June 16, 2009 Kontinental Hockey League Board of Directors regular meeting was held in Moscow. A number of innovations in Open Championship of Russia – KHL Championship Rules project for 2009/2010 season were approved.

Due to hockey club Khimik inability to repay salary debts in time and provide financial guarantees for the next season they will not enter KHL Championship in 2009/2010 season, but still remain KHL member. KHL Board of Directors approved the admission of Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg to the tournament in 2009/2010 season.

Next season the League teams will be divided into two conferences. Each conference will have two divisions, and each division will have six teams. Conferences and divisions will be formed as follows:

West Conference:

Tarasov Division: Dynamo Moscow, CSKA, Spartak, SKA, Dinamo Riga, Dynamo Minsk.

Kharlamov Division: Lokomotiv, Atlant, Torpedo, Severstal, HC MVD, Vityaz.

East Conference:

Chernyshev Division: Ak Bars, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Traktor, Lada, Neftekhimik, Avtomobilist.

Bobrov Division: Avangard, Salavat Yulaev, Barys, Sibir, Amur, Metallurg Novokuznetsk.

Championship will consist of two stages. In regular season each team plays two home and two away games against Division opponents (20 games) and one home and one away game against all the rest teams (36 games). In total each team will play 56 games in regular season.

By the results of the first stage the winner of the regular season will be defined. Champion of Russia, silver and bronze medalists, regardless the country the team is from, will be defined by the results of Gagarin Cup playoffs. Third place will be given to a team which lost in the semifinal but took a higher place in the regular season than second semifinal loser.

Teams ranked from 1st to 8th in their Conferences will enter the second stage of the tournament. Division winners take two top places in order of results decrease.

16 teams (8 from each Conference) will enter the playoffs to define KHL Championship and Gagarin Cup Winner.

In each Conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are to be held. Conference winners will play for Gagarin Cup. Conference quarterfinal will be best-of-five series, the remaining rounds – best-of-seven series.

Teams failed to enter the playoffs will play their own tournament for KHL junior draft first choice in 2010.

Next season schedule should be formed and approved by June 30, 2009.

In order to improve the financial discipline of the clubs Board of Directors has resolved on sanctions in case of salary cap exceeding. The incriminated club will be fined 300% of players’ aggregate income limit exceeding.

In 2009/2010 season the aggregate income of major team players of the club will be limited by 620 000 000 (six hundred twenty million) rubles. Minimum income for the players of the club is 200 000 000 (two hundred million) rubles. Each club is allowed to take one player out of the team salary cap.

The minimum wage for the player signing contract for 2009/2010 season and onwards is 300 000 rubles for season in the major team and 80 000 rubles for season in the junior or Higher League team.

25 players are allowed to fill in the major team roster and 25 – the junior team roster of every club. Club may send up to five players to two Higher League teams.

Foreign players’ quantity in the team is limited by five, regardless position on the rink, but only one foreign goalie is allowed to be in team roster. No limits in number of games played by foreign goalie are set.

Players may be added to the roster through all the season up to January 31, 2010.

Game roster will include 22 players for every team – 2 goalies, 18 skaters and 2 junior skaters, Russia citizens born after January 1, 1990. Foreign clubs’ juniors citizenship is not set.

Any number of junior team players may enter their major team roster.

Board of Directors has adopted a number of requirements for ice arenas. In particular, in all arenas safety lining will be placed on board. In addition, the Ice Palaces will be equipped with tunnels (fixed or sliding) for players and referees, as well as with advanced video surveillance systems for detecting and identifying public order infringers.

Players health provisions have been made. Obligatory complex medical examination of the players (before entering team roster) was approved by the Medical Regulations of the League. Medical Center recommended to develop methods of KHL players functional testing after their arrival to training camps. In addition, doping control system will be organized in the clubs, players pool will be formed in accordance with the WADA Code. In the new season players anti-doping certification system will start functioning in the League.

From sporting innovations side 2009/2010 season will be marked by several changes. 50% of the regular season games and 100% of playoff games will be officiated by two head referees and two linesmen.

Goal crease size is to be changed.

All the games will also be refereed by videogoal officials chosen from the most experienced and reputable referees.

Playoff overtimes will last 20 minutes till the sudden death goal. Overtimes amount is not limited. Six players regardless their position on ice will play for the team during overtime.

Last year SKA Ice Hockey Club displayed interest to Slovakian forward Zigmund Palffi. This preseason none of SKA Ice Hockey Club officials conducted, currently conducts or has any plans to conduct any negotiations with Zigmund Palffi.

Instead of previously scheduled games with Dinamo Minsk SKA Ice Hockey Club will play two home games with Sibir Novosibirsk on August 6 and August 7.

Dear Fans!
As a result of open voting on the official website of SKA Ice Hockey Club and on Radio Zenit as well as after discussions with SKA-2 players and coaches and SKA veterans the name has been chosen for MHL Team.
In the Season of 2009-2010 the City of Saint-Petersburg will be represented in MHL (Youth Hockey League) by SKA-1946 Ice Hockey Team.

SKA Ice Hockey Club wishes a very Happy Birthday to the Chairman of the KHL Players’ Trade Union Andrey Nikolayevich Kovalenko!
Dear Andrey Nikolayevich, we wish you happiness, health and success in your work!

SKA Ice Hockey Club retrains its rights on Canadien defenseman Mark Popovic.

Today the agreement previously reached on Aleksey Yashin playing for SKA Ice Hockey Club in the season of 2009-2010 has been officially bound by the signing of a contract.

Yesterday the Kontinental Hockey League held the first draft in the history of Russian hockey. SKA Ice Hockey Club picked nine players in four rounds:
Ramis Sadikov, goaltender, born 1991 (Rus)
Played for Rus Hockey Club for the last two seasons. Summoned to the training camps of Russian Junior National Team
Harri Sateri, goaltender, born 1989 (Tappara, Finland)
Participant of 2007 Junior World Championship, 2008 and 2009 Youth World Championships
Michal Jordan, defenseman, born 1990 (Plymouth, OHL)
Scored 42 points (12+30) in 58 games.
Jyri Niemi, defenseman, born 1990 (Saskatoon, WHL)
Scored 32 points (7+25) in 60 games, height 190 cm weight 93 kg Tough defenseman with excellent first pass.
Andrey Leonov, left winger, born 1990 (Kristall Elektrostal)
Candidate to Russian Youth National Team. Played for Kristall Elektrostal last season, scored 62 points (21+22)
Antonin Melka, center forward, born 1990 (Kladno, Czech Republic)
Best Junior of Czech Hockey League, scored 71 points (37+34) in 46 games.
Vladimir Ruzicka Vladimir, center forward, born 1989 (Slavia, Czech Republic)
Participant of 2006 and 2007 World Junior Championships and 2008 Youth World Championship.
Tomas Tatar, center forward, born 1990 (Zvolen, Slovakia)
Last season played for the main team at Zvolen Hockey Club (7+8 points in 48 games) Named among the top 3 players of his team at Youth World Championship in Canada. Top scoring player of Slovakian National Team (7+4)
Jakob Jusefsson, center forward, born 1991, (Djurgardens, Sweden)
Participant of 2009 World Youth Championship with Swedish National Team. Scored 7 points (3+4) in 6 games at World Junior Championship (under 18).

SKA forward Maxim Sushinsky became the winner of Sports nomination in TOP-50 Most Famous People of Saint-Petersburg 2009 Project conducted by Sobaka Publishing House. He is the first hockey player over the four years’ history of the contest to have won the title.
Our congratulations to Maxim on his well-deserved victory!