2024-2025 schedule: the longest regular season in the league’s history

KHL.ru presents the schedule for the 2024-2025 Fonbet KHL regular season. Teams will play 68 games each, and the total number of game days will be a record 187. From the Opening Cup game to the first break, teams will have 97 consecutive game days.

The 2024-2025 KHL regular season will start on Sep 3 in Magnitogorsk with the Opening Cup match between last season’s finalists, Metallurg and Lokomotiv. The following day, fans can look forward to six games, including the first Siberian derby between Avangard and Sibir, the Ural derby between Avtomobilist and Traktor, and a significant match between Torpedo and Severstal. On Sep 5, five games will take place, with the most attention on matches like Metallurg vs SKA, Salavat Yulaev vs Ak Bars, and Spartak vs CSKA.

The regular season will run through Mar 23, 2025, featuring a record-breaking 187 game days and 782 matches.

The Gagarin Cup playoffs will take place from Mar 26 to May 25, 2025. The first round will follow the standard intra-conference format, while the second round will switch to a cross-conference format.

In the first group, the highest-seeded remaining team from the Western Conference will play the fourth-seeded team from the East. The second pair will consist of the second-highest remaining team from the Eastern Conference and the third-seeded team from the West. The winners of these pairs will face each other in the semifinals.

In the second group, the highest-seeded team from the Eastern Conference will play the fourth-seeded team from the West, and the second-seeded team from the Western Conference will face the third-seeded team from the East. The winners of these pairs will also face each other in the next round. There will be no reseeding of teams at the semifinal stage.

The structure of the match schedule for each team in the regular season is as follows:
Total of 68 games: 44 games against every team (22 home, 22 away).
Western Conference:
20 games against each team in the conference (10 home, 10 away).
4 additional games (2 home, 2 away).
Eastern Conference:
22 games against each team in the conference (11 home, 11 away).
2 additional games (1 home, 1 away).

Teams will play for 97 consecutive days until the first break for the Channel One Cup. This break will last from Dec 9-16. There will be a traditional New Year’s break from Dec 31 to Jan 2. Additionally, there will be another break for All-Star Week from Feb 7-10, 2025.

The schedule is designed to distribute matches evenly across the days, with an average of four games per day throughout the championship. Compared to the previous season, the number of games each month has been reduced by 20 (except for December), allowing for more balanced game distribution across all months.

Key dates for the regular season:

- Sep 3, 2024: Metallurg vs Lokomotiv – Opening Cup Match.
- Sep 14, 2024: Neftekhimik vs Lokomotiv - Igor Nikitin’s (Lokomotiv) 600th KHL game.
- Sep 17, 2024: Sibir vs Neftekhimik – Sibir’s 1000th KHL game.
- Sep 24, 2024: Amur vs CSKA – Yakov Rylov’s (Amur) 1000th game in Russian championships.
- Oct 5, 2024: Spartak vs Metallurg – Andrei Razin’s (Metallurg) 500th KHL game.
- Oct 12, 2024: Spartak vs Ak Bars – Vadim Shipachyov’ s (Ak Bars) 1000th KHL game.
- Oct 16, 2024: Traktor vs Ak Bars - Vadim Shipachyov (Ak Bars) could set a new KHL record for games played.
- Oct 21, 2024: Dinamo Minsk vs Barys – Dmitry Kvartalnov’s (Dinamo Minsk) 900th KHL game.
- Oct 27, 2024: Severstal vs Amur – Severstal’s 1000th KHL game.
- Oct 29, 2024: Neftekhimik vs Lada – Neftekhimik’s 1000th KHL game.
- Nov 22, 2024: Dinamo Minsk vs Dynamo Moscow – Dinamo Minsk’s 1000th KHL game.
- Dec 9-16, 2024: The only break of the season for international games.
- Feb 2, 2025: Amur vs Barys – Andrei Martemyanov’s (Amur) 500th KHL game.
- Feb 6, 2025: SKA vs Vityaz – Vityaz’s 1000th KHL game.
- Feb 6, 2025: Admiral vs Amur – Amur’s 1000th KHL game.
- Feb 8-9, 2025: KHL All-Star Game.
- Feb 25, 2025: Lokomotiv vs Dynamo Moscow - Alexei Kudashov’s (Dynamo Moscow) 600th KHL game.
- Feb 26, 2025: Avtomobilist vs Ak Bars – Avtomobilist’s 1000th KHL game.