Kontinental Hockey League

Kontinental Hockey League

Current season, competition or edition: 2012–13 KHL season
File:KHL logo 2012.png
Formerly	Russian Superleague
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	2008
CEO	Alexander Medvedev
Motto	Хоккей – наша игра! Khokkey - nasha igra! (Hockey is our game!)
No. of teams	26
Country	Russia (20 teams) Belarus (1 team) Kazakhstan (1 team) Latvia (1 team) Ukraine (1 team) Czech Republic (1 team) Slovakia (1 team)
Most recent champion(s)	Dynamo Moscow (1st title)
Most titles	Ak Bars Kazan (2)
TV partner(s)	KHL-TV (Russia (as part of the NTV Plus package), USA and Canada (part of ViaNetTV), Latvia and international through KHL's website) Russia 2, Sport 1 (Russian TV channel) (Russia) Viasat (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) TV6 (Latvia) (Latvia) Nova Sport (Czech Republic, Slovakia) Sport 1, Sport 2 (Czech Rep., Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova) Sportdigital.tv (Germany) ESPN2, ESPN3, MSG Network (United States) ESPN (UK) (United Kingdom, Ireland) Premier Sports (United Kingdom) Eurosport Asia-Pacific (Asia,Oceania) Sportitalia 2 (Italy) Hockey TV(Ukraine) DigiSport (Romania) RDS (Canada)
Related competitions	Russian Championship Major Hockey League (VHL) Minor Hockey League (MHL)
Official website	KHL.ru (English)

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) (Russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига, Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league in Eurasia founded in 2008. It is commonly considered to be the strongest hockey league in Eurasia, and the second-best in the world.

The league was formed in 2008, from a predecessor organization, the Russian Superleague (RSL). The KHL began its operations with 24 teams. After minor changes in the composition of the Russian teams and even a reduction to 23 teams for two seasons, the league expanded to 26 teams for the 2012–13 season: Lokomotiv Yaroslavl returned after missing the 2011-12 season due to the air disaster in 2011, Slovan Bratislava from Slovakia and HC Donbass from Donetsk, Ukraine joined the league, while Lev Poprad were replaced by Lev Praha, a team with the same name, but based in Prague, Czech Republic. Thus, for the first time, the league consists of 26 teams, of which 20 are based in Russia and 6 more are located in Belarus, Czech Republic, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The winner of the 16-team playoff after the end of the regular season is awarded the Gagarin Cup, named after the first man to reach space and orbit the Earth, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The title of Champion of Russia is given to the highest ranked Russian team.

Russians constitute a large majority of the players in the KHL because of its origins as the Soviet and Russian national league. Players not from Russia represent a minority of 33% of the KHL players, and are mostly Eastern European (17.0%), Scandinavian (7.7%), and North American (4.6%). In 2011–12, there were 701 players in the league.

Despite the word "Continental" traditionally being spelled with a C and not a K in the English language, the KHL transliterates the word with a K to distinguish it from numerous leagues that are abbreviated as CHL, such as the Canadian Hockey League and the Central Hockey League, and so that its abbreviation can look similar in both the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets.

Players

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.

KHL players are represented by the Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union.

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 last season, players representing 14 nations played at least one game in the KHL. 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." 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.

Country	Players active (2012–13)
Russia (20 teams)	510
Slovakia (1 team)	50
Czech Republic (1 team)	44
Finland	37
Canada	37
Latvia (1 team)	33a
Belarus (1 team)	29
Kazakhstan (1 team)	28
Sweden	24
United States	13
Ukraine (1 team)	11b
Norway	3
Germany	1
TOTAL	820

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

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

Season structure

The league is divided into two conferences, East (with 12 teams) and West (with 14 teams), and further into two divisions per conference. During the regular season, each team plays 52 games: two games against each of the other teams and two extra games against a selected rival, normally the geographically closest team.

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.

