Foreign Players in the KHL: the 2020-21 List

Early in the 2018-19 season, we took a look at the foreign player rules in the KHL — those rules have remained substantially the same since then, but there was one significant development late last month. The KHL has amended its regulations so that Kazakh players (i.e. players eligible for the national team of Kazakhstan) will no longer count as Imports when playing for Russian teams; in that, they now have the same status as Belarusians. With that in mind, below the jump you’ll find a list of Import players currently under contract for 2020-21 with KHL teams — read on…

Last update: August 13th, 2020 (Dinamo Riga).

Congratulations Are In Order…

Hugs all ’round for the Russian U16 boys’ team, after they won gold at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Switzerland earlier today. (Image Source)

I haven’t written anything about the Winter Youth Olympics taking place right now in Lausanne, Switzerland, but I do need to pause briefly here to tip the hat to the Russian U16 boys’ hockey team, which picked up the gold medal today! Team Russia defeated the U.S.A. 4-0 in the Final, on the strength of 15 saves from Metallurg Magnitogorsk prospect Sergei Ivanov and two goals plus an assist from Matvei Michkov of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl youth system. Michkov was also the top scorer in the boys’ tournament, scoring 14 points in four games, so we’ll definitely file his name away for future reference.

Sadly, there was no Russian girls’ team at this tournament — hopefully there will be at the next Winter Youth Olympics, in South Korea in 2024. The girls’ tournament in Lausanne was won, intriguingly, by the Japanese U16s, who defeated Sweden 4-1 in the Final.

Congratulations to the Team Russia boys and the Team Japan girls on their gold medals!

Back to Business (and Happy New Year!)

Happy New Year, and best of the holidays to all! Apologies for the recent radio silence, as well, but full-time blogging will recommence here tomorrow or on the weekend. And what will we talk about first? Well, there’s a subtle clue in the video above…

A Walk Through the KHL: December 16th, 2019

Finnish forward Miro Aaltonen is the latest Vityaz Moscow Oblast player to pack his bags for St. Petersburg. (Image Source)

The December international break is over, and KHL teams get back to game action tomorrow! In the meantime, there have been a number of trades and signings (the KHL trade and signing deadline is the end of December 27th, so not that far away), further developments in the saga of young Traktor Chelyabinsk and New York Rangers prospect Vitali Kravtsov, and other notes of that ilk. First of all, however, we check on on major news from the KHL’s Board of Governors meeting last week — read on!

What Happens Now? (With Updates)

As had been rumoured for the past couple of weeks, the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) today approved a series of sanctions against Russian sports as result of alleged manipulations of a database at the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory. The short version is that Russia is banned from “major tournaments” (i.e. World Championships and Olympics) for four years, although Russian athletes can still compete as neutrals if they are proven to have clean doping records. Russia is also banned from hosting or bidding for major international tournaments during that time. Read on, for some updates on this situation as it develops.

Last update: Dec. 17th.

Alert!

KHL news notes are delayed by snow this evening (or at least by the necessity of shoveling said snow), but will be up tomorrow. Also coming this week, a women’s hockey update, and some international hockey recaps!

Apologies…

…for the paucity of blogging in the past little bit. Full KHL news notes will be up early tomorrow (there was a big trade!), and there’s a women’s hockey post coming as well as some VHL talk on the way. More very soon!

A Walk Through the KHL: September 23rd, 2019 (Updated)

A not-uncommon sight in this young season: happy Vityaz players! (Image Source)

It is Monday, so time for another stroll through the past week’s news in the KHL! This edition has an unlikely table-topping team, and ungodly run of bad luck at the wrong end of the standings, and some tidings of injuries, suspensions, bright (and not-so-bright) starts to the season, and so on — a note for two for each of the KHL’s 24 teams. Read on!

Blog Note (Updated)

The page of “Russian Hockey on Social Media” links has been taken down for some long-overdue maintenance, if you’re wondering where it went. It will return as soon as said maintenance is done, hopefully no later than this coming Thursday, the 26th of September.

Update (September 28th): A little later than I’d wanted, but the Social Media links list is back up! All team-lists are up to date for the 2019-20 season, although there is still some housecleaning to do on the links themselves. Almost all of them should work, however!

And back to regular posting starting tomorrow (the 29th)!

September 7th, 2011

(Image Source)

Remembering today Vitali Anikeyenko, Yuri Bakhvalov, Mikhail Balandin, Alexander Belyayev, Alexander Bryukhin, Gennadi Churilov, Pavol Demitra, Robert Dietrich, Alexander Galimov, Marat Kalimulin, Alexander Kalyanin, Alexander Karpovtsev, Andrei Kiryukhin, Nikita Klyukin, Igor Korolyov, Nikolai Krivonosov, Yevgeni Kunnov, Vyacheslav Kuznetsov, Stefan Liv, Nadezhda Maksumova, Jan Marek, Vladimir Matyushkin, Brad McCrimmon, Sergei Ostapchuk, Vladimir Piskunov, Karel Rachůnek, Ruslan Salei, Yelena Sarmatova, Yelena Shalina, Maxim Shuvalov, Yevgeni Sidorov, Kārlis Skrastiņš, Pavel Snurnitsyn, Daniil Sobchenko, Andrei Solomentsev, Ivan Tkachenko, Pavel Trakhanov, Yuri Urychev, Josef Vašíček, Alexander Vasyunov, Artyom Yarchuk, Igor Zhevelov, Sergei Zhuravlyov, and Andrei Zimin.