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Kontinental Hockey League

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Kontinental Hockey League

Kontinental Hockey League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2015–16 KHL season
Formerly Russian Superleague
Sport Ice hockey
Founded 2008
President Dmitry Chernyshenko
Motto Хоккей – наша игра! Khokkey - nasha igra! (Hockey is our game!)[1]
No. of teams 28
Country  Belarus (1 team)
 Croatia (1 team)
 Finland (1 team)
 Kazakhstan (1 team)
 Latvia (1 team)
 Russia (22 teams)
 Slovakia (1 team)
Most recent champion(s) SKA Saint Petersburg (1st title)
Most titles Ak Bars Kazan (2)
Dynamo Moscow (2)
TV partner(s)
Related competitions Supreme Hockey League (VHL)
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 28 member clubs based in Belarus, Croatia, 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.[6]

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.[7]

History

Establishment

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.[8]

Team changes

In season 2009-10 joined team Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Khimik Voskresensk was transferred to a lower league. Next season joined HC Yugra.

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 Slovakia and Ukraine's Donbass joined the KHL as expansion teams.[9] Lev and Slovan managed to draw considerable public interest and qualified for the play-offs in their first KHL season.

Croatian Medveščak joined the league in 2013.

In 2013 Medveščak from Croatia and Russian Admiral Vladivostok joined the league, thus expanding the league even further.[10] 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.[11] However, HC Donbass do not play in the league this season, due to the political instability in Ukraine, but intend to rejoin later.[12] Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014-2015 season due to financial problems.[13][14]

Prior to the 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from the KHL and on the contrary Spartak Moscow is returning to the league.[15]

Season structure

Logo in Cyrillic script

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.[16] 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.[17]

Teams

Western conference teams (Divisions: : Bobrov, : Tarasov, : Moscow and Moscow Oblast: see separate Map)
Moscow Oblast teams (Divisions: : Bobrov, : Tarasov)
Division Team City/Area Arena Capacity Founded Joined Head Coach Captain
Western Conference
Bobrov Dinamo Minsk Minsk Minsk-Arena 15,000 2004 2008 Ľubomír Pokovič Alexei Kalyuzhny
Dinamo Riga Riga Arena Riga 10,300 2008 Kari Heikkilä Lauris Dārziņš
Jokerit Helsinki Helsinki Hartwall Arena 13,349 1967 2014 Erkka Westerlund Niko Kapanen
Medveščak Zagreb Zagreb Arena Zagreb 16,200 1961 2013 Gordie Dwyer Andrew Murray
SKA Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Ice Palace Saint Petersburg 12,300 1946 2008 Andrei Nazarov Ilya Kovalchuk
Slovan Bratislava Bratislava Ondrej Nepela Arena 10,115 1921 2012 Miloš Říha Milan Bartovič
Spartak Moscow Moscow Luzhniki Minor Arena 8,700 1946 2008 German Titov Maksim Potapov
Tarasov CSKA Moscow Moscow CSKA Ice Palace 5,600 1946 2008 Dmitri Kvartalnov Denis Denisov
Dynamo Moscow Moscow VTB Ice Palace 12,000 1946 2008 Harijs Vītoliņš Yuri Babenko
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Yaroslavl Arena 2000 9,000 1949 2008 Alexei Kudashov Ilya Gorokhov
Severstal Cherepovets Cherepovets Ice Palace 6,000 1956 2008 Václav Sikora Andrei Shefer
Sochi Sochi Bolshoy Ice Dome 12,000 2014 Slava Butsayev Andrei Pervyshin
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 Slava Solodukhin
Eastern Conference
Kharlamov Ak Bars Kazan Kazan TatNeft Arena 10,000 1956 2008 Zinetula Bilyaletdinov Alexander Svitov
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg KRK Uralets 5,500 2006 2009 Andrei Razin Sergey Gusev
Lada Togliatti Tolyatti Lada Arena 6,600 1976 2014 b Sergei Svetlov Andrei Nikitenko
Metallurg Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk Arena Metallurg 7,700 1950 2008 Mike Keenan Sergei Mozyakin
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk Nizhnekamsk SCC Arena 5,500 1968 2008 Vladimir Krikunov Maxim Rybin
Traktor Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk Traktor Sport Palace 7,500 1947 2008 Andrei Nikolishin Stanislav Chistov
Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk Arena Ugra 5,500 2006 2010 Pavel Yezovskikh Andrei Ivanov
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 Evgeny Kornoukhov Denis Kulyash
Barys Astana Astana Barys Arena 12,000 1999 2008 Yerlan Sagymbayev Brandon Bochenski
Metallurg Novokuznetsk Novokuznetsk Metallurgists Sports Palace 8,040 1949 2008 Nikolai Solovyov Alexander Romanov
Salavat Yulaev Ufa Ufa Ufa Arena 8,400 1957 2008 Anatoly Emelin Igor Grigorenko
Sibir Novosibirsk Novosibirsk Ice Sports Palace Sibir 7,400 1962 2008 Andrei Skabelka Alexei Kopeikin
Not participating in 2015–2016 season
Atlant Moscow Oblast Mytishchi Mytishchi Arena 7,000 1953* 2008
HC Donbass a Donetsk Druzhba Arena 4,130 2005 2012
Lev Praha Prague O2 Arena 17,383 2012 2012

