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KHL.ru ends its rundown of the league’s 2021-2022 teams with Avangard — the Gagarin Cup reigning champions. In the offseason, the Hawks changed several players, and the next season will be the latest one in Balashikha and may be the latest for bench boss Bob Hartley as well.

KHL.ru is nearing the end of its preview of this season’s contenders. Today we’re looking at last season’s runner-up, CSKA, where it’s all change after another busy summer.

KHL.ru continues to assess the teams ahead of the coming season. SKA got good results from young players last term, and this time around Valery Bragin’s roster is even more youthful.

KHL.ru keeps on previewing the upcoming 2021-2022 campaign for the league’s 24 teams. Dynamo Moscow changed most of its board and hockey operations staff, organized a new first (and a second) line, and tried to get some room for the younger players.

KHL.ru continues its team-by-team previews ahead of the coming season. Today we’re looking at Lokomotiv, where some astute summer recruitment is raising hopes of a real push for the top of the Western Conference.

KHL.ru continues its rundown of this season’s teams with a trip to the Southern Urals. Metallurg changed most of its international players and kept on betting on offensive hockey.

KHL.ru continues to look at the rosters going into the 2021-2022 season. Today it’s the turn of Salavat Yulaev, where the summer signings have arrived to address specific weaknesses on a talented roster.

KHL.ru continues its preview of the league’s teams for 2021-2022. Today we move to the Southern Urals as we visit Chelyabinsk.

KHL.ru continues its rundown of this season’s teams. Today it’s the turn of Jokerit, where an established head coach is working with a younger roster.

KHL.ru continues to look at the state of our teams ahead of the new season. Today, we’re in Yekaterinburg where several intriguing trades should bolster Avtomobilist’s hopes of finally making a big push for the cup.

KHL.ru continues its run-down of the teams ahead of the upcoming season. Today we move to Cherepovets, which was one of last year’s surprises. However, the Razin’s men lost their top scorer and 5/6 of their defensive line.

KHL.ru continues its run-down of the teams ahead of the new season. Torpedo moves back to the Western Conference this year, but should remain a solid bet for a playoff place despite its new surroundings.

KHL.ru continues its preview of this season’s competing teams. Today, we move to Belarus. In Minsk, Dinamo didn’t have the busiest summer on the market and is waiting for the national team to compete at the Olympics final qualification tournament.

KHL.ru continues its look at the preparations of each team ahead of the coming season. Today, we’re looking at Kunlun Red Star as it gets ready for the final action before the long-awaited Winter Olympics in Beijing.

In its traditional summer column, KHL.ru talks about the offseason and the prospects for the upcoming season for the league’s 24 clubs. In the 2020-2021 campaign, Dinamo Riga failed to qualify for the playoffs, leading to significant changes within the team.

In our traditional summer series, KHL.ru introduces each team’s new line-up ahead of the coming season. We start with Admiral, which missed 2020-2021 for financial reasons but is ready to return to the league this term.

The Finnish franchise is always a contender but is yet to get past the playoff’s second round. However, spot-on acquisitions on the transfer market and more significant experience in its coaching staff may make the difference for the Jokers in their seventh year in the league.

The latest of our team previews for the coming season is lighter on detail than most. The simple fact is, Kunlun Red Star has undergone a difficult summer and this is still little certainty about what roster our Chinese franchise will be able to ice following an enforced temporary move to Mytishchi.

The 2019-2020 campaign was one to forget for the Latvian franchise. However, the team will start its upcoming season with a new face, which doesn’t limit to its new branding.

Last year, Barys was one of the best teams in the league, finishing the season as the Eastern Conference’s second seed. However, the pandemic halted its playoffs run, and it’s now unknown whether they could keep the pace. One of the key figures behind Barys’ success — its head coach Andrei Skabelka — left Kazakhstan and joined Lokomotiv. Will Barys be able to build on Skabelka’s path and top its division again?

Last season was the worst ever for Dinamo Minsk in the KHL. But the club has kept faith with head coach Craig Woodcroft and is working on a long-term plan to boost the team’s fortunes.

