The highest hockey league is becoming an increasingly international league. Only it is growing not by Russian clubs, not by Siberia, as many dreamed, but by Chinese.
Following the KHL, the "comrades from the Celestial Empire" have now opened the second-strongest Russian division. And at once in the amount of two clubs.
The tower players should now be taught the names of clubs such as Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin) and Tsen Tou (Jilin), and the leaders should figure out how to get there. And if "Red Star Heilongjiang", as the name implies, is the pharmaceutical club of the Kehaelo Kunlun, then "Tsen Tou" will be an independent team.
Where they will find high-class hockey players in such numbers is still unknown. Last season, the "Chinese dragons" had difficulty in finding three players with Chinese roots in the KHL. From North America... Of these, only one had a permanent place in the lineup - Zak Yuen.
Naturally, there will be no Chinese players for two more Chinese clubs and foreign players will fill the seats. Let's hope that at least the Russian ones.
Indeed, next season the place of the VHL will be taken by the joint Russian-Chinese (or Chinese-Russian) Silk Road Cup. And over time, the number of participants from the largest country in the world should be increased to ten. Plans worthy of Ostap Bender, who told Vasyukins about the interplanetary chess tournament.
Well, the number Russian clubs in the major league, everything is really decreasing. Four more clubs have rested in Bose. Including last season's Bratina owner Dynamo (Balashikha), which is definitely a shame for the league. In addition to Dynamo, next season, Ilya Kovalchuk's native club, THK (Tver), which last season became the basis for the Russian team, which won the Universiade, will not play. And also with rich hockey traditions Saratov "Kristall" and "Ariada-NH" (Volzhsk).
There are also newcomers: the Bashkir “Miner” (Uchaly) (which became the “farm” of Avtomobilist), the Samara CSK VVS (will cooperate with “Lada”) and the Novokuznetsk Metallurg. Of these, only Kuznya, which until recently was going to play in the KHL, will be the favorite.
Among the 27 participants in the VHL championship next season and two St. Petersburg clubs - "SKA-Neva" and "Dynamo" (St. Petersburg).
Opinions
Dmitry Kurbatov, chairman of the organizing committee of the VHL:
With the advent of two Chinese clubs, the VHL championship goes into a serious international level... The league is getting younger, which favorably affects the training of personnel for the KHL, the appearance of a larger number of professional hockey players high level... Next season we will do our best to make the championship even more interesting, unpredictable, and the financial position of the clubs more stable.
Vladislav Tretyak, President of the FHR:
I believe that the coming VHL season should turn out to be very interesting. The league's geography is expanding, with five new clubs joining the tournament. In addition to teams with names that are well known to the fans - first of all, we are talking, of course, about Novokuznetsk Metallurg - two chinese teams... All this, of course, increases interest not only in the league itself, but also in our hockey in general. Sure, new season will give us bright, unforgettable hockey confrontations, and the league will have new loyal fans - the VHL deserves it.
The list of participants in the 2017/18 VHL Championship:
1. Bars (Kazan)
2. "Buran" (Voronezh)
3. "Miner" (Uchaly)
4. "Diesel" (Penza)
5. Dynamo (St. Petersburg)
6. "Ermak" (Angarsk)
7. "Trans-Urals" (Kurgan)
8. "Star" (Chekhov)
9. "Izhstal" (Izhevsk)
10. "Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang" (Harbin)
11. "Metallurg" (Novokuznetsk)
12. "Hammer-Prikamye" (Perm)
13. "Oilman" (Almetyevsk)
14. "Rubin" (Tyumen)
15. "Saryarka" (Karaganda)
16. "SKA-Neva" (St. Petersburg)
17. "Falcon" (Krasnoyarsk)
18. "Sputnik" (Nizhny Tagil)
19. "Toros" (Neftekamsk)
20. "Torpedo" (Ust-Kamenogorsk)
21. HC "Ryazan" (Ryazan)
22. HC "Sarov" (Sarov)
23. "Chemist" (Voskresensk)
24. Tsen Tou (Jilin)
25. CSK VVS (Samara)
26. Chelmet (Chelyabinsk)
27. "South Ural" (Orsk)
Hockey players of "Trans-Urals" on a visit dealt with "Tseng Tou", and Artem Zagidulin issued the second shutout of the season.
