2019–20 KHL season

The 2019–20 KHL season was the 12th season of the Kontinental Hockey League. There were 24 teams that competed in 62 regular season games.^[1] The season began with the Opening Cup on 1 September 2019, and the regular championship ran until 27 February 2020. The playoffs were scheduled to take place from 1 March through until 30 April.^[2] The All-Star Weekend took place over 18–19 January 2020.

Due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Europe, the season was prematurely ended on 25 March 2020, midway through the playoffs.^[3]

The Russian Hockey Federation declared CSKA Moscow the Russian champions, SKA Saint Petersburg and Ak Bars Kazan silver medalists, and Dynamo Moscow bronze medalists based on regular season standings.^[4]

For the 2019–20 season, the KHL originally announced that all 25 teams from the 2018–19 would return and continue without any changes to Divisions realignments.^[2] However the competition was reduced to 24 teams after Slovak based, HC Slovan Bratislava, announced that they would be withdrawing from the KHL to return to the Slovak Extraliga due to financial restrictions on 27 May 2019.^[5] With Slovan Bratislava's exit, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod were moved from the Eastern Conference,^[1] to the Western Conference, reversing the move of the previous season.^[6] As a result, both Conferences consisted of 12 teams.

The KHL announced the World Games project would continue for a second consecutive season with more information to be announced in July 2019.^[2] With the release of the season's schedule, new destinations of Davos, Shenzhen and Almaty were scheduled to host games.^[1]

Smart puck technology, backed up with chips in players' jerseys, was used in all KHL games in the coming season. The new technology was trialled in the All-Star Game in Kazan last season and was also used in regular season games in Helsinki. Every arena in the league installed sensors capable of collecting information from the chips 100 times a second. That information was available to various users and coaches in real time, giving-up-to-the-second details of the players’ speed, the distance covered in each shift, the speed and location of each shot and much more.^[7]

The KHL is the first league in the world to implement this technology across the board.^[7]

The 24 teams were split into four divisions: the Bobrov Division and the Tarasov Division as part of the Western Conference, with the Kharlamov Division and the Chernyshev Division as part of the Eastern Conference.^[8]

Western Conference		Eastern Conference
Bobrov Division	Tarasov Division	Kharlamov Division	Chernyshev Division
Dinamo Riga	CSKA Moscow	Ak Bars Kazan	Admiral Vladivostok
Dynamo Moscow	Dinamo Minsk	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	Amur Khabarovsk
Jokerit	HC Sochi	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	Avangard Omsk
Severstal Cherepovets	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	Barys Nur-Sultan
SKA Saint Petersburg	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	Sibir Novosibirsk	Kunlun Red Star
Spartak Moscow	Vityaz Podolsk	Traktor Chelyabinsk	Salavat Yulaev Ufa

Each team played 62 games, playing their divisional opponents four times, non-divisional conference rivals three times, and non-conference opponents twice.

Points were awarded for each game, where two points were awarded for all victories, regardless of whether it was in regulation time, in overtime or after game-winning shots. One point was awarded for losing in overtime or game-winning shots, and zero points for losing in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finished with the most points was crowned the Continental Cup winner.

Ak Bars Kazan were the Eastern Conference regular season winners with 93 points. It was determined following a 5–3 victory over closest challengers Avangard Omsk at TatNeft Arena.^[9] CSKA Moscow were the Western Conference regular season winners, and winners of the Continental Cup with 94 points. It was determined following a 6–0 victory over HC Sochi at CSKA Arena.^[10]

	Conference Quarterfinals					Conference Semifinals					Conference Finals					Gagarin Cup Finals
	1	Ak Bars	4
	8	Neftekhimik	0
						1	Ak Bars
						6	Salavat Yulaev
	2	Barys	4
	7	Metallurg	1
	Eastern Conference
											5	Sibir
	3	Avangard	2
	6	Salavat Yulaev	4
						2	Barys[a]
						5	Sibir	w/o
	4	Avtomobilist	1
	5	Sibir	4
																E
																W
	1	CSKA	4
	8	Torpedo	0
						1	CSKA
						4	Dynamo
	2	SKA	4
	7	Vityaz	0
	Western Conference
											2	SKA
	3	Jokerit	4
	6	Lokomotiv	2
						2	SKA	w/o
						3	Jokerit[b]
	4	Dynamo	4
	5	Spartak	2

