US billionaire Philip Anschutz. Their manager Marcus Kuhl and coach Lance Nethery brought players from less strong ice hockey nations (Italy, France, Austria) who wanted to prove themselves in the DEL and finished the main round as first.

FC Bayern Munich want to reach for the title again after a disappointing season in the Champions League and have hired Julian Nagelsmann from RB Leipzig as their new coach, who replaced Hansi Flick in the summer. On April 18, Michael Biegler was introduced as the new coach of the first team on January 1, 2018. Rich Chernomaz and his team defeated the surprise team from Krefeld, the feared opponents Munich and the budget-Krösus Mannheim in the final. After the Bosman ruling, players from EU countries were no longer included in the three-player contingent of foreigners. If you used those tools, he said, you wouldn't have to spend half a century discussing a single temper-inflamed scene. This was supplemented by the Austrians Konstantin Komarek, who also collected nine points, and Thomas Raffl, the most valuable player of the tournament. This required a great deal of financial effort: Shortly before the start of the season, the Berlin Capitals initially only had nine players in the squad due to licensing and financial problems, so they were fined over 100,000 euros and lost six points.

Berlin was the clear first after the main round, but lost to the Lions (fifth in the preliminary round) in the final. The Kassel Huskies and Eisbären Berlin, for example, advanced to the top of the league this season, while the German champions from Düsseldorf missed the play-offs, which started with the quarter-finals for the first time (previously: round of 16). Mannheim's dominance only came to an end in 1999/2000 when they lost out in the quarter-finals against the Kassel Huskies. The surprise team of the season were the Kassel Huskies, who fought their way to the final and failed against the Adler Mannheim. After finishing third in the 2009/10 season, the club set their sights on the league title in the following 2010/11 season. A few weeks later he reached the quarterfinals in 9-ball at the European Championships. In October 2012 he made it to the final of the North Cyprus Open, which he lost 5-9 to Nick Malai from Albania. The young Nuremberg team took second place after the main round and then dropped out in the quarter-finals.

The Kölner Haie moved to the Kölnarena – today's Lanxess Arena – in 1998 and thus owned the largest arena of all DEL clubs, while the city of Nuremberg built a new home for the Ice Tigers in 2001 with the construction of the Nürnberger Versicherung Arena. When the stadium was under construction, sports federations did not recognize a synthetic surface instead of natural grass on the pitch. The reason was that with the artificial turf developed up to that point, there was a significant risk of injury in the event of a fall. The reason for this is his consistency: the midfielder was in the starting line-up every matchday of the current season. In his first season as a professional soccer player, the native Kenyan made 23 of a possible 26 league appearances in the 2006 season, in which he scored four goals and finished comfortably fourth with the team in the final table. The central midfielder comes from Real Madrid's youth development team, where he was never able to make it into the first team, even after a six-month loan spell at English second division side Queens Park Rangers.