Next season the KHL will have three new teams added to their league as a part of their expansion plans: Toljati Lada, Helsinki Jokerit and a club from this years Olympic home – Sochi that has yet to be named. The latest rumours indicate that the Sochi team will be called the Dolphins. KHL President Alexander Medveded has confirmed that that all three teams are joining the KHL as the league has now received acceptable applications from the aforementioned (Jokerit was approved earlier this season). As per the president they have contacted owners in the Krasnodarsk region and have been assured that everything will be in place to set a proper budget in place for team based in Sochi.
News about Jokerit joining the KHL appeared at the beginning of this season, and it’s now official that the team has qualified to join the league. The team has been a perennial powerhouse in Finland’s top league, SM-Liiga, but is making the jump to the KHL. The expansion into Finland continues the KHL’s plan of becoming a truly “Kontinental” hockey league, eventually being the undisputed top league throughout all of Europe.
Toljati Lada played in the KHL for for two seasons (2008-10) but was removed from the tournament due to the fact that they couldn’t guarantee their budget and ability to compete. They also lacked a suitable arena, which was a sticking point with the league. As such, they were expelled and demoted to the Russian VHL. Now, four years later, they have solved those issues and are ready to rejoin the top-flight league once more.
Sochi is a city that built two hockey arenas for the Olympic games and it is understandable that these state of the art arenas can’t sit empty after the games are done. The expansion team will join the KHL as expected, despite the fact that during the Olympics themselves there were rumors that they would not be ready for the 2014-15 season and may be delayed another year. Those rumours were confirmed as false and the league announced today that the team will be ready to go next season.
For the team in Sochi, the KHL will create an enlargement (expansion) draft so that they will be able to ice a competitive roster. It would appear that the Sochi team will have two to three players from each other KHL team to choose from with them picking up the current contract.
It is unclear as to exactly how many teams will be in the league next season, as it is possible that the league could be losing two teams as well. It remains unclear if Spartak Moscow will be able to participate as they have lost their head sponsor and the KHL office had to step in and lend the team money. They also did not participate in the KHL’s Hopes Cup Tournament (the tournament for teams that do not qualify for the playoffs). The KHL has decided to take over ownership of a few Spartak players as payment for their loan deal. It’s also unclear if Donetsk Donbass will participate next season knowing the current situation that is going on between Russia and the Ukraine.
Note: Sources in the the Norwegian media are also reporting that the league has met with the Oslo Valerenga team, and it appears that they have received an official invitation to participate in the KHL. Leadership of the team has announced that the Norwegian Hockey Federation is agreeable to teams possibly joining the KHL, but there are still a number of details that still need to be dealt with.
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