The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. For the 2025–26 KHL season it comprises member clubs based in Russia (19), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1), for a total of 22 clubs.
The KHL had in 2025 total attendance of 5,706,785 spectators in the regular season and the average attendance of 7,256 spectators per game in the regular season. The Gagarin Cup is awarded annually to the league's playoff champion at the end of each season.
History History
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.
The start of the fourth season was overshadowed by the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash 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 underway when news of the disaster arrived, was suspended. In memory of the disaster, 7 September remained a day of mourning on which no KHL regular-season games took place, until after the 2017–18 KHL season. Journalist Vsevolod Kukushkin acted as the first press secretary for the league, after it evolved from the Superleague.
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the National Hockey League suspended operation of its Memorandum of Understanding with the KHL. An NHL memo instructed NHL teams to "immediately cease all dealings [direct or indirect] with the KHL and KHL Clubs [and all representatives of both], as well as with player agents who are based in and continue to do business in Russia."
Team changes
2009–2014 In the 2009–10 season, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg joined the KHL and Khimik Voskresensk was transferred to a lower league. In the 2010–11 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. Lev and Slovan qualified for the playoffs in their first KHL season.
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. 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. However, HC Donbass did not play in the league for the 2014–15 season, due to Russia's involvement in the Donbas war in Ukraine, but had intended to rejoin later. Two other teams, Lev Praha and Spartak Moscow, also withdrew from the 2014–15 season due to financial problems.
2015–2019 Before the 2015–16 season, Atlant Moscow Oblast withdrew from the KHL due to financial issues, while Spartak Moscow returned after a one-year hiatus. The newly created Chinese club HC Kunlun Red Star from Beijing was admitted for the 2016–17 season. Kunlun was established as part of China’s efforts to prepare a competitive national team for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Before the 2017–18 season, Medveščak Zagreb withdrew from the league to rejoin the Austrian league and Metallurg Novokuznetsk was sent down to the VHL.
After the end of the 2018–19 season, HC Slovan Bratislava withdrew from the KHL due to financial issues to rejoin the Slovak Tipsport Liga.
2020–present On 24 February 2022, Finnish club Jokerit announced the team would withdraw from the league for the remainder of the season, including the playoffs, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 27 February 2022, Latvian club Dinamo Riga announced that they too would withdraw for the same reasons. Before the 2023–24 season, HC Lada Togliatti rejoined the KHL.
Season structure
Since 2009, the league has been divided into East and West conferences. In the current season, both conferences include 12 teams divided into two divisions of 6 teams. Each team plays four games against each division opponent (20), three games against each non-division conference opponent (18), and two games against each non-conference opponent (24) for a total of 62 games.
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 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.
Teams
+Overview of Kontinental Hockey League teams Conference Division Team City Arena Capacity Founded Joined Head coach Captain BobrovSKA Saint Petersburg Saint PetersburgIce Palace 12,300 1946 2008 Igor Larionov Sergei PlotnikovHC Sochi Sochi, Krasnodar KraiBolshoy Ice Dome 12,035 2014 Dmitri Mikhailov Pavel DedunovSpartak Moscow MoscowMegasport Arena 12,396 1946 2008 Alexei Zhamnov Andrei MironovTorpedo Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod OblastVolga Arena 12,164 1947 2008 Alexei Isakov Alexei KruchininLada Togliatti Tolyatti, Samara OblastLada Arena 6,034 1976 2023 Pavel Desyatkov Vladislav SyominTarasovCSKA Moscow MoscowCSKA Arena 12,300 1946 2008 Igor Nikitin Pavel KarnaukhovDinamo Minsk Minsk, BelarusMinsk-Arena 15,086 2004 2008 Dmitri Kvartalnov Andrei Stas Dynamo Moscow Moscow VTB Arena 10,523 1946 2008 Vyacheslav Kozlov Igor Ozhiganov Shanghai Dragons Shanghai, China (Saint Petersburg) SKA Arena 21,520 2025 