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Kontinental Hockey League
Russia-based ice hockey league / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; Russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), romanized: Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1) and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs.
![]() | This article needs to be updated. (March 2024) |
Current season, competition or edition:![]() | |
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Formerly | Russian Superleague (RSL) |
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Sport | Ice hockey |
Founded | 2008; 16 years ago (2008) |
President | Alexei Morozov |
Motto | Хоккей – наша игра! (Hockey is our game!) Хакей – наша гульня! Хоккей – біздің ойын! 冰球,就是我们的生活![1] |
No. of teams | 23 |
Country |
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Most recent champion(s) | Metallurg Magnitogorsk (3rd title) |
Most titles | HC CSKA Moscow Ak Bars Kazan Metallurg Magnitogorsk (3 titles each) |
TV partner(s) | KHL TV, KHL TV Prime (Russia (as part of the NTV Plus package), Russia and international through KHL's website) |
Related competitions |
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Official website | KHL.ru |
It was considered in 2015 to be the strongest professional ice hockey league in Europe and Asia, and tied for the second-strongest in the world with the American Hockey League behind North America's National Hockey League.[2][3] The KHL had in 2017 the highest total attendance in Europe with 15.32 million spectators in the regular season[4] and third-highest average attendance in Europe with 26,121 spectators per game in the regular season.[5] The Gagarin Cup is awarded annually to the league's playoff champion at the end of each season. The title of Champion of Russia is given to the highest-ranked Russian team.[6]