Last year, the Black Sea franchise didn’t qualify for the postseason after a disappointing showing. However, the team worked hard in the summer to give its head coach Alexander Andriyevsky a competitive roster with solid international players and a reliable goaltender. Is it enough to see the playoffs again in Sochi?

After a disappointing season, Traktor is hoping for better things. And with Anvar Gatiyatulin back behind the bench, there are reasons for cautious optimism in Chelyabinsk.

Sibir was one of the biggest surprises of the 2019-2020 campaign. The Novosibirsk franchise had a slow start, but then climbed up in the standings and knocked off Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in the playoffs. Unfortunately, the season was halted, and the fans didn’t have a chance to check whether the team would be able to run to the Eastern Conference’s finals as it did a few seasons down the road.

After a topsy-turvy campaign ended in a first-round playoff loss, Neftekhimik kept faith with head coach Vyacheslav Butsayev. But the Tatarstan team jettisoned last year’s imports and kept just one of its leading defensemen from 2019-2020. How is the club gearing up for the coming campaign?

With the reshuffle of teams to accommodate Admiral’s sabbatical, Torpedo is returning to the Eastern Conference for 2020-2021. David Nemirovsky’s team also has a fresh crop of imports in place as it looks to reach an eighth straight playoff.

Last year, Spartak improved in the regular season, but it was another first-round exit for the Red-and-Whites. To improve the results, Spartak gave Oleg Znarok a team with plenty of veterans and solid names as foreigners. Will the team be able to finally have a deep playoff run?

This season will mark 10 years since Salavat Yulaev won the Gagarin Cup — and for many in Ufa, that’s too a long wait for a repeat success. With a new head coach and the departure of a club legend over the summer, there are many changes afoot for the pride of Bashkortostan.

Metallurg had a good shuffle to its roster to revert the trend of the latest two seasons. Can Vorobyov help the Southern Urals franchise returning to its former glory?

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is one of the best teams in the league when it comes to producing young players. However, now they also want to be recognized as a winning team, not only as a prospects' factory. To reach its goals, the team hired a new head coach and signed several high-profile new players.

With a new-look roster and a new head coach, SKA is hoping that its young talent can continue to lead the club forwards.

Missing the playoffs twice in a row is never pleasant, and Amur is now trying hard to return to the postseason. However, the new season will bring with itself many question marks as the Far East franchise features a new head coach and several new players in the system.

After two postseason qualifications in a row, Vityaz is ready to make it three despite losing one of its best players — Alexei Makeyev. However, the team’s roster didn’t become worse as new, exciting players will replace him.

Severstal hasn’t made the playoffs since 2018, and that is the team’s solitary post season in the past seven campaigns. Despite this, the club has kept faith with the coaching staff and is hoping that its policy of developing young talent will bear fruit as the hard salary cap levels the playing field in the Western Conference.

The Hawks worked hard this offseason to give Bob Hartley a do-or-die roster. However, changing so many pieces of the puzzle poses many risks, even to the most experienced of the coaches. If the Canadian bench boss manages to solve the problem, the Hawks have all it takes to get back to the Gagarin Cup finals.

Avtomobilist made probably the most intriguing coaching appointment of the summer when it invited Bill Peters to replace Andrei Martemyanov. But the ambitious Yekaterinburg club faces a serious challenge when it comes to replacing Kazan-bound goal machine Nigel Dawes. If Peters can solve that problem, he has the nucleus of a team capable of challenging the leaders in the East.

With just more than a month to go to the start of the upcoming season, it’s the right time to look at how the teams are approaching the restart of the operations after the long pause. KHL.ru’s pre-season countdown today looks at one of the contenders in the Western Conference, Dynamo Moscow.

It’s barely a month until the 2020-2021 KHL season is due to get underway. Therefore, it’s time to start looking at how the contenders are shaping up. KHL.ru’s pre-season countdown starts with a visit to the 2019 Gagarin Cup winner, CSKA — still the defending champion after the 2020 playoffs could not be completed.