Mikhail Zvyagin's team was forced to go to the game in Jilin with an incomplete composition, as there was simply no one to replace Alexei Knyazev, who was slightly injured in the first period of the match against KRS Heilongjiang. Thus, only 19 field players came out on the ice, and Yuri Maslov got the captain's letter for one meeting.
Nevertheless, these problems did not spoil the mood of the Kurgan people, who ran forward from the very beginning of the fight. “Trans-Urals” dominated throughout the entire starting game segment, during which the Tseng Tou hockey players never really created problems for Artem Zagidulin. However, the defense of the Chinese team held out for a very long time, only in the 17th minute Denis Sander opened the scoring, successfully substituting his foot under the throw of Evgeny Shakurov. The judges, after briefly conferring, counted the goal - 0: 1. And before the break, Igor Tyalo had one more puck at the goal - Artur Boltanov was the first to finish off after Yanchevsky's flick from the center of the site. 0: 2.
In the second dvadtsatiminutke the situation on the ice practically did not change. The guests created attack after attack, while not forgetting about the defense. On the 26th minute, Mark Yanchevsky freely rolled down the center and sent the puck to the top nine, and after a couple of shifts, Artur Boltanov scored a double, completing a quick combination after winning a throw-in - 0: 4. The hosts almost immediately followed the replacement of the goalkeeper - Alexander Pechursky entered the game, who managed to stop the Kurgan pressure for a while. In addition, "Trans-Urals" twice in a row remained in the minority and "Tseng Tou" had chances to upset Zagidulin, but it was all in vain.
In the final period, the Kurgans again distinguished themselves twice, not allowing anything to be created by the wards of Alexei Akifiev. First, Denis Sander scored his second goal in the match, and then Yuri Maslov put a fat point, with whose most powerful throw from the blue line Pechursky did not cope - 0: 6.
This success allowed "Trans-Urals" to rise to 16th place, earning 16 points in 10 games. The next match the Kurgan team will play at their home site on October 16, Izhevsk Izhstal will come to visit. The meeting will start at 18:30.
Tseng Tou (Jilin) - Trans-Urals (Kurgan) 0: 6 (0: 2; 0: 2; 0: 2)
Chief judges: Andrey Baturin, Ivan Frolov. Linesmen: Evgeny Antonov, Alexander Smirnov.
Tseng Tou: Tyalo (Pechursky, 27:06); Grebenyuk, Polinin, Ilminsky, Popov, Eremenko, Bitkin, Guan Tianyi, Zhang Jiaqi; Shvetsov, Kasitsyn, Kamaev, Yachmenev, Polozov, Zhang Hao, Shiafootdinov, Gizdatullin, Lukin, Mitrofanov, Huang Peng.
"Trans-Urals": Zagidulin; Krotikov, Glebov, Shakurov, Maslov (K), Olshansky, Sulimov, Yanchevsky, Fast; Isaev, Pervukhin, Mushtaev, Sander, Tsyganov, Avramenko, Kolgotin, Rekhtin, Petrov, Abmetka, Boltanov.
Goals: 0: 1 - Denis Sander (Boltanov, Shakurov, 16:39). 0: 2 - Artur Boltanov (Shakurov, Yanchevsky, 18:17). 0: 3 - Mark Yanchevsky (Tsyganov, 25:10). 0: 4 - Artur Boltanov (Abmetka, Sander, 26:45). 0: 5 - Denis Sander (Boltanov, 47:09). 0: 6 - Yuri Maslov (Olshansky, 54:05, bol).
Penalty: 12 (Shvetsov - 2, Polinin - 4, Eremenko - 2, Mitrofanov - 2, Gizdatullin - 2) - 4 (Isaev - 2, Glebov - 2).
