Though it’s not quite the downsize that was rumored last week, the KHL has closed the doors on two franchises for the upcoming season. Both Metallurg Novokuznetsk and Medvescak Zagreb will not operate in the KHL this season. It was already known that Zagreb would be returning to the Austrian Hockey League, after another losing season in which the team struggled financially. Novokuznetsk was one of the teams suggested last week, after going just 14-42-4 and scoring less than 100 goals this season.
Despite recent statements from the league that speak of it’s financial health, there have been reports for months (if not years) that there is a wild discrepancy between the stability of the top teams and bottom-feeders. In November, CBC reported that the new Kunlun Red Star team based in China had been drawing fewer than 1,000 fans to some matches. Though breaking into new territory is always difficult, Zagreb is the latest example of a non-Russian team unable to compete for very long.
Novokuznetsk had been in the league since its inception in 2009, but was the only team with the dubious distinction to have never made the playoffs. Even Kunlun made it in their first season, though just a handful of teams really ever make it deep into the postseason. There have only been five different Gagarin Cup Champions in the league’s nine seasons, with three clubs winning it twice each.
There is also a report from the Associated Press that the league still owes over $17MM to players, some of whom haven’t been paid in up to six months. Apparently most of that debt comes down to seven teams, who are “regularly late with salaries”. While it’s not like the KHL is going to close its doors in the next year, the continued financial struggles of some of it’s lower teams is something to keep an eye on. The league will try to balance the playing field this season by more strictly enforcing their salary cap, something that has been routinely taken advantage of in the past by the big spenders.