Before the 2016/2017 season the team of Košice Ice-hockey Club (HC Košice) had great plans and the resolution to play in the final. The last time they had the pleasure of gaining the champions' title was in 2015, when they defeated Banská Bystrica 4:2 on matches. And in this season just ending Košice wanted to make good their failure to reach the final in 2016.

In the basic league competition they played with intermittent success and sometimes with disappointing results. They ended up in third position in the league table, and in the quarter-final play-offs they came up against the sixth-placed team, MHC Martin, to whom they proceeded to lose 2:4 on matches and were eliminated from further competition. Not even the changes on the trainers' bench helped, when Rostislav Čada and Marcel Šimurda were replaced by Miroslav Marcinko and Anton Bartánus three rounds before the end of the basic competition. In those last few games the favorites from Košice did not produce performances corresponding to the quality of the squad, and for the first time in 16 years they failed to get through to the semifinals.