On Tuesday, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation approved the list of participants for the 2017/18 season of the Higher Hockey League. 27 clubs will take part in the tournament and two Chinese teams will make their debut - Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin) and Tsen Tou (Jilin). In addition, he is preparing for his first season in the Kunlun Red Star Junior Youth Hockey League. Thus, already four clubs from China have been incorporated into domestic hockey. Let us remind you that Kunlun Red Star has been playing in the Continental Hockey League since last year.
A year after their debut in the KHL, the Chinese joined two other Russian professional hockey leagues - the VHL and the MHL. At the same time, Kunlun Red Star has completely built the club vertical, in which KRS Junior is a youth team, and KRS Heilongjiang is a farm club. "Molodezhka", like the main "Red Star", will be based in Beijing, and the farm will be located in Harbin, located in Heilongjiang province (hence the name). Tsen Tou represents the city and province of Jilin (Jilin in Manchu), which are also located in the northeast of the country.
"With the emergence of two Chinese clubs, the Higher Hockey League championship is reaching a serious international level," said Dmitry Kurbatov, chairman of the VHL organizing committee. "Geography Major League is expanding, - stated the President of the FHR Vladislav Tretyak. - This, of course, increases interest not only in the VHL itself, but also in our hockey as a whole. "
The Chinese, who have set themselves an ambitious goal of raising hockey to the home Winter Olympics in 2022, are systematically implementing their program and doing so at all levels. For example, in the next five years, about 100 thousand children will have to skate and pick up golf clubs. The number of arenas is planned to quadruple - from 250 to 1,000. Still, at the moment, there is an acute shortage of quality home-grown hockey players in the country. Thus, only two Chinese players managed to make their way to the main line-up of Kunlun - defender Zak Yuyen and striker Rudy Ying. While there are not enough players even for youth team and a farm club, although the staffing situation there is already gradually changing in better side... According to preliminary data, 15 Chinese will compete for KRS Heilongjiang, while the rest of the positions will be occupied by the Russians. In KRS Junior, more than half of the 30 hockey players who started preseason training are Chinese. Plus players from Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Belarus and Canada. By the way, this team is trained by Russian specialists Alexander Barkov ( Main coach), Mikhail Sarmatin and Igor Gorbenko (assistants).
Simultaneously with the development of children's and youth hockey, it is curious that one of junior teams"KRS" is based in Canada, and serious funds are invested in the club playing in the KHL. The leaders of "Krasnaya Zvezda" do not want him to lose to everyone in a row and thereby incur significant image losses, therefore, in this direction, they still rely on foreign players. Last season, "Kunlun" managed to put together a combat-ready squad, which immediately made it to the playoffs. And judging by the current selection campaign, in the next championship the club will at least not be weaker. The Peking people have signed contracts with good craftsmen, among which the Pole Wojtek Wolski, the Swedes Richard Gunge, Andreas Turesson and Magnus Hellberg, the Canadian Kail Chipchuru, the Belarusian Andrei Kostitsyn and the Latvian Arturs Kuldu can be distinguished. And the fact that Canadian Mike Keenen is the head of "KRS" is a coup both in the professional sense and in terms of PR. Iron Mike enjoys great prestige in hockey world and already has experience in the KHL. His predecessor - Russian Vladimir Yurzinov Jr. performed his role, providing a bright debut.
True, Kunlun has to solve the attendance problem. In the 2016/17 championship, the club set an anti-KHL record: only 550 spectators were present at its home match with Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik in Shanghai. In Beijing, interest in hockey was higher, but the average attendance in the regular championship was still modest - 2,952 people. This is the fourth result from the end (only the Cherepovets Severstal, the Khanty-Mansiysk Ugra and Novokuznetsk Metallurg have a worse result). However, much more people went to play-off at Kunlun - an average of 7,150 people. Nevertheless home arena"KRS" is designed for 14 thousand spectators, so we still need to work with the fans.
Clubs from the Middle Kingdom will play in the Continental, Higher and Youth Leagues
On Tuesday, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation approved the list of participants for the 2017/18 season of the Higher Hockey League. 27 clubs will take part in the tournament and two Chinese teams will debut - Kunlun Red Star Heilongjiang (Harbin) and Tsen Tou (Jilin). In addition, he is preparing for his first season in the Kunlun Red Star Junior Youth Hockey League. Thus, already four clubs from China have been incorporated into domestic hockey. Let us remind you that Kunlun Red Star has been playing in the Continental Hockey League since last year.