a HC Donbass unable to play in 2015/16 due to military conflict in Donbass region.
b Lada Togliatti formerly played in Kontinental Hockey League from 2008/09 to 2009/10.

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.[18]

Prior to the inaugural season, several KHL teams signed several players from the NHL.[19] 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),[20] leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation.[21] On October 4, 2010, the conflict between the leagues was settled when both signed a new agreement to honor one another's contracts.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

Notable active players

The top five point scoring players in the 2011–12 season were Alexander Radulov (63 pts), Tony Mårtensson and Vadim Schipachev (59 pts each), Brandon Bochenski (58 pts) and Kevin Dallman (54 pts). The top goal scorers were Brandon Bochenski with 27, followed by Alexander Radulov and Danis Zaripov (25 each), Maxim Pestushko (24) and Tony Mårtensson with 23. The top plus-minus rating went to Tony Mårtensson who was a +35. The top goaltenders (by wins) were Michael Garnett (29), Jakub Štěpánek (21), Rastislav Staňa and Chris Holt (20 each) and Karri Rämö (19).

Nationalities of players

During the current season, players representing 16 nations have played at least one game in the KHL.[25] 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".[26] 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 2013–14, more than 900 players played in the league (see table below).

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

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[30] (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).[31]

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 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster, the KHL head office decided to honor the deceased in the 2011 Opening Cup.[32]

Seasons overview

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)
2015–16

*: 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 Gold Stick Award (MVP)
2008–09 Salavat Yulaev Ufa Nadezhda Cup not yet introduced Danis Zaripov
2009–10 Ak Bars Kazan Alexander Radulov
2010–11 Dynamo Moscow Alexander Radulov
2011–12 Salavat Yulaev Ufa Alexander Radulov
2012–13 Dynamo Moscow Dinamo Riga Sergei Mozyakin
2013–14 Dynamo Moscow Avangard Omsk Sergei Mozyakin
2014–15 Metallurg Magnitogorsk Cancelled due to economic reasons Alexander Radulov
2015–16

Statistics

Single season records

Career records

All-time team records

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 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

Total and average attendance in seasons.[34][35][36][37][38][39]

Season Total Attendance Average Attendance
2008-09 3,883,947 5,298
2009-10[40] 4,219,305 5,474
2010-11 4,288,666 5,785
2011-12[41] 4,321,518 5,891
2012-13 4,775,366 6,106
2013-14 4,596,836 6,081
2014-15 5,395,035 6,422

All-Star Game

The Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game is an exhibition game held annually in January or February.

See also

References

  1. ^
  2. ^
  3. ^ a b
  4. ^
  5. ^
  6. ^
  7. ^
  8. ^
  9. ^
  10. ^
  11. ^
  12. ^
  13. ^
  14. ^
  15. ^ League confirms format for 2015-16 season
  16. ^
  17. ^
  18. ^
  19. ^
  20. ^
  21. ^ Predator inks debatable deal - iihf.com
  22. ^
  23. ^
  24. ^
  25. ^
  26. ^
  27. ^ 2012-13 KHL season, Quanthockey, Retrieved 24 April 2015
  28. ^ 2013-14 KHL season, Quanthockey, Retrieved 24 April 2015
  29. ^ 2014-15 KHL season, Quanthockey, Retrieved 24 April 2015
  30. ^
  31. ^
  32. ^
  33. ^ a b c d
  34. ^ Attendance figures in European hockey leagues 2009–2010
  35. ^ Attendance in Europe and health of the fan culture 10/11
  36. ^ Regular-Season average attendance Europe & Asia 2011–2012
  37. ^ Regular-Season average league attendance Europe & Asia 2012–2013
  38. ^ Attendance KHL 2013/14
  39. ^ KHL attendance stats 2014-15
  40. ^
  41. ^ Regular-Season average attendance Europe & Asia 2011-2012

External links

Official KHL
  • Kontinental Hockey League official website
  • Kontinental Hockey League official website (Russian)
  • Kontinental Hockey League on Facebook
  • Kontinental Hockey League on Twitter
  • 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 (Russian)
Kontinental Hockey League
Topics
Seasons
Playoffs
Junior Drafts
All-Star Games
Games and Cups
Related topics
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