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Kontinental Hockey League

Current season, competition or edition: 2018–19 KHL season
Formerly	Russian Superleague
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2008
President	Dmitry Chernyshenko
Motto	Хоккей – наша игра! Khokkey – nasha igra! Jääkiekko on meidän peli! (Hockey is our game!)[1]
No. of teams	25
Country	Belarus (1 team)  China (1 team)  Finland (1 team)  Kazakhstan (1 team)  Latvia (1 team)  Russia (19 teams)  Slovakia (1 team)
Most recent champion(s)	Ak Bars Kazan (3rd title)
Most titles	Ak Bars Kazan (3)
TV partner(s)	List KHL-TV (Russia (as part of the NTV Plus package), USA and Canada (part of ViaNetTV),[2] Latvia and international through KHL's website) Match TV (Russia) CCTV-5+ (China) Viasat (Finland, Sweden,[3] Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)[4] TV6 (Latvia) (Latvia) Nova Sport (Czech Republic, Slovakia)[5]
Related competitions	Supreme Hockey League (VHL) Hockey Premier League (HPL) (From 16/17[6]) Junior Hockey League (MHL)
Official website	en.KHL.ru

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) (Russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya hokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises 25 member clubs based in Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, and Slovakia and it is planned 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.^[7][8] KHL has the third highest average attendance in Europe with 6,121 spectators per game in the regular season,^[9] and the highest total attendance in Europe with 5.32 million spectators in the regular season.^[10]

The Gagarin Cup is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The title of Champion of Russia is given to the highest ranked Russian team.^[11]

History

Establishment

Ak Bars Kazan after winning the Gagarin Cup in 2009

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 four divisions, based on the performance in previous seasons.^{[citation needed]}

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 suspended. In memory of the disaster, 7 September remains a day of mourning on which no KHL regular season games are held.^[12]

Team changes

In the 2009–10 season, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg joined the KHL and Khimik Voskresensk was transferred to a lower league. Next season, Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk joined the league.

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 Prague, Czech Republic, while Slovan Bratislava from Bratislava, Slovakia and Ukraine's Donbass from Donetsk joined the KHL as expansion teams for the 2012–13 season.^[13] Lev and Slovan qualified for the playoffs in their first KHL season.^{[citation needed]}

Finnish team Jokerit joined the league in 2014

In 2013, Medveščak from Zagreb, Croatia, previously playing in the Austrian Hockey League, and Russian expansion team Admiral Vladivostok joined the league, thus expanding the league even further.^[14] The league comprised 28 teams during the 2013–14 season, of which 21 were based in Russia and 7 located in the other countries.

In 2014, Finnish team Jokerit from Helsinki, Lada Togliatti (which previously played in the league), and newly created team HC Sochi joined the league.^[15] However, HC Donbass did not play in the league for the 2014–15 season, due to the political instability in Ukraine, but had intended to rejoin later.^[16] Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014–15 season due to financial problems.^[17][18]

Prior to the 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from the KHL due to financial issues, while Spartak Moscow returned after a one-year hiatus.^[19]

The newly created Chinese club HC Kunlun Red Star from Beijing was admitted for the 2016–17 season.^[20] Prior to the 2017–18 season, Medveščak Zagreb withdrew from the league to rejoin the Austrian league and Metallurg Novokuznetsk was sent down to the VHL.^[21]

2018 Winter Olympics

Because the National Hockey League refused to release its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea,^[22] 92 out of 300 total players participating at the Olympic hockey tournament were playing at the KHL.

Season structure

Original logo in Latin script and Cyrillic script until 2016

Since 2009, the league has been divided into East and West conferences. In the current season, the Western Conference includes 14 teams divided into two divisions, 7 teams per division. The Eastern Conference has 15 teams, divided into divisions of 7 and 8 respectively. In this season, each team played every other team once at home and once on the road, giving a total of 56 games (28 at home, 28 on the road), plus 4 additional games (2 at home, 2 on the road) played by each team against rival clubs from its own conference. Thus, each team played a total of 60 games in the regular season.^[23]

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.^[24]

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 Championships.^[25]

Teams

Yaroslavl

Cherepovets

Minsk

St.Petersburg

Riga

Bratislava

Helsinki

Sochi

Nizhny Novgorod

Moscow

Western conference teams (Divisions: : Bobrov, : Tarasov, : Moscow and Moscow Oblast: see separate Map)

Spartak

Vityaz

Dynamo

CSKA

Moscow Oblast teams (Divisions: : Bobrov, : Tarasov)

