The KHL Salary Cap, Revisited

Alexei Morozov (right) with the man he replaced as President of the KHL, Dmitri Chernyshenko. (Image Source)

In a post last month on the appointment of Alexei Morozov to be the KHL’s President, I mentioned that one of the first issues he was likely to face in his new job would be a disagreement with the Russian Hockey Federation over the league’s hard salary cap, which will be instituted beginning next season. Well, that disagreement came to the fore late last week, when the FHR reportedly sent a letter to the KHL requesting that they raise the cap from its planned 900 million rubles to 1.3 billion rubles per team per season. And early test for the new President KHL — read on, to find out how, and what, he did!

The KHL’s Youth Brigade in 2019-20: Mid-Season Report

Severstal Cherepovets’ 20-year-old Slovakian forward Adam Liška, who led all KHL junior-age players in goals and total ice-time in the first half of this season. (Image Source)

With this post, we wrap up our series of mid-season reports on young player usage in the KHL in 2019-20. Last time, we looked at the overall numbers for the league’s 24 teams; now, we will look at the entire group of junior-age skaters in the KHL. Read on, and we’ll break down the group by position and year of birth.

Junior Players in the KHL, 2019-20: A Look at the Teams

Dinamo Minsk’s 20-year-old defenceman Vladislav Yeryomenko has seen a lot of ice-time this fall and winter, as have a number of his team-mates. (Image Source)

We move along this evening in our look at the junior-agers in the KHL, and this time we’ve got some fact and figures about teams’ usage of young skaters overall during the first half of the 2019-20 season. Which teams gave lots of ice-time to their youngsters (there’s a clue in the image above), and which did not? And which team got the most points from their junior-age skaters? The answers are below, so read on…

Junior-Agers in the Kharlamov Division (Mid-Season Report)

Traktor Chelyabinsk’s prodigal forward Vitali Kravtsov, who has returned to a team where young players are already getting a lot of looks in the lineup. (Image Source)

And herewith we wrap up the divisional portion of our mid-season look at the KHL’s young skaters. Last, but by no means least, on the docket is the Kharlamov Division of the East Conference, which means that we will be discussing Ak Bars, Avtomobilist, Metallurg, Neftekhimik, Sibir, and Traktor. There are some spectacular young skaters coming along in this division, plus a truly unique approach to young-player usage at Avtomobilist, so read on!

Junior-Agers in the Bobrov Division (Mid-Season Report)

SKA’s Vasili Podkolzin — an eagerly-watched young forward on both sides of the ocean(s)! (Image Source)

This is the third in our division-by-division peeks at the use of junior-age skaters in the KHL, season 2019-20. We’re back in the West Conference for this one, checking in with the clubs of the Bobrov Division, namely Dinamo Riga, Dynamo Moscow, Jokerit, Severstal, SKA, and Spartak. In general, this division has trotted out a lot of young players this season, including a couple of highly-anticipated NHL draft-picks, so read on!

Junior-Agers in the Chernyshev Division (Mid-Season Report)

Salavat Yulaev forward Rodion Amirov in action for Russia at the U18 Worlds this past spring. He just turned 18 in October, but has seen a fair amount of KHL time in 2019-20. (Image Source)

Onward, with the “young skaters in the 2019-20 KHL” series! We began last time with the Tarasov Division, and his time, we’re in the Far East (partially), looking at the teams of the Chernyshev Division: Admiral, Amur, Avangard, Barys, Kunlun Red Star, and Salavat Yulaev. Which team has given a lot of games to a 2002-born defenceman, and which has not used any junior skaters at all this season? Read on…

Junior-Agers in the Tarasov Division (Mid-Season Report)

CSKA Moscow’s impressive young defenceman Alexander Romanov. (Image Source)

A couple of months ago, we took a look here at the KHL’s interesting rules on the use of junior-age skaters (to recap, ever-so-briefly: KHL teams get two extra lineup spots per game to be used for skaters in the U20 category, although there’s a lot more to it than that). Now, with half a season’s worth of data in the books, it’s time to take a look and see how teams are making use of those rules. Which teams tossing their young skaters into the KHL fray with wild abandon, and which are taking the more conservative and restrained approach to development? And who are these young players anyway? Read on, as we start by casting the eye over the situations at CSKA, Dinamo Minsk, Lokomotiv, Sochi, Torpedo, and Vityaz…

Down on the Farm: The VHL and the KHL

Sometimes the little guy wins! Yermak Angarsk’s Matvei Tymchenko scores against his team’s KHL affiliate, Admiral Vladivostok, during a summer-2019 pre-season exhibition game. Yermak won it, too, by a 2-1 score. (Image Source)

We talk a lot about the KHL here, and a certain amount about the VHL; now it is time to talk about them both together! The VHL (the “Vysshaya Khokkeinaya Liga” or “Higher Hockey League”) is the second tier of Russian men’s professional hockey, formerly the second division of the Soviet and Russian championship system back when promotion and relegation took place. The league took its current form (more or less) in 2010, and this summer expanded to a record 34 teams, with clubs in Russia (27), Kazakhstan (3), China (3), and Uzbekistan (1); those teams compete for the Silk Road Cup (the regular-season championship) and the Petrov Cup (the playoff title). The VHL is administered by the Russian Hockey Federation, but serves in large part as the primary farm-team league for the KHL; it is the Russian equivalent of the North American AHL, in other words. Read on, for some discussion of the VHL’s relationship with the KHL, and how it all works.

Designated Juniors: The KHL’s Young Player Rules

SKA St. Petersburg’s 18-year-old Vasili Podkolzin. (Image Source)

About a year ago, we took a fairly detailed look here at the KHL’s rules on foreign players, so now I think it’s time to dive back into the league’s regulations once again. As with every season, the KHL has a number of intriguing young players seeing game action across the league; I could mention defenceman Alexander Romanov at CSKA, forwards Vasili Podkolzin of SKA and Grigori Denisenko of Lokomotiv, and of course others. But the KHL also has an interesting rule regarding young players: the “Designated Junior” rule that allows KHL teams to include “extra” junior-age players in their game-lineups. Read on, for an introduction to that rule, and some explanation.

Foreign Players and the KHL

Now-former Metallurg Magnitogorsk forward Wojtek Wolski.  (Image Source)

It was a move that very few, if anyone, saw coming; ten days ago Metallurg Magnitogorsk released Canadian forward Wojtek Wolski from his contract, making him a free agent.  Wolski, a fan favourite in Magnitogorsk, was at that time the team’s second-leading point-scorer, with a line of 6-9-15 in 18 games, so his release came as a major shock.  What happened?  Well, the answer arrived later that same day, when Metallurg signed Czech forward Michal Bulíř from Bílí Tygři Liberec of the Czech Extraliga.  Wolski’s Metallurg tenure had, it became clear, fallen victim to the KHL’s rules on foreign players — or “legionnaires” (легионеры) as they are often referred to in Russian.  But what are those rules, exactly, and how did they come to cost Wolski his job?  Read on, for an explanation!