The 2018–19 KHL season was the 11th season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The season started on 1 September 2018 and ended on 19 April 2019. Continental Cup winners CSKA Moscow became the first team to win the Gagarin Cup finals in a series sweep, defeating Avangard Omsk in four games to win their first Gagarin Cup, after two previous Finals defeats.

Season changes For the 2018–19 season, 25 teams competed in the KHL – down from 27 in 2017–18. The two teams that were excluded from the league were HC Lada Togliatti and HC Yugra, with both teams moving to the Supreme Hockey League. As well as this, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod were moved from the Western Conference, to the Eastern Conference; as a result, the Western Conference consisted of 12 teams and the Eastern Conference consisted of 13 teams.

The 2018–19 season featured the most games of any KHL season to date, with each team scheduled to play 62 games, up from 56 in 2017–18.

KHL World Games This season witnessed the first time that KHL games were played in Austria and Switzerland, as part of the KHL World Games. Slovan Bratislava played in both Austrian games (on 26 and 28 October) at the Albert Schultz Eishalle in Vienna – home to the Vienna Capitals of the Austrian Hockey League – losing 9–0 to CSKA Moscow, and 7–0 to SKA Saint Petersburg. The Swiss games were played at the Hallenstadion in Zürich – home to the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League – with Dinamo Riga playing in both games (on 26 and 28 November), losing 3–1 to SKA Saint Petersburg, and 5–0 to CSKA Moscow.

Teams The 25 teams were split into four divisions: the Bobrov Division and the Tarasov Division as part of the Western Conference, with the Kharlamov Division and the Chernyshev Division as part of the Eastern Conference. On 24 April 2018, the KHL announced re-alignment after both Lada Togliatti and Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk left the league.

Western Conference Eastern Conference

Bobrov Division Tarasov Division Kharlamov Division Chernyshev Division Dinamo Riga CSKA Moscow Admiral Vladivostok Ak Bars Kazan Dynamo Moscow Dinamo Minsk Amur Khabarovsk Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg Jokerit HC Sochi Avangard Omsk Metallurg Magnitogorsk Severstal Cherepovets Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Barys Astana Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk SKA Saint Petersburg Slovan Bratislava Kunlun Red Star Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Spartak Moscow Vityaz Podolsk Salavat Yulaev Ufa Traktor Chelyabinsk Sibir Novosibirsk

League standings Each team played 62 games, playing each of the other twenty-four teams twice: once on home ice, and once away from home. As well as this, each team played a further two games against each of their divisional rivals, and four games total against non-divisional teams.

Points were awarded for each game, where two points were awarded for all victories, regardless of whether it was in regulation time, in overtime or after a shootout. One point was awarded for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for losing in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finished with the most points was crowned the Continental Cup winner.

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

Gagarin Cup playoffs

Final standings Rank Team 1 CSKA Moscow 2 Avangard Omsk 3 SKA Saint Petersburg 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 5 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 6 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 7 Barys Astana 8 Dynamo Moscow 9 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 10 Ak Bars Kazan 11 Jokerit 12 HC Sochi 13 Spartak Moscow 14 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 15 Vityaz Podolsk 16 Traktor Chelyabinsk 17 Dinamo Riga 18 Sibir Novosibirsk 19 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 20 Kunlun Red Star 21 Admiral Vladivostok 22 Severstal Cherepovets 23 Amur Khabarovsk 24 Dinamo Minsk 25 Slovan Bratislava

Player statistics Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season. If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player Team SKA Saint Petersburg 62 17 65 82 +39 10 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 60 28 41 69 +20 12 Dynamo Moscow 61 20 48 68 +22 30 Dynamo Moscow 61 24 37 61 +22 40 Jokerit 62 13 45 58 +7 30 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 61 23 32 55 +14 10 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 62 20 35 55 +12 34 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 61 25 28 53 +22 6 Barys Astana 62 15 38 53 +30 59 CSKA Moscow 55 17 35 52 +33 10

Leading goaltenders The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average, at the conclusion of the regular season.

