27 teams expected in coming season, newcomers Vladivostok

The announcement comes from Russia’s Sport-express, quoting KHL president Alexander Medvedev at a recent exhibition match in Moscow to celebrate the 55^th birthday of Viacheslav Fetisov.

“It is 99.99% certain that Vladivostok will be a new participant in the KHL,” stated Medvedev. “They are financially secure, and have a president and general manager. This will be confirmed next Saturday at a press conference in Vladivostok.”

The largest city in the Primorye region, Vladivostok is set to open a new 7,000 seat multi-purpose arena, fulfilling all KHL criteria. This news was confirmed by regional governor Vladimir Miklushevski last week. The city received significant support from Fetisov, who currently represents the Primorye region in the Russian parliament.

As for European clubs such as Milano Rossblue, Medvescak Zagreb, Gdansk, and Stavanger Oilers, their potential entry into the KHL will not be considered before the 2014/2015 season. KHL representatives have long suggested the league could expand to thirty teams after the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Given the competition organizers intend to limit long-distance travel, Vladivostok’s entry into the KHL will likely result in some changes to the format. The four current divisions may be reduced to three – West, Central, and Siberia-Far East – with nine teams in each division. Slovan will of course be part of the Western division. Medvedev states that teams will play a minimum of 52 matches, but not more than 58.

The KHL has also released figures of note for the season which just ended. 760 matches were played, of which 84 were in the playoffs. 866 players took part – the most in the league’s five-year history – with an average age of 27.7 years. 3,999 goals were scored, with an average of 5.26 per match. A grand total of 4,775,366 spectators attended the games, an average of 6,283 per game (including playoffs), the highest since the KHL began in 2008.