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Renowned French author Jules Renard once said, “When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness.” I can only imagine the joy Renard would find in the suitcase of Vasily Ponomaryov, a talented Russian forward and voracious reader who—by his own admission—will carry a personal library of six or eight books to World Juniors. When asked about the contents of his undoubtedly overweight luggage, the subjects ranged from psychology and BMWs to legendary athletes and artists.

Nikita Guslistov grew up in hockey-mad Cherepovets, a city nestled on the Volga-Baltic waterway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The nineteen-year-old forward honed his craft in the shadow of local favorite Severstal, a club he could never imagine lacing up for someday.

Brampton, Ontario native Tyler Graovac arrived to Minsk by his own description “like a kid in a candy shop.” But make no mistake—Dinamo head coach Craig Woodcroft’s approach is far from sugarcoated. The all-business bench boss does not conceal his desire to dominate, a quality that Graovac admires in his new leader.

Danish-Finnish forward Michelle Karvinen had a unique, albeit brief introduction to Russia’s WHL. She was called to pinch-hit for the KRS Shenzhen Vanke Rays in the postponed championship final, after COVID-19 delayed the postseason and precluded several team members from returning to the squad. While she did not play the regular season with KRS, she had an opportunity to experience their passion and the league’s hottest rivalry first-hand—not to mention a reunion with her college coach, Brian Idalski, in the process.

Four seasons ago, I met a team called Kunlun Red Star in the basement of Balashikha Arena. It was my first-ever assignment in hockey, and my memory of that night is more vivid than of hundreds more that followed. Among the names on my agenda was Brandon Yip, a 2004 Colorado Avalanche draft pick who found himself at the helm of a fledgling hockey club in Shanghai. Years of being pushed around by traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange could never have prepared me for this confrontation with my childhood dream of hockey reporting.

Vityaz Podolsk forward Daniel Audette was told that his game was well-suited to Europe. A top-five producer on the Western Conference’s last place team, he has lived up to expectations in spite of the headwinds facing his squad. A second-generation professional hockey player, Audette admits that he once dreamt of being a goaltender, a position he now terrorizes as one of the KHL’s top point snipers. During his father’s tenure with the Montreal Canadiens, he spent time in close proximity to one of the best netminders in hockey history.

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod winger Kenny Agostino is one of the KHL’s leading goal scorers, but he admits that it is not an achievement secured alone. Aside from high-octane linemates Damir Zhafyarov and Andy Miele—two impressive flanks for a debut season—there is one other contributor that deserves honorable mention, and that is Agostino’s sister.

The KHL has struck two landmark streaming rights deals--ESPN+ and Portable.tv--that make games available to audiences around the globe. Icecast 2.0 host Gillian Kemmerer previews three of the games on the ESPN+ schedule this October, providing context on where the teams currently stand, players to watch and much more.

Helsinki and Saint Petersburg have more in common than their fanbases would like to admit—blustery coastlines on the Baltic, historic connections with Peter the Great, and at one time, even club ownership. In the old adage, “keep your friends close but your enemies closer,” Jokerit and SKA have succeeded on geographic and managerial grounds—but now they share one more legacy, perhaps to Helsinki fans’ chagrin. It is none other than Mikko Lehtonen, a lethal two-way defenseman who will soon suit-up for the Army Men.

Averaging over a point per game, Salavat Yulaev forward Markus Granlund has maintained momentum after a breakout debut season. Tasked with filling the shoes of Linus Omark—a longtime leader and staple on Ufa’s top line—Granlund entered the turbulent 2020-21 KHL season with a heavy set of expectations. Rising to past glories without Omark aside, the team would be forced to deal with extended departures, curtailed preseason preparations and much more.

There is making an entrance, and then there is Philippe Maillet—a contender for the league scoring race behind perennial powerhouse Vadim Shipachyov just one month into his KHL debut. Metallurg’s new Canadian center has a track record of impressive production that spans twelve time zones, averaging well over a point per game in his first twelve Russian starts.

Sochi newcomer Magnus Hellberg is among the toughest KHL goaltenders to score on, but snipers have an extra incentive to beware. If you happen to catch the Swede’s neck, you will have more than just a 6’6 World Champion to contend with later. You may also need to answer to his mother—a force who used to reprimand the street hockey rascals that made her five-year-old future NHLer cry.

As a child, Kimberly Newell could never have aspired to a professional hockey gig in China. It was an option that did not exist until after she had retired post-graduation from Princeton University, one that the KRS Vanke Rays netminder joked she thought was a “scam” when it was first proposed in 2018. But this twist of fate allowed Newell to fulfill another dream simultaneously, a goal that she had set while studying Chinese in college. After the 2018-19 season, she had the opportunity to travel to her family’s home in Hangzhou, where she had one final conversation with her grandfather.

