KHL - A Beginner's Guide

The KHL [Kontinental Hockey League] or [Континентальная хоккейная лига] (КХЛ), was set up in 2008 as an international professional league. It comprises 28 member clubs based in Belarus, Croatia, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia and Slovakia and it intends to expand to more countries. It is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in Europe and Asia, and second in the world behind the NHL.
The league formed from the Russian Superleague (RSL, and the champion of the 2007–08 season of the second division, with 24 teams: 21 from Russia and one each from Belarus, Latvia and Kazakhstan. The teams were divided into 4 divisions, based on the performance in previous seasons. The first season ended in April 2009 with Ak Bars Kazan becoming the first ever winner of the Gagarin Cup. In an effort to reduce the large travel distances for the teams, the second season saw the introduction of two conferences (East and West) and the re-alignment of the divisions according to geographical criteria. In the Gagarin Cup finals, teams from the East dominated with Ak Bars Kazan winning twice and Salavat Yulaev Ufa once. The start of the fourth season was overshadowed by the Yaroslavl air disaster on 7 September 2011 in which almost all members of the team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl lost their lives shortly after take-off for their flight to their season opening game in Minsk. The Opening Cup game in Ufa, which was already under way when news of the disaster arrived, was abandoned and the start of the season postponed by five days. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was forced to withdraw from the KHL season, but later played part of the VHL season and returned to the KHL in 2012. In memory of the disaster, 7 September remains a day of mourning on which no KHL regular season games are held.

Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup

Ahead of the 2009-10 season Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg joined the league replacing Khimik Voskresensk who transferred to a lower league. HC Yugra were admitted the following year. After several attempts by teams from Central Europe and Scandinavia to join the KHL, expansion beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union was finally realized in 2011. Lev Poprad, a newly founded team based in Poprad, Slovakia was admitted to the league. But after only one season, Lev was replaced by a team of the same name, Lev Praha, from the Czech Republic, while Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and Ukraine's Donbass joined the KHL as expansion teams. Lev and Slovan managed to draw considerable public interest and qualified for the play-offs in their first KHL season. In 2013 Medveščak from Croatia and Russian Admiral Vladivostok joined the league, thus expanding the league even further. The league comprised 28 teams during the 2013-14 season, of which 21 are based in Russia and 7 more are located in the other countries. In 2014 Finnish team Jokerit from Helsinki, Lada Togliatti (which previously played in the league), and a newly created team named HC Sochi have joined the league. However, HC Donbass do not play in the league this season, due to the political instability in Ukraine, but intend to rejoin for the 2015–16 season. Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014-2015 season due to financial problems. Prior to the upcoming 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from with similar financial problems, while Spartak Moscow are returning after their year away.

Season Structure

Since 2009, the league is divided into East and West conferences. In the current season, each conference includes 14 teams divided into two divisions, 7 teams per division. During the regular season, each team plays 60 games: four games against each team in their own division, two games against each of the remaining teams in the same conference, one game against each team of the other conference and 8 extra games against selected opponents. The eight top-ranked teams in each conference receive playoff berths. Within each conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are played before the conference winners play against each other for the Gagarin Cup. The division winners are seeded first and second in their conference, based on their regular season record. All playoff rounds are played as best-of-seven series. In each round, the top seeded remaining team is paired with the lowest seeded team etc. In the playoffs, overtime periods last 20 minutes (or until a goal is scored). The number of overtime periods is not limited. In the 2012–13 season, the Nadezhda Cup (Cup of Hope) was introduced, a consolation tournament for the teams who did not qualify for the playoffs. The winning team in the tournament wins the first overall pick in the KHL Junior Draft. The tournament is intended to extend the season and help maintain interest in hockey in the cities of these teams, and help players of national teams prepare for upcoming World Championship.

 