Player Team SKA Saint Petersburg 28 1680:51 24 4 31 10 95.27% 1.11 CSKA Moscow 24 1406:51 20 3 27 9 94.50% 1.15 CSKA Moscow 40 2327:53 28 6 45 11 94.04% 1.16 SKA Saint Petersburg 34 2048:13 24 7 45 8 93.98% 1.32 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 50 2958:08 38 9 88 8 93.90% 1.78 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 45 2416:58 25 15 76 10 92.96% 1.89 Dynamo Moscow 38 2113:41 19 16 68 3 93.27% 1.93 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 25 1102:49 12 7 36 4 92.44% 1.96 Avangard Omsk 49 2682:16 25 17 89 8 91.44% 1.99 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 48 2761:22 25 20 93 4 93.44% 2.02

Awards Season awards The KHL's end-of-season awards ceremony was held on 28 May 2019 in Barvikha.

Award Recipient(s) Team Best Sniper Award (most goals) Kirill Kaprizov CSKA Moscow Coach of the Year Igor Nikitin CSKA Moscow General Manager of the Year Igor Yesmantovich CSKA Moscow Gimayev Prize (for loyalty to hockey) Alexander Popov CSKA Moscow Golden Helmet Juha Metsola Salavat Yulaev Ufa Darren Dietz Barys Astana Nikita Nesterov CSKA Moscow Mikhail Grigorenko CSKA Moscow Teemu Hartikainen Salavat Yulaev Ufa Ilya Mikheyev Avangard Omsk Playoffs Most Valuable Player Ilya Sorokin CSKA Moscow Rookie of the Year Ilya Konovalov Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Top Scorer Award (most points) Nikita Gusev SKA Saint Petersburg Continental Cup CSKA Moscow Eastern Conference winner Avangard Omsk Vsevolod Bobrov Prize (most team goals) SKA Saint Petersburg Western Conference winner CSKA Moscow

Players of the Month Best KHL players of each month. Month Goaltender Defence Forward Rookie September Jakub Kovář (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) Darren Dietz (Barys Astana) Anatoly Golyshev (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) Nikita Mikhailov (Sibir Novosibirsk) October Juha Metsola (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) Paul Postma (Ak Bars Kazan) Nigel Dawes (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) November Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) Darren Dietz (Barys Astana) Nigel Dawes (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) Nikita Mikhailov (Sibir Novosibirsk) December Henrik Karlsson (Barys Astana) Vojtěch Mozík (Vityaz) Vadim Shipachyov (Dynamo Moscow) Kristian Vesalainen (Jokerit) January Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) Viktor Svedberg (Barys Astana) Nikita Gusev (SKA Saint Petersburg) Mārtiņš Dzierkals (Dinamo Riga) February Anton Krasotkin (Admiral Vladivostok) Staffan Kronwall (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) André Petersson (Barys Astana) Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) March Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) Mat Robinson (CSKA Moscow) Nikita Gusev (SKA Saint Petersburg) Daniil Misyul (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) April Juha Metsola (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) Mat Robinson (CSKA Moscow) Mikhail Grigorenko (CSKA Moscow)

Attendances

The KHL clubs by average home league attendance in the 2018–19 season:

# Club Average 1 SKA 13,016 2 Minsk 9,495 3 Jokerit 8,768 4 CSKA 8,501 5 Spartak 8,341 6 Yaroslavl 7,876 7 Ak Bars 7,119 8 Traktor 7,026 9 Magnitogorsk 6,964 10 Riga 6,669 11 Slovan 6,450 12 Barys 6,448 13 Salavat Yulaev 6,176 14 Amur 6,031 15 Sibir 5,985 16 Dynamo Moscow 5,869 17 Sochi 5,711 18 Avtomobilist 5,427 19 Torpedo 5,292 20 Avangard 4,745 21 Severstal 3,674 22 Neftekhimik 3,675 23 Admiral 4,211 24 Vityaz 3,891 25 Kunlun 2,569 Sources:

References

External links