The 2017–18 KHL season was the tenth season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The season started on 21 August 2017 and ended on 22 April 2018.
The league accommodated a 33 day Olympic break, to allow its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in February.
Team changes
The Croatian club Medveščak Zagreb relocated back to the Austrian Hockey League, and Russian club Metallurg Novokuznetsk was relegated to the Supreme Hockey League, to bring the total number of KHL teams to 27.
March 2018 KHL announced that two teams going to drop out after this season and next season have 25 teams. Yugra and Lada Togliatti are the teams that will not continue in KHL.
Divisions and regular season format In this season, like in the 2016–17 season, each team will play every other team once at home and once on the road, giving a total of 52 games (26 at home, 26 on the road), plus 4 additional games (2 at home, 2 on the road) played by each team against rival clubs from its own conference. Thus, each team played a total of 56 games in the regular season.
How the teams are divided into divisions and conferences is shown in the table below.
Western Conference Eastern Conference
Bobrov Division Tarasov Division Kharlamov Division Chernyshev Division Dinamo Minsk CSKA Moscow Ak Bars Kazan Admiral Vladivostok Dinamo Riga Dynamo Moscow Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg Amur Khabarovsk Jokerit HC Sochi Lada Togliatti Avangard Omsk SKA Saint Petersburg Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Metallurg Magnitogorsk Barys Astana Slovan Bratislava Severstal Cherepovets Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk HC Kunlun Red Star Spartak Moscow Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Traktor Chelyabinsk Salavat Yulaev Ufa Vityaz Podolsk Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk Sibir Novosibirsk
League standings
Western Conference
Eastern Conference
Gagarin Cup playoffs
Final standings
RankTeam 1 Ak Bars Kazan 2 CSKA Moscow 3 SKA Saint Petersburg 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 Jokerit 6 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 7 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 8 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 9 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 10 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 11 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 12 Avangard Omsk 13 Amur Khabarovsk 14 HC Sochi 15 Spartak Moscow 16 Severstal Cherepovets 17 Sibir Novosibirsk 18 Dynamo Moscow 19 Barys Astana 20 Dinamo Minsk 21 Vityaz Podolsk 22 Admiral Vladivostok 23 Kunlun Red Star 24 Slovan Bratislava 25 Lada Togliatti 26 Dinamo Riga 27 Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
As of 1 March 2018 Player Team GP G A Pts +/– PIM Ilya Kovalchuk SKA Saint Petersburg 53 31 32 63 +12 26 Nikita Gusev SKA Saint Petersburg 54 22 40 62 +25 2 Nigel Dawes Barys Astana 46 35 21 56 +5 26 Linus Omark Salavat Yulaev Ufa 55 16 39 55 +6 60 Linden Vey Barys Astana 50 17 35 52 +1 64
Source: KHL
Leading goaltenders
As of 1 March 2018
Player Team GP Min W L SOP GA SO SV% GAA Lars Johansson CSKA Moscow 21 1192:53 15 4 0 26 6 .938 1.31 Mikko Koskinen SKA Saint Petersburg 29 1718:12 22 4 1 45 5 .937 1.57 Ilya Sorokin CSKA Moscow 37 2182:35 25 8 4 58 8 .931 1.59 Igor Shestyorkin SKA Saint Petersburg 28 1592:34 20 4 4 45 7 .933 1.70 Ryan Zapolski Jokerit 39 2352:26 24 11 4 69 9 .931 1.76
Source: KHL
Awards
Players of the Month Best KHL players of each month. Month Goaltender Defence Forward Rookie September Stanislav Galimov (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod) Patrik Hersley (SKA Saint Petersburg) Nigel Dawes (Barys Astana) Eeli Tolvanen (Jokerit) October Ryan Zapolski (Jokerit) Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist Jekaterinburg) Nigel Dawes (Barys Astana) Eeli Tolvanen (Jokerit) November Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk) Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist Jekaterinburg) Zach Boychuk (Slovan Bratislava) Alexander Petunin (Dynamo Moscow) December Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) Oleg Piganovich (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk) Alexander Bergström (Sibir Novosibirsk) Alexander Petunin (Dynamo Moscow) January Pavel Francouz (Traktor Chelyabinsk) Philip Larsen (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) Alexander Khokhlachev (Spartak Moscow) Rafael Bikmullin (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk) March Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) Nick Bailen (Traktor Chelyabinsk) Justin Azevedo (Ak Bars Kazan) Vitali Kravtsov (Traktor Chelyabinsk) April Lars Johansson (CSKA Moscow) Vasili Tokranov (Ak Bars Kazan) Justin Azevedo (Ak Bars Kazan) Vitali Kravtsov (Traktor Chelyabinsk)
References
External links Season schedule 2017–18