Division	Team	City/Area	Arena	Capacity	Founded	Joined	Head Coach	Captain
Western Conference
Bobrov	Atlant Moscow Oblast	Mytishchi	Mytishchi Arena	7,000	1953*	2008	Alexei Kudashov	Konstantin Koltsov
	Dinamo Minsk	Minsk	Minsk-Arena	15,000	2004	2008	Ľubomír Pokovič	Alexei Kalyuzhny
	Dinamo Riga	Riga	Arena Riga	10,300	2008		Artis Ābols
	Jokerit Helsinki	Helsinki	Hartwall Arena	13,349	1967	2014	Erkka Westerlund	Niko Kapanen
	Medveščak Zagreb	Zagreb	Arena Zagreb	16,200	1961	2013	Chuck Weber	Alan Letang
	SKA Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Ice Palace Saint Petersburg	12,300	1946	2008	Slava Bykov	Ilya Kovalchuk
	Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Ondrej Nepela Arena	10,115	1921	2012	Petri Matikainen	Milan Bartovič
Tarasov	CSKA Moscow	Moscow	CSKA Ice Palace	5,600	1946	2008	Dmitri Kvartalnov	Denis Denisov
	Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	Luzhniki Minor Arena	8,700	1946	2008	Harijs Vītoliņš	Yuri Babenko
	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Yaroslavl	Arena 2000	9,000	1949	2008	Sean Simpson	Ilya Gorokhov
	Severstal Cherepovets	Cherepovets	Ice Palace	6,000	1956	2008	Nikolai Solovyov
	Sochi	Sochi	Bolshoy Ice Dome	12,000	2014		Slava Butsayev
	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	Nizhny Novgorod	Trade Union Sport Palace	5,500	1947	2008	Pētr Skudra	Vadim Khomitsky
	Vityaz Moscow Oblast	Podolsk	Vityaz Ice Palace	5,500	1998*	2008	Oleg Orekhovsky
Eastern Conference
Kharlamov	Ak Bars Kazan	Kazan	TatNeft Arena	10,000	1956	2008	Valery Belov	Ilya Nikulin
	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg	KRK Uralets	5,500	2006	2009	Anatoly Emelin	Sergey Gusev
	Lada Togliatti	Tolyatti	Lada Arena	6,600	1976	2014	Sergei Svetlov
	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	Magnitogorsk	Arena Metallurg	7,700	1950	2008	Mike Keenan	Sergei Mozyakin
	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	Nizhnekamsk	SCC Arena	5,500	1968	2008	Kari Heikkilä
	Traktor Chelyabinsk	Chelyabinsk	Traktor Sport Palace	7,500	1947	2008	Karri Kivi	Konstantin Panov
	Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk	Khanty-Mansiysk	Arena Ugra	5,500	2006	2010	Dmitri Yushkevich
Chernyshev	Admiral Vladivostok	Vladivostok	Fetisov Arena	7,500	2013		Dusan Gregor	Enver Lisin
	Amur Khabarovsk	Khabarovsk	Platinum Arena	7,100	1966	2008	Yuri Leonov	Dmitri Tarasov
	Avangard Omsk	Omsk	Omsk Arena	10,318	1950	2008	Raimo Summanen	Denis Kulyash
	Barys Astana	Astana	Kazakhstan Sports Palace	4,070	1999	2008	Andrei Nazarov	Brandon Bochenski
	Metallurg Novokuznetsk	Novokuznetsk	Metallurgists Sports Palace	8,040	1949	2008	German Titov	Alexei Kosourov
	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Ufa	Ufa Arena	8,400	1957	2008	Vladimir Yurzinov	Vitali Proshkin
	Sibir Novosibirsk	Novosibirsk	Ice Sports Palace Sibir	7,400	1962	2008	Andrei Skabelka	Alexei Kopeikin
Teams that didn’t participate in 2014–2015 season
	HC Donbass	Donetsk	Druzhba Arena	4,130	2005	2012
	Lev Praha	Prague	Tipsport Arena	13,150	2012	2012
	Spartak Moscow	Moscow	LDS Sokolniki	5,530	1946	2008	Due to Return for 2015-16 Season

 
Though now not as restrictive in maintaining an exclusively Russian composition of players and teams, Russian teams are still not allowed to sign more than five foreign players, while non-Russian teams must have at least five players from their respective country. Foreign goaltenders on Russian teams have a limit regarding total seasonal ice time. Prior to the inaugural season, several KHL teams signed several players from the NHL. A dispute between the two leagues over some of these signings was supposed to have been resolved by an agreement signed on July 10, 2008, whereby each league would honor the contracts of the other, but the signing of Alexander Radulov was made public one day after the agreement (though it was actually signed two days prior to the agreement taking effect), leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation. On October 4, 2010, the conflict between the leagues was settled when both signed a new agreement to honor one another's contracts. The league set up rules for the NHL lockout which lasted from 16 September 2012 to 12 January 2013. According to the special regulations, each KHL team was allowed to add up to three NHL players to its roster, among them at most one foreign player. More than 40 NHL players, the majority of them Russians, played in the KHL during the lockout.
The winner of the playoff is awarded the Gagarin Cup, the KHL Champion title and the Russian Champion title, regardless of the country the club represents. The team ranked first in the standings after the regular season, i.e. the winner of the regular season, is awarded the Continental Cup (Кубок Континента, Kubok Kontinenta). The winners of the conference finals are awarded the Eastern Conference Champion Cup (Кубок Победителю конференции Восток, Kubok Pobeditelyu konferentsii Vostok) and the Western Conference Champion Cup (Кубок Победителю конференции Запад, Kubok Pobeditelyu konferentsii Zapad).
The KHL also awards the Opening Cup annually to the winner of the first game between the Gagarin Cup winner and the runner-up of the previous season. On September 10, 2011, three days after the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster, the KHL head office decided to honor the deceased in the 2011 Opening Cup.