Mitch Love Spencer FooLokomotiv Yaroslavl Yaroslavl, Yaroslavl OblastArena 2000 8,653 1959 2008 Bob Hartley Alexander Yelesin Severstal Cherepovets Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast Ice Palace 5,536 1956 2008 Andrei Kozyrev Adam Liška KharlamovAk Bars Kazan Kazan, TatarstanTatneft Arena 8,965 1956 2008 Anvar Gatiyatulin Alexei MarchenkoAvtomobilist Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk OblastUMMC Arena 12,499 2006 2009 Nikolai Zavarukhin Nikita TryamkinMetallurg Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk OblastArena Metallurg 7,704 1955 2008 Andrei Razin Alexei MaklyukovNeftekhimik Nizhnekamsk Nizhnekamsk, TatarstanSCC Arena 5,500 1968 2008 Igor Grishin Nikita Khlystov Traktor Chelyabinsk Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast Traktor Ice Arena 7,500 1947 2008 Yevgeni Koreshkov Alexander KadeikinChernyshev Admiral Vladivostok Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai Fetisov Arena 6,000 2013 Ilnur Gizatullin Libor Šulák Amur Khabarovsk Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Krai Platinum Arena 7,100 1966 2008 Alexander Andrievsky Evgeny Grachyov Avangard Omsk Omsk, Omsk Oblast G-Drive Arena 12,011 1950 2008 Guy Boucher Damir Sharipzyanov Barys Astana Astana, Kazakhstan Barys Arena 11,626 1999 2008 Mikhail Kravets Kirill Savitski Salavat Yulaev Ufa Ufa, Bashkortostan Ufa Arena 8,522 1957 2008 Viktor Kozlov Grigori Panin Sibir Novosibirsk Novosibirsk, Novosibirsk Oblast Sibir-Arena 11,650 1962 2008 Yaroslav Lyuzenkov Sergei Shirokov
+Overview of former Kontinental Hockey League teams Name City Arena Creation Seasons Khimik Voskresensk Voskresensk, Moscow Oblast Podmoskovie Ice Palace 2005 2008–2009 HC MVD Balashikha, Moscow Oblast Balashikha Arena 2004 2008–2010 Lev Poprad Poprad, Slovakia Poprad Ice Stadium 2010 2011–2012 HC Donbass Donetsk, Ukraine Druzhba Arena 2001 2012–2014 Lev Praha Prague, Czech Republic Tipsport Arena 20122012–2014 Atlant Mytichtchi Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast Mytishchi Arena 19532008–2015 Metallurg Novokuznetsk Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast Kuznetsk Metallurgists Sports Palace 1949 2008–2017 Medveščak Zagreb Zagreb, Croatia Dom Sportova 1961 2013–2017 Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Arena Ugra 2006 2010–2018 Slovan Bratislava Bratislava, Slovakia Ondrej Nepela Arena 1921 2012–2019 Jokerit Helsinki Helsinki, Finland Hartwall Arena 1967 2014–2022 Dinamo Riga Riga, Latvia Arena Riga 2008 2008–2022 HC Vityaz Balashikha, Moscow Oblast Balashikha Arena 1996 2008–2025
Players
Before 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 10 July 2008, whereby each league would honor the contracts of the other, but the signing of Alexander Radulov by the KHL was made public one day after the agreement (though it was actually signed two days before the agreement taking effect), leading to an investigation by the International Ice Hockey Federation. On 4 October 2010, the conflict between the leagues was settled when both signed a new agreement to honor one another's contracts.
The league also set up rules for the NHL lockout which lasted from 16 September 2012 to 12 January 2013. According to these regulations, each KHL team was allowed to add up to three NHL players to its roster, with only one foreign player allowed. 40 NHL players, the majority of them Russians, played in the KHL during the lockout.
For the 2012–13 season, the KHL board limited Russian clubs to a maximum of five foreign players on their roster and required non-Russian clubs to have at least five players from their respective countries. Foreign goaltenders on Russian teams also became subject to a limit regarding their total seasonal ice time. In response to restrictions on Russian athletes following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the limit on foreign players for Russian clubs was initially reduced to three for the 2023–24 season, then restored to five for the 2024-25 season and onwards.
KHL players are represented by the Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union.
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, some non-Russian players elected to leave their teams, at the risk of forfeiting their salaries. The departing players included former NHL players Markus Granlund, Nick Shore, Geoff Platt, Kenny Agostino, Teemu Hartikainen, Philip Larsen, Sakari Manninen, Harri Säteri, Jyrki Jokipakka, Joakim Nordström, Lucas Wallmark, and Juho Olkinuora.
Nationalities of players During the 2023–2024 season, players representing 18 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".