A year after their debut in the KHL, the Chinese joined two other Russian professional hockey leagues - the VHL and the MHL. At the same time, Kunlun Red Star has completely built the club vertical, in which KRS Junior is a youth team, and KRS Heilongjiang is a farm club. "Molodezhka", like the main "Red Star", will be based in Beijing, and the farm will be located in Harbin, located in Heilongjiang province (hence the name). Tsen Tou represents the city and province of Jilin (Jilin in Manchu), which are also located in the northeast of the country.
"With the emergence of two Chinese clubs, the Higher Hockey League championship is reaching a serious international level," said Dmitry Kurbatov, chairman of the VHL organizing committee. "The geography of the Major League is expanding, - stated the President of the FHR Vladislav Tretyak. - This, of course, increases interest not only in the VHL itself, but also in our hockey in general."
The Chinese, who have set themselves an ambitious goal of raising hockey to the home Winter Olympics in 2022, are systematically implementing their program and doing so at all levels. For example, in the next five years, about 100 thousand children will have to skate and pick up golf clubs. The number of arenas is planned to quadruple - from 250 to 1,000. Still, at the moment there is an acute shortage of quality home-grown hockey players in the country. Thus, only two Chinese players managed to make their way to the main line-up of Kunlun - defender Zak Yuyen and striker Rudy Ying. So far, there are not enough players of their own, even for the youth team and the farm club, although the staffing situation there is already gradually changing for the better. According to preliminary data, 15 Chinese will compete for KRS Heilongjiang, and the rest of the positions will be occupied by the Russians. In KRS Junior, more than half of the 30 hockey players who started preseason training are Chinese. Plus players from Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Belarus and Canada. By the way, this team is trained by Russian specialists Alexander Barkov (head coach), Mikhail Sarmatin and Igor Gorbenko (assistants).
Simultaneously with the development of children's and youth hockey - it is curious that one of the junior teams of "KRS" is based in Canada - serious funds are being invested in the club playing in the KHL. The leaders of "Krasnaya Zvezda" do not want him to lose to everyone in a row and thereby incur significant image losses, therefore, in this direction, they still rely on foreign players. Last season, "Kunlun" managed to put together a combat-ready squad, which immediately made it to the playoffs. And judging by the current selection campaign, in the next championship the club will at least not be weaker. The Peking people have signed contracts with good craftsmen, among which the Pole Wojtek Wolski, the Swedes Richard Gunge, Andreas Turesson and Magnus Hellberg, the Canadian Kail Chipchuru, the Belarusian Andrei Kostitsyn and the Latvian Arturs Kuldu can be distinguished. And the fact that Canadian Mike Keenen is the head of "KRS" is a coup both in the professional sense and in terms of PR. Iron Mike is highly respected in the hockey world and already has experience in the KHL. His predecessor - Russian Vladimir Yurzinov Jr. performed his role, providing a bright debut.
True, Kunlun has to solve the attendance problem. In the 2016/17 championship, the club set an anti-KHL record: only 550 spectators were present at its home match with Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik in Shanghai. In Beijing, interest in hockey was higher, but the average attendance in the regular championship was still modest - 2,952 people. This is the fourth result from the end (the same indicator is worse only for Severstal from Cherepovets, Yugra from Khanty-Mansi and Metallurg from Novokuznetsk). However, much more people went to play-off at Kunlun - an average of 7,150 people. Nevertheless, the KRS home arena is designed for 14 thousand spectators, so we still need to work with the fans.
The 2017-2018 VHL season will run from September 2017 to April 2018. In the 8th edition of the championship, 27 teams will fight for the victory, five of which are newcomers to the tournament. Some of them will compete for the Vladimir Petrov Cup - the main trophy of the Higher Hockey League championship. The fans will find out the name of the lucky winner only in the spring of 2018. Until that time, they will be able to enjoy matches, many of which are worthy final series!
