Season review: Shanghai Dragons. Club rebranding, brisk start, and games in China
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2025-2026 season with the Shanghai Dragons. Following their rebranding, the Dragons relocated to St. Petersburg, enjoyed a solid start to the season, and played games in China, but ultimately missed out on the playoffs at the end of the regular season.
The summer of 2025 brought sweeping changes to Kunlun Red Star. The club rebranded as the Shanghai Dragons, unveiled a new logo, and moved to a new home arena, SKA Arena in St. Petersburg. Significant efforts were made in marketing and fan engagement, resulting in much larger crowds at home games than in previous seasons.
The roster also underwent major changes, with the most significant one coming behind the bench. The Dragons appointed famed Canadian coach Gerard Gallant as head coach. Nineteen new players joined the team, including several established KHL names such as Gagarin Cup winners Pavel Akolzin and Alexander Burmistrov, as well as international forwards Ryan Spooner, Nick Merkley, and Borna Rendulic.
The Dragons opened the season with an impressive 7:4 victory over SKA in the newly created St. Petersburg derby. Early on, things were going well for the team. They finished September in fourth place in the Western Conference and even spent some time among the conference’s top three clubs. However, after the New Year, problems began to mount. Gallant left the team due to health issues, and just four days later, Mitch Love was appointed as his successor.
The team then experienced a downturn, possibly linked to the lack of a full preseason under the new coaching staff. In January and February, the Dragons lost 16 of 21 games, a stretch that ultimately proved decisive in the race for a playoff berth. For the third consecutive season, they finished ninth in the Western Conference, this time ending 25 points behind eighth-placed Spartak.
The Dragons played two home games in Shanghai in March, hosting Sibir and Barys. The games were part of the club’s roadmap toward returning to its historical home and were held as part of the KHL World Games project.
Best Players
68 games, 45 (24+21) points
The forward joined the team ahead of the season and quickly emerged as its driving force. Merkley led the Dragons in both scoring and goals, ranked second among team forwards in shooting percentage (14.3%), and was second in average ice time among forwards (17:24). Alongside his excellent shot, his biggest strengths are his one-on-one skills and scoring instincts. Those qualities helped him set new franchise records for goals and points in a single regular season. Merkley also led all Dragons forwards in hits with 159.
Borna Rendulic
62 games, 44 (20+24) points
The Croatian forward, who previously played in the KHL for Vityaz, Sochi, SKA, and Metallurg, enjoyed the most productive season of his career and established a new personal best in points. As one of the team’s offensive leaders, he received significant powerplay time and finished as the Dragons’ top scorer with the man advantage, netting eight goals with the man advantage. He also scored four game-winning goals during the season.
Nikita Popugayev
54 games, 25 (11+14) points
Popugayev finished as the Dragons’ highest-scoring Russian skater. A versatile forward, he is capable of both creating offense on his own and setting up teammates with smart passes. Another important asset is his size, which he uses effectively in physical battles. Despite the team’s struggles in its own zone, Popugayev was one of the few forwards to post a positive rating, finishing the season at plus-2.
Coaching
The arrival of Gerard Gallant was one of the biggest stories of the 2025 offseason. The only challenge was that he didn’t have the benefit of a full preseason with the team, forcing him and his staff to fine-tune the system during the regular season. The Dragons got off to a solid start before hitting a rough patch, and Gallant’s departure ultimately dealt a significant blow to the club’s playoff hopes.
His successor, Mitch Love, was thrust into the role of a crisis manager. He focused first on improving the team’s defensive play, and under his guidance the Dragons made noticeable progress in that area. However, it wasn’t enough. Love was unable to engineer the kind of turnaround needed to bring the team back into the playoff race.
Best Game
In mid-November, the Dragons visited the reigning Gagarin Cup holders in Yaroslavl. Lokomotiv opened the scoring just 37 seconds in, later leading 2:0 and 3:1 as the game progressed. This score held until the 55th minute, when the Dragons managed to tie the game in a five-minute span against a highly structured opponent. The matchup ultimately went into extra time, where Kevin Labanc secured the victory for the Dragons.
Summer activity
During the first eight days after the market opened, the Dragons were mostly active on the departure front, with 24 players leaving the team. First and foremost, the departures of Spencer and Parker Foo—who had been the club’s leaders for several seasons—are worth noting. It’s evident that the new management, led by club president Ilya Kovalchuk and general manager Evgeny Artyukhin, will completely rebuild the roster. Their first signing was Mikhail Kotlyarevsky, acquired from Avangard in exchange for financial compensation.