Torpedo bench boss Dave Nemirovsky had over 200 international games on VHS and beta growing up, a masterclass in Red Machine style and predominance. While his parents and brother were born in the USSR, the 1994 Florida Panthers draft pick had never stepped foot on Russian soil until he moved his career to the Russian Superleague in 2001. It was a heritage that always fascinated the future KHL coach, and one that comes alive each time his roster touches the ice.

It’s one thing to meet your childhood idol—the player whose jerseys and cards filled the drawers of your room, and whose inspired actions you memorized, perhaps even repeated in your dreams. But to cover for your idol in the defensive zone is something else entirely, an opportunity that left SKA veteran forward Anton Burdasov in shock when it arrived.

For some members of the hockey community, coaching is an inevitable destiny—a calling that runs through their veins perhaps even before a playing career has concluded. Metal-lurg Magnitogorsk bench boss Ilya Vorobyov is one such example, the son of a longtime KHL and National Team coach who absorbed his father’s training principles long before he ruled a bench of his own.

There is a legend inside of the Tretiak family that goes something like this.

“Are you nervous, or is something going on with your family?”

If you are new to the KHL, Icecast 2.0 host Gillian Kemmerer provides a crash course into the structure of the league, its rivalries and unique cultures. From the sheer geographic expanse of the league to roster composition and names to watch, prepare for the 2021-22 season with this quick introduction. What else would you like to know? Drop us a hint on social media and we will be sure to include it in a future episode of Icecast.

Bobsled’s loss was hockey’s gain.

Dr. Craig Slaunwhite contemplated a unique career prior to his emergence in the field of peak athletic performance—competitive bobsledding, a seamless fit for the former college decathlete. His fast track to Cool Runnings came to a halt when a coaching offer from the Florida Panthers arrived. It is now the tease of a path not taken—one that crosses the NHL and NBA performance guru’s mind from time to time

Dinamo Minsk experienced a cultural overhaul in the 2020-2021 season, and not even a pandemic would derail the club’s efforts toward expansion. Under head coach Craig Woodcroft, a spotlight was shone on young Belarusian talents brought home from abroad, ballasted by imports with some serious KHL mileage. Defenseman Vladislav Yeryomenko, 22, was one such local youngster who witnessed the drastic change in fortune, which catapulted Minsk from one of their worst showings to playoff position in a matter of one season.

In late May, Denmark delivered its first-ever victory over Sweden at the IIHF World Championship. It was a milestone almost exclusively achieved by Jokerit forward Nicklas Jensen, who registered a hat trick and an assist to seal the upset. His breathtaking performance impressed even the toughest of coaches, a Toronto-born import to Herning in the 1990s. His name is Dan Jensen, but he’s better known as dad.

Valeri Kamensky is one of the busiest executives in Russian hockey. A member of the KHL Board of Directors, vice president of Spartak Moscow and chairman of the league disciplinary committee, he has dedicated his post-playing career to a sport that he calls “his life.”

You could hardly say that “everyone and their mother” is an Olympian—but in the Vafina household, this is exactly the case. When Dynamo-Neva forward Alexandra (Sasha) Vafina represented Russia at the 2010 Vancouver Games, she bore the literal and figurative torch from her mother Lyubov, who represented Kazakhstan in their first Olympic appearance in 2002. The mother-daughter pair even played together in Chelyabinsk for a time, an opportunity whose singularity only became clear later.

The city of Medicine Hat, Alberta has a population of 63,000, and a Kazakh-Canadian export list of 2. First teamed up at the age of five, Curtis Valk and Darren Dietz reunited on the ice in the most unlikely of destinations: Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan—nearly 9,000 kilometers from their childhood home.

The Sochi Hockey Open is one of the most highly-anticipated events of KHL preseason. Several of the traditionally toughest teams in the league—including reigning champions Avangard Omsk—descend on the shores of the Black Sea to flex their new acquisitions, line combinations and much more.

Sergei Zubov is my favorite variety of Russian star, forged in the white heat of CSKA training camps and tested under the fierce gaze of hockey’s toughest coaches, from Viktor Tikhonov to “Iron Mike” Keenan. Despite back-breaking pressure and unbending leadership, the Hall of Fame defenseman’s creativity was irrepressible, an innate brilliance that always found an outlet—even in the hottest of furnaces.

