Sokil Kyiv facts for kids

Nickname(s)	"White-Blues", "Falcons"
Founded	1963; (reestablished in 2020)
Arena	Kyiv Palace of Sports; (Capacity: 7,200)
League	Ukrainian Hockey League; (2020–present)
President	Alexei Zhitnik
Website	HCSokol.com.ua

Hockey Club Sokil Kyiv (Ukrainian: ХК Сокіл Київ; English: Falcon Hockey Club), commonly known as Sokil Kyiv or HC Sokil, is a Ukrainian Professional Hockey League team based in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. While their home arena is located in the city, the team also plays out of Brovary, still within the Kyiv region.

Sokil is accredited with developing a majority of the country's top young hockey players, producing NHL All Stars such as Dmitri Khristich and Alexei Zhitnik, and Stanley Cup Champions Ruslan Fedotenko and Anton Babchuk.

Franchise history

1963–1973: Dynamo

The team was founded in the summer of 1963 by the Deputy Chairman of Sports of Ukraine, Adrian Miziak, under the name of Dynamo Kyiv. 1963 may be the official birth date of the team, but it was a decade earlier that a Dynamo team from Kyiv would play in the Soviet Cup, making it as far as the second round of the playoffs. The current incarnation, however, would begin its hockey operations in the second tier of Soviet ice hockey, holding its first game on 27 October 1963 against SKA Kuybyshev.

1973–1996: The Falcons

For the club's 10th anniversary in 1973, the club would drop the Dynamo moniker, a move which would have a lasting legacy. The historical white and blue colors of the Dynamo sports society would be kept intact, but the team would adopt the name of the "Falcon", or "Sokil" in Ukrainian. Though Sokil's play would remain inconsistent throughout the 70s, the hiring of Anatoli Bogdanov as head coach in 1976 would have an immediate impact on the team's fortunes.

1996–2009: transitions

With the dissolution of the IHL, orphaned teams from the Soviet Bloc found a home in the newly formed Eastern European Hockey League. Benefiting from a lower level of competition than that of the Russian league, and new head coach Oleksandr Seukand, the team would find renewed success. Sokil would finish 1st overall in 4 of the league's 8 seasons, and become league champions in both 1998 and 1999.

Present

Following the 2008–09 season in the Russian league, the club announced they would rejoining the Belarusian Extraleague for the following year. This was a move largely attributed to the financial burdens brought on by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation's (RHF) mandate that foreign teams pay for the travel, accommodations, and meals of visiting teams. The RHF also demanded that foreign teams pay an annual fee of p.1,500,000 (approx €35,000).

Team colours and mascot

Logo

The team's original colors as Dynamo were, hence the nickname that has held to this day ("white-blues"), white and blue. When the Sokil name was adopted, the team changed their colors to red and blue, the same colors of the Kyiv coat of arms of the time. The team would eventually return to its white and blue roots, along with the addition of a darker accent of blue, as well as black.

Jerseys

The team's original jerseys were white with horizontal blue striping. In 1973, the primary color of red was added, and the body striping was eliminated for a more contemporary look. When the sponsor's name ("Eskulap") was added briefly in 1992, the team logo was changed to a tryzub. Also, the Coca-Cola logo was added to the front of the team's jerseys for a period of time.