Kontinental Hockey League team changes

From the league's inception in 2008 there have always been team changes in the Kontinental Hockey League between seasons, as some new teams have joined the league or others have left it. There is no promotion/relegation system with the VHL in place like there was with the Superleague and Vysshaya Liga. The number of teams in the league stayed at 24 throughout the first two seasons. In the third season the number of teams was reduced to 23 because Budivelnyk, a team that planned to join the league, dropped out before the start of the season.[1] Initially, Lev Poprad replaced Budivelnyk to retain the number of teams at 24.[2] However, Lev was excluded by the KHL before the start of that season,[3] but would be accepted into the league for 2011–12. The league plans to expand this number for future seasons.

The inaugural season of KHL included all 20 teams of the 2007–08 Russian Superleague. Non–Russian teams Barys Astana, Dinamo Riga and Dinamo Minsk also joined the newly formed league. Likewise, the recreated team of Khimik Voskresensk, the champion of the 2007–08 season of the Major League, joined. Thus the initial number of teams was 24.

Team changes by season

Season	Teams left the league	Fate of the team	Teams joined the league	Whence	Number of teams in the league
2008–09	inaugural season of competition				24
2009–10	Khimik	Joined VHL	Avtomobilist	VHL	24
2010–11	Lada	Joined VHL	UHC Dynamo	Newly created team by merger of Dynamo and MVD	23
	Dynamo M	Merged with MVD to form UHC Dynamo	Yugra	VHL
	MVD	Merged with Dynamo to form UHC Dynamo
2011–12	Lokomotiv	Scratched from season due to plane crash	Lev Poprad	Newly created team	23
2012–13	Lev Poprad	Disbanded	Slovan	Slovak Extraliga	26
			Donbass	VHL
			Lokomotiv	Returned to KHL after plane tragedy
			Lev Praha	Newly created team
2013–14			Admiral	Newly created team	28
2013–14			Medveščak	Austrian EBEL	28
2014–15	Donbass	Joined the Ukrainian Hockey Extra League prior to the 2015–16 season, after one year of inactivity.	Lada Togliatti	Returned to the league	28
	Lev Praha	Disbanded	Jokerit	Liiga
	Spartak Moscow	Took one year off due to financial issues	HC Sochi	Newly created team
2015–16	Atlant	Folded due to financial issues.	Spartak Moscow	Returned to the league	28
2016–17			HC Red Star Kunlun	Newly created team	29
2017–18	Medveščak	Returned to Austrian EBEL			27
2017–18	Metallurg Novokuznetsk	Joined VHL			27
2018–19	Lada	Rejoined VHL			25
2018–19	Yugra	Joined VHL			25
2019–20	Slovan	Left league due to financial issues to attempt to rejoin Slovak Extraliga			24
2020–21	Admiral	Took hiatus due to financial issues			23
2021–22	Dinamo Riga Jokerit	Left the league due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine	Admiral	Return to league after COVID-19 break	22

Division lineup changes

Season	Divisions
	Bobrov		Tarasov		Kharlamov		Chernyshev
	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division
2008–09 (initial composition)	Atlant Dinamo Mn Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Severstal Spartak		CSKA Khimik Metallurg Mg HC MVD SKA Traktor		Amur Avangard Dinamo R Lada Lokomotiv Sibir		Ak Bars Barys Dynamo M Neftekhimik Torpedo Vityaz
2009–10 (geographical realignment)	CSKA Dinamo R Dynamo M SKA	Atlant Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Severstal	Atlant Lokomotiv Severstal Torpedo Vityaz	CSKA Khimik Metallurg Mg SKA Traktor	Ak Bars Avtomobilist Metallurg Mg Neftekhimik Traktor	Amur Avangard Dinamo R Lokomotiv Sibir	Amur Avangard Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Sibir	Ak Bars Dynamo M Neftekhimik Torpedo Vityaz
2010–11	UHC Dynamo	Dinamo Mn Dynamo M	Dinamo Mn	HC MVD	Yugra	Lada
2011–12	Lev Poprad			Lokomotiv
2012–13	Donbass Lev Praha Slovan Vityaz	CSKA Lev Poprad Spartak	CSKA Lokomotiv Spartak	Vityaz
2013–14	CSKA Dinamo Mn Medveščak	Donbass Dynamo M Vityaz	Donbass Dynamo M Vityaz	CSKA Dinamo Mn Torpedo	Torpedo		Admiral
2014–15[4]	Atlant Jokerit	CSKA Lev Praha	CSKA HC Sochi Torpedo	Atlant Donbass Spartak Moscow	Lada	Torpedo
2015–16	Spartak M	Atlant
2016–17							HC Red Star Kunlun
2017–18		Medveščak						Metallurg Nk
2018–19	Dynamo M Severstal	Dinamo Mn Slovan	Dinamo Mn Slovan	Torpedo Dynamo M Severstal	Torpedo	Lada Yugra
2019–20[5]			Torpedo	Slovan	Sibir	Torpedo		Sibir
2020–21	HC Sochi Vityaz	Dinamo R Dynamo M	Dinamo R Dynamo M	HC Sochi Torpedo Vityaz	Torpedo	Sibir	Sibir	Admiral
2021–22	Torpedo	Severstal	Severstal		HC Red Star Kunlun	Torpedo	Admiral	HC Red Star Kunlun

References

"Budivelnik will not play in KHL". Kontinental Hockey League. 26 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
"HC Lev to join KHL". Kontinental Hockey League. 19 July 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2010.
"Лев" не сыграет в ближайшем сезоне (in Russian). Kontinental Hockey League. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
"Regular Season Format Unveiled". 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
"League confirms structure for the new season". 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2019-08-08.

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[1] "Budivelnik will not play in KHL". Kontinental Hockey League. 26 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.

[2] "HC Lev to join KHL". Kontinental Hockey League. 19 July 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2010.

[3] "Лев" не сыграет в ближайшем сезоне (in Russian). Kontinental Hockey League. 28 July 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.

[4] "Regular Season Format Unveiled". 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2014-07-11.

[5] "League confirms structure for the new season". 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2019-08-08.