The tournament lost 4 teams at once. THK (Tver), Dynamo (Balashikha), Kristall (Saratov) and Ariadna (Volzhsk) have said goodbye to the Major League. It is especially painful for hockey fans to see Dynamo on this list as the current winner of the VHL championship. Unfortunately, HC from Balashikha fell victim to the optimization of the head team - Dynamo Moscow, whose farm club it was.
The following HCs came instead of the teams that left.:
- "Miner" (Uchaly);
- Metallurg (Novokuznetsk);
- CSK VVS (Samara);
- KRS Heilongjiang (Harbin);
- Tsen Tou (Jilin).
Among the debutants, of course, Metallurg Novokuznetsk stands out. The legendary "Forge" was expelled from the KHL for "low game results" and poor attendance at matches with her participation. It will be interesting to see how the hockey players from Novokuznetsk will take root in the new championship.
One more news - the main trophy of the tournament has changed its name. Now it is called not “Bratina”, but “Vladimir Petrov's Cup”. Thus, the organizers of the championship decided to immortalize the name of one of the greatest Soviet hockey players Vladimir Petrov, who passed away in February 2017.
When does the Major Hockey League 2017/18 season begin?
So far, sports officials have remained silent. The start and end dates of the upcoming draw are not known. But fans of the tournament should be guided by the date of the previous edition: September 8, 2016 - April 18, 2017.
VHL teams 2017/18
In total, 27 hockey teams will take part in the 8th draw of the tournament:
- SKA-Neva;
- "Falcon";
- "Torpedo";
- "Saryarka";
- "Trans-Urals";
- "Hummock";
- "Star";
- Ermak;
- Chelmet;
- "Oilman";
- "Dynamo";
- "Diesel";
- Izhstal;
- "Satellite";
- Ryazan;
- "Ruby";
- Sarov;
- "Leopard";
- "Hammer-Prikamye";
- "Chemist";
- "Southern Urals";
- "Buran";
- "Miner";
- "Metallurgist";
- CSK VVS;
- Cattle Heilongjiang;
- "Tsen Tou".
Latest transfers in Major League clubs 2017/2018
Clubs are actively replenishing their rosters with new players. This is what the table of recent transitions looks like.
| Name | Old team | New team |
| Konstantin Savenkov | "Arlan" (Kazakhstan Championship) | "Ruby" |
| Egor Alyoshin | "Hummock | "Ruby" |
| Kurt Gogol | Florida Everblades(ECHL) | "Ruby" |
| Artyom Zagidullin Arthur Boltanov Artyom Ikamatskikh | Metallurg (Magnitogorsk) | "Trans-Urals" |
| Dmitry Bezrukov | "Rocket" ( MHL ) | Sarov |
| Mikhail Zheleznov Alexey Zakarlyukin | Amur (KHL) | "Falcon" |
| Edward X hugo janson | "Zemgale" ( Latvian Hockey League) | "Oilman" |
| Fedor Kukin | Hodonin (3rd Czech division) | "Oilman" |
| Maxim Alyapkin | "Torpedo | "Satellite" |
| Bruno Mraz | Zvolen (Slovak Championship) | "Metallurgist" |
| Dmitry Tsybin | Izhstal | Irtysh (Kazakhstan Championship) |
| Sergey Banashkov | "Syryarka" | Edinburgh Capitals (British Elite Hockey League) |
VHL standings 2017 - 2018
From September 2017 to February 2018, the clubs will play against each other in the regular season. According to its results, 16 best teams will be selected for the playoffs. The elimination games will begin for them from the 1/8 finals. In the final final series, the two best PHCs will meet. The winner is the one who wins in 4 meetings.
So who will be the triumphant standings and the playoffs? Metallurg Novokuznetsk is being wooed for the role of the winner of the 8th edition of VHL. The team participated in the championship for a long time Continental League... The club has a vast experience of playing matches with strong opponents. And "Kuznya" probably wants to return to the KHL ... But for this, the Novokuznechans will have to show spectacular and effective hockey in order to impress the KHL functionaries.