The 2013 season will introduce the , a new consolation tournament for six teams from the Western Conference and four teams from the Eastern Conference who did not qualify for the playoffs. The winning team in the tournament will win the first overall pick in the KHL Junior Draft. The new tournament is intended to extend the season and help maintain interest in hockey in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Some effects of rules

• Best KHL teams can not achieve topmost final ranks in principle, when the teams belong to the same conference — due to equal representation from Eastern and Western conferences in each playoff stage.
• Better results after the regular season do not provide home ice advantage for the Gagarin Cup finals, when the team have lower seed in their conference than the opponent from the other conference. As a consequence, in the finals of 2011–12 KHL Championship Avangard Omsk, ranked fifth after the regular season, were given the home ice advantage over Dynamo Moscow, ranked third after the regular season.
• A team with relatively better performance achieves lower final rank, than some teams from the other conference, unless the team reach playoffs in their conference, while these other teams reach playoffs in the other conference.

Teams in 2012–13

Nizhny Novgorod

Yaroslavl

Cherepovets

Minsk

Saint Petersburg

Riga

Prague

Donetsk

Bratislava

Moscow

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

Mytishchi

Chekhov

Spartak

Dynamo

CSKA

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

Astana

Khabarovsk

Novokuznetsk

Novosibirsk

Omsk

Ufa

Kazan

Magnitogorsk

Chelyabinsk

Khanty‑Mansiysk

Nizhnekamsk

Yekaterinburg

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

History

Seasons overview

Season	Duration	Gagarin Cup Winner	Gagarin Cup finalist	Continental Cup Winner	Top scorer
2008–09	2 September 2008 - 12 April 2009	Ak Bars Kazan	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Salavat Yulaev Ufa* (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 34 G, 42 A)
2009–10	10 September 2009 - 27 April 2010	Ak Bars Kazan	HC MVD	Salavat Yulaev Ufa (129 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (66 points: 27 G, 39 A)
2010–11	8 September 2010 - 16 April 2011	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	Atlant Moscow Oblast	Avangard Omsk (118 points)	Alexander Radulov (80 points: 20 G, 60 A)
2011–12	12 September 2011 - 25 April 2012	Dynamo Moscow	Avangard Omsk	Traktor Chelyabinsk (114 points)	Alexander Radulov (63 points: 25 G, 38 A)
2012–13	4 September 2012 - April 2013			SKA Saint Petersburg(115 points)	Sergei Mozyakin (76 points: 35 G, 41 A)

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

Founding (2008)

Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup

The KHL was founded in 2008 with 24 teams, the 20 teams from the last season of the Russian Superleague as well as the champion of the 2007–08 season of the second division. In addition, one team each from Latvia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were included. 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.

Introduction of conferences (2009)

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.

Merger of two Moscow region teams (2010)

Before the third season, a new team was created by merging HC MVD with HC Dynamo Moscow to form UHC Dynamo Moscow. Later, the new team was re-branded Dynamo Moscow again.

Yaroslavl air disaster (2011)

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.

Expansion to Central Europe (since 2011)

After several failed attempts of 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. Lev failed to reach the playoffs, but managed to draw considerable interest and sold out many of their home matches. 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 HC Donbass joined the KHL as expansion teams. For the 2013–14 KHL season, possible expansion includes teams in Milan, Italy, Zagreb, Croatia and Gdańsk, Poland.

NHL lockout players (2012–13)

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 3 NHL players to their 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.

Statistics

Performance by Republic

Republic	Gagarin Cup Winner	Gagarin Cup finalist	Continental Cup Winner	Appearances	Winning Clubs
Russia	4	4	4	102	Ak Bars Kazan (2) Salavat Yulaev Ufa (1) Dynamo Moscow (1)
Latvia				5
Kazakhstan				5
Belarus				5
Slovakia				2
Czech Republic				1
Ukraine				1

Single season records

Regular season

Record		Name	Season
Points	80	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2010–11
Goals	35	Jan Marek (Magnitogorsk) Pavel Brendl (N. Novgorod) Marcel Hossa (Riga) Sergei Mozyakin (Magnitogorsk)	2008–09 2008–09 2009–10 2012–13
Assists	60	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2010–11
Shots on goal	234	Kevin Dallman (Astana)	2011–12
Plus/minus	+45	Patrick Thoresen (Ufa)	2009–10
Penalty minutes	374	Darcy Verot (Chekhov)	2009–10
Wins (goaltender)	33	Karri Rämö (Omsk)	2010–11
Shutouts	9	Robert Esche (St. Petersburg)	2008–09