Season	Gagarin Cup Winner	Gagarin Cup finalist	Continental Cup Winner	Top scorer
2008–09	Ak Bars Kazan	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Salavat Yulaev Ufa* (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 34 G, 42 A)
2009–10	Ak Bars Kazan	HC MVD	Salavat Yulaev Ufa (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (66 points: 27 G, 39 A)
2010–11	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Atlant Moscow Oblast	Avangard Omsk (118 points)	Alexander Radulov (80 points: 20 G, 60 A)
2011–12	Dynamo Moscow	Avangard Omsk	Traktor Chelyabinsk (114 points)	Alexander Radulov (63 points: 25 G, 38 A)
2012–13	Dynamo Moscow	Traktor Chelyabinsk	SKA Saint Petersburg (115 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 35 G, 41 A)
2013–14	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	HC Lev Praha	Dynamo Moscow (115 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (73 points: 34 G, 39 A)
2014–15	SKA Saint Petersburg	Ak Bars Kazan	CSKA Moscow (139 points)	Alexander Radulov (71 points: 24 G, 47 A)

*: In the first season, Salavat Yulaev Ufa was the winner of the regular season, but the Continental Cup was not yet awarded.

Season	Opening Cup Winner	Nadezhda Cup Winner
2008–09	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Nadezhda Cup not yet introduced
2009–10	Ak Bars Kazan
2010–11	Dynamo Moscow
2011–12	Salavat Yulaev Ufa
2012–13	Dynamo Moscow	Dinamo Riga
2013–14	Dynamo Moscow	Avangard Omsk
2014–15	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	Cancelled due to economic reasons

Since its foundation in 2008, 34 different clubs have played in the KHL, and 30 of them have at least once qualified for the playoffs. Of the current 28 teams, only two have not yet played in the playoffs. The table gives the final regular-season ranks for all teams, with the playoff performance encoded in colors. The teams are ordered by their championship results.

Club 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Ak Bars Kazan 2 8 4 6 2 4 4 Dynamo Moscow 7 5 6 3 4 1 3 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 1 2 8 9 8 14 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 6 3 5 4 7 2 6 SKA Saint Petersburg 8 2 7 2 1 3 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 7 3 8 15 10 Traktor Chelyabinsk 12 18 18 1 5 19 15 Avangard Omsk 16 11 1 5 3 20 8 Atlant Moscow Oblast 5 6 8 9 17 17 16 Lev Praha 15 5 HC MVD Balashikha 18 4 CSKA Moscow 4 12 19 18 6 12 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 19 20 11 20 12 13 7 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 14 9 15 17 14 25 22 Donbass Donetsk 18 6 Jokerit Helsinki 5 Spartak Moscow 9 10 12 19 23 23 Barys Astana 15 14 14 10 10 7 11 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 11 15 17 7 20 9 12 Dinamo Riga 10 13 13 15 24 10 21 Severstal Cherepovets 17 16 9 11 11 18 17 Dinamo Minsk 22 17 16 13 19 26 9 Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk 10 14 16 22 25 Amur Khabarovsk 20 21 22 12 25 28 28 Slovan Bratislava 13 21 26 Medveščak Zagreb 11 23 Sochi 13 Lada Togliatti 13 22 24 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 19 20 22 26 14 18 Admiral Vladivostok 16 19 Metallurg Novokuznetsk 21 24 23 16 21 27 27 Vityaz Chekhov 23 23 21 23 22 24 20 Lev Poprad 21 Khimik Voskresensk 24

 

The Gagarin Cup is the trophy presented to the winner of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) playoffs, and is named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The Cup was supposedly named after Gagarin because the last possible game of the inaugural KHL season would take place on April 12, the anniversary date of Gagarin's flight. After the end of the KHL's regular season, sixteen teams participate in the playoffs. The 1/8 and quarter-finals were a best-of-five series during the first season, and the semi-finals and finals were a best-of-seven series during the first season. Conferences were established for the second season. Conference quarter-finals are a best-of-five series while the conference semi-finals, conference finals and Gagarin Cup finals are a best-of-seven series. The winner of the final best-of-seven series receives the Gagarin Cup. It has been reported that the Cup weighs 18 kg (40 lbs), making it heavier than the NHL's Stanley Cup. The Cup is made of silver and is gold-plated. According to league commissioner Alexander Medvedev, the Cup was named after Gagarin because Russian citizens associate his name with the achievement of great accomplishments, and the man himself has been described as a symbol of the nation. Additionally, according to the founders of the KHL, his ascent into space serves as a metaphor for the contemporary Soviet breakthrough in hockey. Gagarin himself did play hockey, albeit not at a level comparable to that of the KHL. Another candidate for the namesake of the Cup was longtime HC CSKA Moscow and Soviet national team coach Anatoli Tarasov, considered the "father of Soviet hockey". It was later decided that one of the four divisions would bear his name.