Kazan

Magnitogorsk

Chelyabinsk

Nizhnekamsk

Yekaterinburg

Vladivostok

Khabarovsk

Astana

Ufa

Novosibirsk

Omsk

Kunlun

Eastern conference teams (Divisions: :Kharlamov, : Chernyshev)

Division	Team	City	Arena	Capacity	Founded	Joined	Head Coach	Captain
Western Conference
Bobrov	Dinamo Riga	Riga	Arena Riga	10,300	2008		Ģirts Ankipāns	Lauris Dārziņš
	Dynamo Moscow	Moscow	Megasport Sport Palace	12,724	1946	2008	Vladimir Vorobyov	Ilya Nikulin
	Jokerit Helsinki	Helsinki	Hartwall Arena	13,349	1967	2014	Lauri Marjamäki	Peter Regin
	Severstal Cherepovets	Cherepovets	Ice Palace	6,000	1956	2008	Alexander Gulyavtsev	Maxim Rybin
	SKA Saint Petersburg	Saint Petersburg	Ice Palace Saint Petersburg	12,300	1946	2008	Ilya Vorobyov	Pavel Datsyuk
	Spartak Moscow	Moscow	VTB Ice Palace	12,100	1946	2008	Vadim Yepanchintsev	Dmitri Kalinin
Tarasov	CSKA Moscow	Moscow	VTB Ice Palace	12,100	1946	2008	Nikitin Igor	Sergei Andronov
	Dinamo Minsk	Minsk	Minsk-Arena	15,000	2004	2008	Gordie Dwyer	Sergei Kostitsyn
	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Yaroslavl	Arena 2000	9,000	1959	2008	Dmitri Kvartalnov	Staffan Kronwall
	Slovan Bratislava	Bratislava	Ondrej Nepela Arena	10,115	1921	2012	Vladimír Országh	Michal Sersen
	HC Sochi	Sochi	Bolshoy Ice Dome	12,000	2014		Sergei Zubov	Nikita Shchitov
	Vityaz Moscow Oblast	Podolsk	Vityaz Ice Palace	5,500	1998*	2008	Valeri Belov	Denis Kokarev
Eastern Conference
Kharlamov	Ak Bars Kazan	Kazan	TatNeft Arena	10,000	1956	2008	Zinetula Bilyaletdinov	Alexander Svitov
	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	Yekaterinburg	KRK Uralets	5,545	2006	2009	Andrei Martemyanov	Nikita Ttryamkin
	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	Magnitogorsk	Arena Metallurg	7,700	1950	2008	Josef Jandač	Sergei Mozyakin
	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	Nizhnekamsk	SCC Arena	5,500	1968	2008	Vladimir Krikunov	Maxim Rybin
	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	Nizhny Novgorod	Trade Union Sport Palace	5,500	1947	2008	Pēteris Skudra	Vadim Khomitsky
	Traktor Chelyabinsk	Chelyabinsk	Traktor Sport Palace	7,500	1947	2008	Andrei Nikolishin	Stanislav Chistov
Chernyshev	Admiral Vladivostok	Vladivostok	Fetisov Arena	7,500	2013		Alexander Andrievsky	Oskars Bārtulis
	Amur Khabarovsk	Khabarovsk	Platinum Arena	7,100	1966	2008	Sergei Shepelev	Dmitri Tarasov
	Avangard Omsk	Omsk	Omsk Arena	10,318	1950	2008	Bob Hartley	Denis Kulyash
	Barys Astana	Astana	Barys Arena	12,000	1999	2008	Yerlan Sagymbayev	Brandon Bochenski
	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Ufa	Ufa Arena	8,400	1957	2008	Igor Zakharkin	Igor Grigorenko
	Sibir Novosibirsk	Novosibirsk	Ice Sports Palace Sibir	7,400	1962	2008	Andrei Skabelka	Alexei Kopeikin
	Red Star Kunlun	Beijing	Cadillac Arena	14,000	2016		Vladimir Yurzinov Jr.	Janne Jalasvaara

^aLada Togliatti formerly played in Kontinental Hockey League from 2008/09 to 2009/10.

• 
  Kontinental Hockey League on Google Maps
  

An asterisk (*) denotes a franchise relocation. See the respective team articles for more information.

Players

KHL match Lev Praha vs. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in O2 Arena, Prague

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.^[26]

Prior to the inaugural season, several KHL teams signed several players from the NHL.^[27] 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),^[28] leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation.^[29] On 4 October 2010, the conflict between the leagues was settled when both signed a new agreement to honor one another's contracts.^[30]

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.^[31] More than 40 NHL players, the majority of them Russians, played in the KHL during the lockout.

