KHL season starts Saturday

It’s almost time. Saturday sees the start of the 2026/2027 KHL season. Before that, we’ve got the last pre-season trophies of the summer to round up, and the latest transfer moves – including a big arrival from the NHL.

Promise for Dynamo

Dynamo is heading into a new era under head coach Leonids Tambijevs, with the Muscovites expected to pivot to a new style of play after the Alexei Kudashov years. Early evidence is encouraging after the Blue-and-Whites won the Mayor of Moscow Cup this week. The highlight of the weekend might have been a convincing 5-2 victory over Kudashov’s Avtomobilist to book a spot in the final against Dinamo Minsk. That dynamic derby ended in a 4-1 success for the Muscovites. This tournament, now in its 19th edition, adopted an expanded eight-team format this year. CSKA beat Avtomobilist to take third place and helped set a tournament attendance record of 10,800 for its game with Spartak along the way.

Another trophy for Lokomotiv

It took 22 penalty shots to settle the decisive game, but in the end the Gagarin Cup champion collected the Blinov Cup in Omsk. Sunday’s meeting with last year’s winner Severstal was the difference between Loko clinching the trophy or the Lynx going on to a winner-takes-all match-up with Sibir on Monday morning. The teams were locked at 2-2 through 60 minutes, and an extended shoot-out saw the first 21 attempts stay out of the net. In the end, youngster Kirill Yemelyanov potted the decider. Severstal could still claim second with victory over Sibir; host Avangard was the only team to beat Lokomotiv (2-1 SO) but never really recovered from losing its first two games.

SKA succeeds on home ice

Petersburg’s Puchkov Cup went to host club SKA – but the organization’s farm-club took many plaudits from the weekend. SKA-VMF picked up a shock win over Barys and pushed Admiral hard in a 1-2 loss, not a bad return for a team used to life in the second-tier VHL. That meant the intra-club meeting between SKA and SKA-VMF on Sunday evening would decide the champion. VMF again battled hard, keeping SKA at bay until the latter stages of the second period. But two goals in four minutes put the favorite in control as Linus Weissbach and Daniil Miromanov put SKA on the way to a 3-1 win.

15th triumph for Metallurg

The Romazan Trophy is Russia’s oldest pre-season tournament – and host club Metallurg won it for the 15th time this week. Magnitka won all four of its games, albeit two in OT and another after a crazy 6-5 barn-burner against Lada. The tournament also saw the first signs of a new partnership between Sheldon Rempal and Vadim Shipachyov at Salavat Yulaev, while Lada proved to be the entertainers. The Motormen led the tournament with 16 goals, but allowed 14 at the other end after playing out two 6-5 games.

Transfer coup for Ak Bars

Perhaps the biggest trade of the summer brings Kevin Hayes to Kazan. The powerful, experienced center has more than 800 NHL appearances under his built. Last season he was limited to just 28 for Pittsburgh, partly due to injury, but in 2024 he was part of Team USA at the World Championship and he featured in the 2023 NHL All-Star Game. After a summer of high-profile departure, this could be just the move Anvar Gatiyatulin’s team needs to reinvigorate the locker room ahead of the opening game.

Salavat Yulaev fills its import quota

Not many KHL teams are set to run with a full complement of five imports this season, but the arrival of Matt Maggio in Ufa completes the set for Salavat. The Canadian forward spent the past three seasons in the AHL with Bridgeport, the Islanders’ farm-club. The 23-year-old made an impact in junior hockey, leading the Ontario Hockey League in scoring, piling up 111 points with Windsor Spitfires. Despite his relative youth, Maggio has some European experience already: in 2020/21, with Canadian hockey hamstrung by the pandemic, he played in Sweden’s third tier with SK Lejon.

Defensemen on the move

Two import D-men have found new clubs this week. Luka Profaca, late of Neftekhimik, moved to Dynamo Moscow. The prospect of signing the Canadian persuaded the Muscovites to dispense with the services of Kristian Khenkel, highlighting how well Profaca has done since he was plucked from obscurity by the Wolves. On the same day, Dinamo Minsk confirmed the signing of Jake Bischoff, previously with Shanghai Dragons, on a one-year deal.

Coming up …

The wait is almost over, and Saturday, Sep. 5, marks the opening day of the new season. Unlike previous years, when it all started with the Opening Cup as a standalone curtain-raiser between the Gagarin Cup finalists, this year sees six games on opening night. Defending champion Lokomotiv tops the bill, facing Traktor on home ice. Alexei Kudashov’s first competitive game as head coach of Avtomobilist sees his team entertain Dynamo Moscow, who fired him last fall. The rest of the card includes Spartak vs Torpedo, Severstal vs Salavat Yulaev, SKA vs Lada and Ak Bars vs Sibir.