Origins

In 2016, France's Ligue Magnus adopted an expanded schedule and cut its number of teams from 14 to 12. The league's two Haute-Savoie clubs, the Chamois de Chamonix and the Pingouins de Morzine-Avoriaz, decided to merge their respective professional teams in order to better face the economic and competitive challenges presented by the new setup. The result of that fusion was a joint team called the Pionniers,^[1] splitting its home games between Chamonix and Morzine-Avoriaz.^[2] The amateur sections remained separate and retained the Chamois and Pingouins names.^[3]

While both towns are located within the same department, they are not particularly close, with Chamonix nested in the Mont Blanc massif and Morzine-Avoriaz part of the Chablais region. Following negotiations between the two municipalities, it was agreed that Chamonix would be the united team's training base for its inaugural season,^[4] as well as the owner of its league franchise.^[5]

2016-17 season

The precarious balance between the two organizations was quickly challenged when the new Pionniers limped out of the gate to a dismal record.^[6] Mid-February 2017, head coach Stéphane Gros was dismissed as the team was dead last in the standings. The move was not unexpected from a sporting standpoint, but it further aggravated the Morzine-Avoriaz side as Gros had career ties to both clubs, while his replacement Christophe Ville was viewed as purely a Chamonix man.^[7][8] The Pioneers still finished the season in last place and Morzine-Avoriaz renounced the partnership after a single season.^[5]

Aftermath

As the fusion agreement was more protective of Chamonix's interests, Morzine-Avoriaz suffered the most damaging fallout.^[5] Chamonix kept the organization's trademarks and visual identity, and most importantly its position in the French hockey rankings.^[5] While their twelfth-place finish should have sent them to the lower division, they ended up being saved from relegation by the withdrawal of Dijon from the Ligue Magnus.^[9]
Morzine-Avoriaz on the other hand returned to its previous identity, the Penguins, and had to start all over at the country's fourth level, the Division 3, in 2017–18.^[5]