KHL players are represented by the Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union.^[32]

Nationalities of players

During the current season, players representing 16 nations have played at least one game in the KHL.^[33] A player's nationality is for various reasons sometimes ambiguous. For the table presented below, the nationality "is determined based on the last country that the player represented in international competition. If a player has never played for a national team, usually the country of birth is chosen as the player nationality, unless there is strong evidence indicating otherwise".^[34] For players born in former Soviet republics, the situation is often more complex due to dual citizenship and naturalization. Therefore, a list of players born in Ukraine gives case-by-case details for some of those players. In some cases, players can change their nationality registration with the league on a year-by-year basis, and their nationality with the league may not match that of their International Ice Hockey Federation registration. Non-Russians represent about 40% of the KHL players, and are mostly Central European, Nordic, and North American. In 2015–16, more than 950 players played in the league (see table below).^{[citation needed]}

Country (current number of teams)	Players active (2012–13)[35]	Players active (2013–14)[36]	Players active (2014–15)[37]	Players active (2015–16)[38]
Belarus (1 team)	33	40	45	38
Canada	36	69	56	41
Croatia (1 team)	–	3	2	2
Czech Republic	46	47	29	35
Denmark	–	1	2	4
Finland (1 team)	40	37	50	47
France	–	–	1	1
Germany	1	3	3	1
Italy	–	–	–	1
Kazakhstan (1 team)	30	29	28	36
Latvia (1 team)a	35	32	29	33
Norway	3	3	3	1
Russia (22 teams)	540	573	594	634
Slovakia (1 team)	51	43	32	27
Slovenia	–	2	4	4
Sweden	24	22	28	27
Ukraineb	11	12	3	3
United States	13	20	27	21
Total	863	909	936	956

• a – For further information, see: List of Latvians in the KHL
  


• b – For further information, see: List of Ukrainians in the KHL
  

Trophies and awards

Gagarin Cup

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^[39] (Russian: Кубок Континента, Kubok Kontinenta). The winners of the conference finals are awarded the Eastern Conference Champion Cup (Russian: Кубок Победителю конференции Восток, Kubok Pobeditelyu konferentsii Vostok) and the Western Conference Champion Cup (Russian: Кубок Победителю конференции Запад, Kubok Pobeditelyu konferentsii Zapad).^[40]

The KHL presents annual awards to its most successful players. 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 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash, the KHL head office decided to honor the deceased in the 2011 Opening Cup.^[41]

Seasons overview

Season	Gagarin Cup Winner	Gagarin Cup finalist	Final score	Continental Cup Winner	Top scorer
2008–09	Ak Bars Kazan	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	4–3	Salavat Yulaev Ufa* (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 34 G, 42 A)
2009–10	Ak Bars Kazan	HC MVD	4–3	Salavat Yulaev Ufa (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (66 points: 27 G, 39 A)
2010–11	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Atlant Moscow Oblast	4–1	Avangard Omsk (118 points)	Alexander Radulov (80 points: 20 G, 60 A)
2011–12	Dynamo Moscow	Avangard Omsk	4–3	Traktor Chelyabinsk (114 points)	Alexander Radulov (63 points: 25 G, 38 A)
2012–13	Dynamo Moscow	Traktor Chelyabinsk	4–2	SKA Saint Petersburg (115 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 35 G, 41 A)
2013–14	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	HC Lev Praha	4–3	Dynamo Moscow (115 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (73 points: 34 G, 39 A)
2014–15	SKA Saint Petersburg	Ak Bars Kazan	4–1	CSKA Moscow (139 points)	Alexander Radulov (71 points: 24 G, 47 A)
2015–16	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	CSKA Moscow	4–3	CSKA Moscow (127 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (67 points: 32 G, 35 A)
2016–17	SKA Saint Petersburg	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	4–1	CSKA Moscow (137 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (85 points: 48 G, 37 A)
2017–18	Ak Bars Kazan	CSKA Moscow	4–1	SKA Saint Petersburg (138 points)	Ilya Kovalchuk (63 points: 31 G, 32 A)

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

Statistics

Single season records

Regular season[42] Record Name Season Points 85 Sergei Mozyakin (Magnitogorsk) 2016–17 Goals 48 Sergei Mozyakin (Magnitogorsk) 2016–17 Assists 60 Alexander Radulov (Ufa) 2010–11 Shots on goal 251 Geoff Platt (Minsk) 2013–14 Plus/minus +46 Jan Kovář (Magnitogorsk) 2013–14 Penalty minutes 374 Darcy Verot (Chekhov) 2009–10 Wins 33 Karri Rämö (Omsk) 2010–11 Shutouts 13 Alexei Murygin (Yaroslavl) 2015–16