Playoffs

Record		Name	Season
Points	22	Josef Vašíček (Yaroslavl)	2010–11
Goals	14	Mikhail Anisin (Dyn. Moscow)	2011–12
Assists	15	Josef Vašíček (Yaroslavl) Pavol Demitra (Yaroslavl) Patrick Thoresen (Ufa) Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2010–11 2010–11 2010–11 2010–11
Shots on goal	77	Sergey Mozyakin (Mytishchi)	2010–11
Plus/minus	+15	Josef Vašíček (Yaroslavl)	2009–10
Penalty minutes	69	Grigori Panin (Kazan)	2008–09
Wins (goaltender)	16	Alexander Eremenko (Dyn. Moscow)	2011–12
Shutouts	5	Georgi Gelashvili (Yaroslavl)	2008–09

Career records

Regular season

Record		Name	Years
Points	322	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2008–2013
Goals	143	Sergei Mozyakin (Mytishchi, Magnitogorsk)	2008–2013
Assists	209	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2008–2013
Games played	269	Anton Glinkin (Chelyabinsk) Denis Sokolov (Nizhnekamsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, N. Novgorod)	2008–2013
Plus/minus	+110	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2008–2013
Penalty minutes	798	Darcy Verot (Chekhov, CSKA)	2008–2012
Wins (goaltender)	101	Michael Garnett (HC MVD, Dynamo M, Chelyabinsk)	2008–2013
Shutouts	32	Vasily Koshechkin (Togliatti, Magnitogorsk, Cherepovets)	2008–2013

Playoffs

Record		Name	Years
Points	50	Josef Vašíček (Yaroslavl)	2008–2011
Goals	22	Aleksey Morozov (Kazan)	2008–2012
Assists	34	Alexander Radulov (Ufa)	2008–2012
Games played	67	Andrei Pervyshin (Kazan, Omsk, SKA)	2008–2012
Plus/minus	+26	Ilya Gorokhov (Yaroslavl, Ufa, Dynamo Msc, Atlant)	2008–2012
Penalty minutes	143	Fedor Fedorov (Nizhnekamsk, Magnitogorsk, Atlant, SKA)	2008–2012
Wins (goaltender)	34	Georgi Gelashvili (Yaroslavl, Magnitogorsk)	2008–2012
Shutouts	7	Georgi Gelashvili (Yaroslavl, Magnitogorsk)	2008–2012

All-time team records

Since its foundation in 2008, 30 different clubs have played in the KHL, and 25 of them have at least once qualified for the playoffs. Of the current 26 teams, only three 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.

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

Color code	Result
Gold	Gagarin Cup Winner
Silver	Runner-up
Green	Conference finalist
Blue	Conference semi finalist
Purple	Qualified for playoffs
Light Gray	Not qualified for playoffs
White	Currently competing in playoffs

 ^[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

Season	Total Attendance	Average Attendance
2008-09	3,222,187	4,795
2009-10	3,693,355	5,496
2010-11	3,592,780	5,785
2011-12	3,665,449	5,902
2012-13	4,126,720	6,105

Trophies and awards

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 (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).

The KHL presents annual awards to its most successful players. In 2012, a total of 20 trophies in various categories were awarded. Among the winners were Alexander Radulov (regular season MVP), Oleg Znarok (coach of the year) and Dmitry Lugin (rookie of the year).

The KHL also awards the Lokomotiv Cup annually to the winner of the first game between the Gagarin Cup winner and the runner-up of the previous season. The Cup, originally known as the Opening Cup, was renamed in the wake of the plane crash that killed 36 Lokomotiv players and staff in 2011.

Season	Lokomotiv Cup Winner	Gold Stick Award (MVP)
2008-09	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	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

All-Star Game

The Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game is an exhibition game held annually in January or February. Two competing teams consist of the best league's players, which are voted on by fans.

See also

• Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game
• Russian Major League
• Minor Hockey League
• Potential Kontinental Hockey League expansion
• Ice Hockey Federation of Russia
• Russian Elite Hockey Scoring Champion
• Russian Elite Hockey Goal Scoring Champion
• List of current KHL team rosters
• 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster

External links

• Template:Ru icon www.khl.ru - Official homepage.
• Template:En icon en.khl.ru - Official homepage.
• Official KHL Store
• Template:En icon KHL All Stars Game
• Template:En icon KHL vs NHL exhibition games official homepage
• Template:En icon KHL news and stats from Eurohockey
• Template:Ru icon Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union
• Template:Ru icon Official KHL page on Facebook
• Template:En icon Official KHL page on Facebook, English version