Kontinental Hockey League facts for kids
![]() 4th Kontinental Hockey League All-Star Game clock
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Formerly | Russian Superleague |
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Sport | Ice hockey |
Founded | 2008 |
President | Dmitry Chernyshenko |
No. of teams | 24 |
Most recent champion(s) |
CSKA Moscow (1st 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), Russia and international through KHL's website)
Match TV (Russia) CCTV-5+ (China) Viasat (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary) Nova Sport (Czech Republic, Slovakia) |
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises 24 member clubs based in Belarus, China, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Russia, 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 National Hockey League. KHL has the third highest average attendance in Europe with 6,121 spectators per game in the regular season, and the highest total attendance in Europe with 5.32 million spectators in the regular season.
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.
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.
KHL players are represented by the Kontinental Hockey League Players' Trade Union.
Images for kids
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Finnish team Jokerit joined the league in 2014 and left in 2022
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KHL match SKA Saint Petersburg vs. Dynamo Moscow
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KHL match in O2 Arena, Prague
See also
In Spanish: Liga Continental de Hockey para niños