Playoffs[42] Record Name Season Points 33 Sergei Mozyakin (Magnitogorsk) 2013–14 Goals 15 Evgenii Dadonov (SKA St. Petersburg) 2014–15 Assists 20 Sergei Mozyakin (Magnitogorsk) 2013–14 Shots on goal 82 Evgeny Kuznetsov (Chelyabinsk) 2012–13 Plus/minus +16 Dominik Graňák (Dynamo Moscow) 2012–13 Penalty minutes 69 Grigori Panin (Kazan) 2008–09 Wins 16 Alexander Eremenko (Dynamo Moscow) Vasily Koshechkin (Magnitogorsk) Mikko Koskinen (SKA St. Petersburg) 2011–12 2013–14 2014–15 Shutouts 6 Anders Nilsson (Kazan) 2014–15

Career records

Regular season[42] Record Name Years Points 597 Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant, Magnitogorsk) 2008–2017 Goals 284 Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant, Magnitogorsk) 2008–2017 Assists 323 Alexander Radulov (Ufa, CSKA) 2008–2016 Games played 491 Anton Glinkin (Chelyabinsk, Kazan) Dmitri Semin (Yaroslavl, Atlant, Omsk, Ufa, N. Novgorod) 2008–2017 Plus/minus +194 Alexander Radulov (Ufa, CSKA) 2008–2016 Penalty minutes 900 Evgeny Artyukhin (SKA St. Petersburg, Atlant, CSKA Moscow, Novosibirsk) 2010–2017 Wins 199 Vasily Koshechkin (Togliatti, Magnitogorsk, Cherepovets) 2008–2017 Shutouts 56 Vasily Koshechkin (Togliatti, Magnitogorsk, Cherepovets) 2008–2017

Playoffs[42] Record Name Years Points 93 Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant, Magnitogorsk) 2008–2015 Goals 40 Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant, Magnitogorsk) 2008–2015 Assists 56 Patrick Thoresen (Ufa, SKA St. Petersburg) 2009–2015 Games played 108 Ilya Gorokhov (Yaroslavl, Ufa, Atlant, Dynamo Moscow) 2008–2015 Plus/minus +40 Ilya Gorokhov (Yaroslavl, Ufa, Atlant, Dynamo Moscow) 2008–2015 Penalty minutes 182 Fedor Fedorov (Nizhnekamsk, Magnitogorsk, Atlant, SKA St. Petersburg) 2008–2013 Wins 44 Alexander Eremenko (Ufa, Dynamo Moscow) 2008–2014 Shutouts 9 Petri Vehanen (Kazan, Prague) Alexander Eremenko (Ufa, Dynamo Moscow) 2009–2014 2008–2014

KHL's longest match

Match time	Date	Match	Home	Visitor	Result	Overtime goal scorer
142.09	22.3.2018	5. Conference Semi-Finals	CSKA	Jokerit	1-2	Mika Niemi

All-time team records

Since its foundation in 2008, 35 different clubs have played in the KHL, and 32 of them have at least once qualified for the playoffs. Of the 24 founding teams, only Metallurg Novokuznetsk and Khimik Voskresensk had never qualified for the playoffs (both are no longer in the league). The table gives the final regular-season ranks for all teams, with the playoff performance encoded in colors. The teams are ordered by their best championship results.

 ^[a]: Includes record of Dynamo Moscow before the merger with HC MVD in 2010

 ^[b]: Did not participate in the 2011–12 season due to the deadly air disaster on September 7, 2011, that killed the entire team

Attendance statistics

Jokerit - SKA in Helsinki Ice Challenge 2017, with KHL record attendance (17,645)^[43]

Total and average attendance in seasons, including play-off.^[44]

All-Star Game

The Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game is an exhibition game held annually in the midway point (usually January or February) of the season, with the league's star players playing against each other. Previously played Russian players versus the "rest of the world", now it is Eastern versus Western Conference.

See also

• Ice Hockey Federation of Russia


• List of Soviet and Russian ice hockey scoring champions


• List of Soviet and Russian ice hockey goal scoring champions


• List of current KHL team rosters

References

External links

Official KHL

• 
  Kontinental Hockey League official website


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League official website (in Russian)
  


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League official website (in Chinese)
  


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League on Facebook
  


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League on Twitter
  


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League on Twitter (in Russian)
  


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League's channel on YouTube
  

Third party

• KHL vs NHL exhibition games official homepage


• KHL news and stats from Eurohockey


• 
  Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union (in Russian)