Following the announcement that the season was prematurely ended on 25 March 2020, a decision of the final league standings was announced to be made at a later date.^[3] On 7 May 2020, it was announced that the eight teams that had qualified for the second round of the playoffs would be ranked ex aequo.^[13]

At the same time, the Russian Hockey Federation declared CSKA Moscow the Russian champions, SKA Saint Petersburg and Ak Bars Kazan silver medalists, and Dynamo Moscow bronze medalists based on regular season standings.^[14]

Rank	Team
1–8	Ak Bars Kazan
	Barys Nur-Sultan
	CSKA Moscow
	Dynamo Moscow
	Jokerit
	Salavat Yulaev Ufa
	Sibir Novosibirsk
	SKA Saint Petersburg
9	Avangard Omsk
10	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg
11	Spartak Moscow
12	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
13	Metallurg Magnitogorsk
14	Vityaz Podolsk
15	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
16	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk
17	Amur Khabarovsk
18	Kunlun Red Star
19	HC Sochi
20	Severstal Cherepovets
21	Traktor Chelyabinsk
22	Admiral Vladivostok
23	Dinamo Riga
24	Dinamo Minsk

The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season.^[15] If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Vadim Shipachyov	Dynamo Moscow	61	17	48	65	+34	28
Dmitrij Jaškin	Dynamo Moscow	58	31	32	63	+34	75
Kirill Kaprizov	CSKA Moscow	57	33	29	62	+32	10
Linus Omark	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	59	12	42	54	–1	36
Nigel Dawes	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	59	20	30	50	–5	13
Mikko Lehtonen	Jokerit	60	17	32	49	+26	20
Nikita Soshnikov	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	58	27	21	48	–2	28
Brian O'Neill	Jokerit	56	19	29	48	+17	18
Linden Vey	CSKA Moscow	52	13	35	48	+22	47
Brooks Macek	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	61	24	22	46	-3	22

The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average, at the conclusion of the regular season.^[16]

Player	Team(s)	GP	TOI	W	L	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Lars Johansson	CSKA Moscow	23	1370:30	17	6	32	6	93.25%	1.40
Timur Bilyalov	Ak Bars Kazan	32	1652:14	19	4	40	8	94.34%	1.45
Ilya Sorokin	CSKA Moscow	40	2364:49	26	10	59	9	93.50%	1.50
Alexander Samonov	Vityaz Podolsk SKA Saint Petersburg	25	1428:32	19	1	36	4	94.66%	1.51
Magnus Hellberg	SKA Saint Petersburg	26	1443:15	14	7	41	3	92.65%	1.70
Igor Bobkov	Avangard Omsk	48	2815:51	25	16	81	5	93.24%	1.73
Vasily Koshechkin	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	49	2687:12	18	20	87	6	93.31%	1.94
Ivan Bocharov	Dynamo Moscow	49	2638:43	26	13	87	6	93.47%	1.98
Alexei Krasikov	Sibir Novosibirsk	30	1403:56	10	11	47	2	93.52%	2.01
Evgeny Alikin	Amur Khabarovsk	40	2246:36	15	13	76	7	93.65%	2.03

Best KHL players of each month.

Month	Goaltender	Defence	Forward	Rookie
September[17]	Alexei Melnichuk (SKA Saint Petersburg)	Mikael Wikstrand (Ak Bars Kazan)	Damir Zhafyarov (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod)	Danila Zhuravlyov (Ak Bars Kazan)
October[18]	Harri Säteri (Sibir Novosibirsk)	Albert Yarullin (Ak Bars Kazan)	Vadim Shipachyov (Dynamo Moscow)	Artyom Galimov (Ak Bars Kazan)
November[19]	Timur Bilyalov (Ak Bars Kazan)	Mikko Lehtonen (Jokerit)	Dmitrij Jaškin (Dynamo Moscow)	Kirill Marchenko (SKA Saint Petersburg)
December[20]	Jakub Kovář (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg)	Mikko Lehtonen (Jokerit)	Roman Starchenko (Barys Nur-Sultan)	Akim Trishin (Spartak Moscow)
January[21]	Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow)	Mikko Lehtonen (Jokerit)	Anton Slepyshev (CSKA Moscow)	Ivan Morozov (CSKA Moscow)
February[22]	Ivan Fedotov (Traktor Chelyabinsk)	Vasili Tokranov (SKA Saint Petersburg)	Kirill Kaprizov (CSKA Moscow)	Dmitri Voronkov (Ak Bars Kazan)
March	Not awarded
April

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