Schedules — We Have ‘Em! (Updated)

What with the pandemic and everything, schedules for the 2020-21 seasons in Russia’s various leagues are appearing late this summer, but appearing they nonetheless are! Today saw the release of the team-lists and schedules for the 2020-21 seasons of KHL and MHL, with other leagues likely to follow soon. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from a done thing, so there is a chance that there will be delays, reschedulings, and other such unfortunate news to come. However, for the moment, all is anticipation for the new season — read on, for a quick look at the KHL and MHL schedules, with details on other leagues’ calendars to be added as soon as possible!

August 19th: ZhHL schedule notes added.

KHL (2020-21 Schedule)

Admiral Vladivostok announced very early in the pandemic crisis that they would not be taking part in the 2020-21 KHL season, and there had been rumours of other withdrawals (The rumours had involved Dinamo Riga, Dinamo Minsk, and Amur Khabarovsk, primarily). However, as it turns out, Admiral’s will be the only departure from the league, at least as of right now, so the KHL will have 23 clubs for this coming campaign. Admiral’s departure did cause one Conference change: Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Oblast will move back to the East Conference after a season in the West. That means that the East will have 12 teams, and the West 11.

The KHL’s 2020-21 regular season will be 60 games long for each team, and each team will face each opponent at least twice (once home, and once away). That will account for 44 of the games; the remaining 16 will consist of additional matches against divisional and conference opponents. The season will begin on September 2nd, with a match-up of the two 2019-20 regular-season Conference winners, as CSKA Moscow host Ak Bars Kazan.

The main remaining question involves where the non-Russian teams will play their home games, at least to start the season, as COVID-19 continues to affect border crossings. Kunlun Red Star Beijing will play in Mytishchi, at the home rink of former KHL team Atlant Moscow Oblast, and it looks like that relocation will be effect for the entire season. It also appears certain that Kazakh club Barys Nur-Sultan will be based in Russia to start the season, although precisely where remains unknown (Kazan has been mentioned as a candidate city). As for Dinamo Riga, Dinamo Minsk, and Jokerit Helsinki, we await further news on them.

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ZhHL (2020-21 Schedule)

Two changes in the lineup of teams for the Women’s Hockey League in 2020-21, with the net result being that the league remains an eight-team affair. Dynamo St. Petersburg have dropped out for financial reasons, but the league has a new team in 7.62 Moscow Oblast. 7.62 (the name refers to the diametre of a hockey puck in cm.) will play their home games in Voskresensk, a famous Russian hockey city through the years, and early indications are that much of its roster will come from the region’s powerful U18 program. 7.62’s head coach will be Alexander Syrtsov, who is also currently the head coach of Russia’s U18 women’s national team.

As for the schedule, it will follow the same format as last season, with each team facing each other team four times for a 28-game regular-season for each club. The regular season gets underway on September 19th, with a meeting between defending champions KRS Vanke Rays Shenzhen and 2019-20 runners-up Agidel Ufa. That will be a home game for Vanke Rays, but due to the coronavirus situation, they are sharing Tornado Moscow Oblast’s home rink in Dmitrov, just north of Moscow (I am not sure if that will be a full-season arrangement, or not). Newcomers 7.62 Moscow Oblast will begin their inaugural campaign on the road against Biryusa Krasnoyarsk on September 22nd, with their home debut on October 2nd versus KRS Vanke Rays.

The league has scheduled no games between early December and early February; that is to accommodate the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, the ZhHL All-Star Game in January, and (pending, of course, further COVID-19 developments) the 2021 Winter Universiade, scheduled for January 21st to January 31st in Switzerland.

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MHL (2020-21 Schedule)

The Boris Mikhailov Hockey Academy U20 team salutes the crowd after an NMHL game in 2019-20. The team will moving up to the MHL for the coming season. (Image Source)

Russia’s top junior league, administered by the KHL, will shrink from 34 to 33 teams in 2020-21. Departing the circuit, at least for now, are two of the MHL’s non-Russian squads, in Kazakh team Altay Ust-Kamenogorsk and Chinese team ORG Junior Beijing. However, there will be one new team coming in, as the Boris Mikhailov Hockey Academy‘s U20 side, based in Novomoskovsk (they will reportedly play their home games in nearby Tula), joins the fold. The Mikhailov Academy played in the second-tier junior NMHL last season, and finished a reputable fourth out of nine teams in that league’s West Conference. The club will begin its MHL tenure with a home game against HK Riga, on September 9th.

The MHL’s East Conference will be composed of 16 teams in 2020-21, with 17 in the West. Since the schedule has each team playing each of their Conference rivals four times (there is no inter-conference play during the MHL’s regular season), East teams will play 60 games, and West teams 64. The season begins on September 5th, with a slate of nine games scheduled for that day.

Of course, the non-Russian MHL teams will have the same concerns about border-crossings and home venues as do the KHL clubs. However, the departures of Altay and ORG Junior mean that there are only two non-Russian teams left in the league, those being HK Riga and Snezhnye Barsy Nur-Sultan. We wait, still, for further details about where they will start the coming season, as far as their home games are concerned.

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We still await the season’s schedules for the KHL-administered Women’s Hockey League, as well as for the VHL (second-tier men’s pro), the PVHL (third-tier men’s pro), and the above-mentioned NMHL (the latter three leagues are run by the Russian Hockey Federation). Updates on those schedules will arrive here, at this post, as soon as we have them. And — good news, I hope — team-by-team season previews for the KHL and Women’s Hockey League will begin very shortly! Also beginning shortly: off-season update work on the big Russian hockey map, and the list of social media links.

Thank you for reading!