While the “Siberian Snipers” stands among the best team names in professional hockey, Dmitry Ovchinnikov could own the title himself. The eighteen-year-old forward from Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai—a city nestled between Russia’s Mongolian and Chinese borders—averaged over a point per game this season, his arresting speed and inch-perfect shot just two weapons in a well-rounded arsenal. With production numbers that put him in the realm of Nikita Gusev, Alexander Barabanov and Nikita Kucherov in their junior years, the youngster would have every right to brag—but he did not take the opportunity. Novosibirsk narrowly missed a shot at postseason play, a disappointment that Ovchinnikov puts on his own shoulders.

Two promising Russian youngsters are spotlighted on this week’s episode of Icecast 2.0, hosted by Gillian Kemmerer.

Darren Dietz is one of the most dedicated ambassadors Kazakhstan could have ever asked for, whether he’s selling the country’s ecological diversity or leading a Cinderella start for the National Team at Worlds. The twenty-seven-year-old captain of Barys Nur-Sultan calls his second passport a gift for which he is extremely proud, and shared a snippet of his adventures across the world’s largest landlocked country.

Kirill Marchenko is an artist, but he refuses a likening to Picasso. He’s the mastermind behind the KHL’s best goal of the Western Conference Finals, but his own stores of creativity took the youngster by surprise. The only place SKA Saint Petersburg’s talented winger seems to accept comparisons is on the pitch—and although he claims to lack soccer talent, he selects the Bun-desliga’s leading hat trick scorer as his closest player comparable.

In the modified words of Drake—he started from the bottom of the Eastern Conference, and now he’s here.

When Robert Rooba signed with Severstal Cherepovets this week, he became the first Estonian player in the history of the KHL. The twenty-seven-year-old forward hopes that his hard-fought milestone will light the runway for future generations of hockey talent.

Sergey Kalinin won World Juniors, Worlds, the Gagarin Cup and Olympic Gold before the age of 30. He has gone to the KHL Finals with both teams participating in this year’s clash, a tidbit he claims to have forgotten until our catchup over the weekend. The seasoned veteran and NHL alum walked into the Traktor Chelyabinsk locker room this summer as captain, and posted one of his best-ever performances on the Eastern Conference Cinderella squad. Traktor climbed from bottom-feeder to playoff contender, a metamorphosis Kalinin described as “perestroika” before the 2020-2021 campaign even began.

The 2020-2021 KHL season was a high-stakes debutante ball that cast an unrelenting spotlight on Russian youth. Called to battle as COVID-19 ransacked the globe and rosters were shaken in kaleidoscopic fashion, 204 players under the age of 21 carried the weight of the championship on their shoulders. Despite mounting pressure and relative inexperience, the KHL “kids” wrote their names into the record books of an uncommon season, challenging historic perceptions of the role that youth could play on a top-tier roster.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Director of Player Development Ted Suihkonen and Metallurg Magnitogorsk Assistant Coach Mike Pelino join the third episode of Icecast 2.0, hosted by Gillian Kemmerer. With a background in neuroscience and a hidden musical talent, Suihkonen has been a major factor in Loko’s rebuild after tragedy struck the franchise in 2011. He discusses the success of his youngsters and approach to getting hockey players into the “flow state” to maximize their creativity and confidence.

KRS Shenzhen Vanke Rays forward Emily Costales was a member of the 2020 WHL Championship roster, but her season hardly ended with a happily ever after. Assisted off the ice with a knee injury in the definitive clash against Agidel Ufa, she never got to experience the rush of the final seconds or the hurricane of confetti that fell on her teammates’ shoulders. Wheeled into the locker room after the presentation had ended, her tearful reunion left a fire burning for a retake. Up until two weeks ago, the Vanke Rays were on track to deliver that redemption — winning the regular season and sweeping the semifinals versus Biryusa.

Four-time Olympic goaltender Noora Räty and Hall-of-Famer Jari Kurri join the Finnish legends episode of Icecast 2.0, hosted by Gillian Kemmerer. Räty has competed for the star-studded KRS Shenzhen Vanke Rays for several seasons, and won Russia's women's league title last March. She discusses her experiences in the WHL, reality tv show adventures and a miraculous recovery from injury this winter.

Welcome to the new season of Icecast, the official podcast of the KHL! We could not be more excited to bring you stories from across the six countries and eight time zones that comprise the Kontinental Hockey League. Be sure to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode, and don’t forget to connect with us on social media.

Jokerit Helsinki and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl have met 20 times in the past two seasons. In spring of last year, the Jokers reigned supreme over Mike Pelino’s squad—but COVID-19 derailed their playoff hopes. The Railway Men exacted their revenge this March with a decisive first-round victory, including two shutouts for chart-topping netminder Eddie Pasquale. According to Jokerit head coach Lauri Marjamäki, the results yielded no room for interpretation.