Kontinental Hockey League team changes

From the league's inception in 2008 there have always been team changes in the Kontinental Hockey League between seasons, as some new teams have joined the league or others have left it. There is no promotion/relegation system with the VHL in place like there was with the Superleague and Vysshaya Liga. The number of teams in the league stayed at 24 throughout the first two seasons. In the third season the number of teams was reduced to 23 because Budivelnyk, a team that planned to join the league, dropped out before the start of the season.^[1] Initially, Lev Poprad replaced Budivelnyk to retain the number of teams at 24.^[2] However, Lev was excluded by the KHL before the start of that season,^[3] but would be accepted into the league for 2011–12. The league plans to expand this number for future seasons.

The inaugural season of KHL included all 20 teams of the 2007–08 Russian Superleague. Non–Russian teams Barys Astana, Dinamo Riga and Dinamo Minsk also joined the newly formed league. Likewise, the recreated team of Khimik Voskresensk, the champion of the 2007–08 season of the Major League, joined. Thus the initial number of teams was 24.

Team changes by season

Season	Teams left the league	Fate of the team		Teams joined the league	Where from	Number of teams in the league
2008–09	inaugural season of competition					24
2009–10	Khimik	Joined VHL		Avtomobilist	VHL	24
2010–11	Lada	Joined VHL		UHC Dynamo	Newly created team by merger of Dynamo and MVD	23
	Dynamo M	Merged with MVD to form UHC Dynamo		Yugra	VHL
	MVD	Merged with Dynamo to form UHC Dynamo
2011–12	Lokomotiv	Scratched from season due to plane crash		Lev Poprad	Newly created team	23
2012–13	Lev Poprad	Disbanded		Slovan	Slovak Extraliga	26
				Donbass	VHL
				Lokomotiv	Returned to KHL after plane tragedy
				Lev Praha	Newly created team
2013–14				Admiral	Newly created team	28
				Medveščak	Austrian EBEL
2014–15	Donbass	Joined the Ukrainian Hockey Extra League prior to the 2015–16 season, after one year of inactivity.		Lada Togliatti	Returned to the league	28
	Lev Praha	Disbanded		Jokerit	Liiga
	Spartak Moscow	Took one year off due to financial issues		HC Sochi	Newly created team
2015–16	Atlant			Spartak Moscow	Returned to KHL	28
2016–17				HC Red Star Kunlun	Newly created team	29

Division lineup changes

Season	Divisions
	Bobrov		Tarasov		Kharlamov		Chernyshev
	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division	Joined division	Left division
2008–09 (initial composition)	Atlant Dinamo Mn Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Severstal Spartak		CSKA Khimik Metallurg Mg HC MVD SKA Traktor		Amur Avangard Dinamo R Lada Lokomotiv Sibir		Ak Bars Barys Dynamo M Neftekhimik Torpedo Vityaz
2009–10 (geographical realignment)	CSKA Dynamo M Dinamo R SKA	Atlant Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Severstal	Atlant Lokomotiv Severstal Torpedo Vityaz	CSKA Khimik Metallurg Mg SKA Traktor	Ak Bars Avtomobilist Metallurg Mg Neftekhimik Traktor	Amur Avangard Dinamo R Lokomotiv Sibir	Amur Avangard Metallurg Nk Salavat Yulaev Sibir	Ak Bars Dynamo M Neftekhimik Torpedo Vityaz
2010–11	UHC Dynamo	Dynamo M Dinamo Mn	Dinamo Mn	HC MVD	Yugra	Lada
2011–12	Lev Poprad			Lokomotiv
2012–13	Donbass Lev Praha Slovan Vityaz	CSKA Lev Poprad Spartak	CSKA Lokomotiv Spartak	Vityaz
2013–14	CSKA Dinamo Mn Medveščak	Donbass Dynamo M Vityaz	Donbass Dynamo M Vityaz	CSKA Dinamo Mn Torpedo	Torpedo		Admiral
2014–15[4]	Atlant Jokerit	CSKA Lev Praha	CSKA HC Sochi Torpedo	Atlant Spartak Moscow Donbass	Lada	Torpedo
2015–16	Spartak M	Atlant
2016–17							HC Red Star Kunlun

References

Kontinental Hockey League
Western Conference Eastern Conference Bobrov Division Dinamo Minsk Dinamo Riga Jokerit Helsinki Medveščak Zagreb SKA Saint Petersburg Slovan Bratislava Spartak Moscow Tarasov Division CSKA Moscow Dynamo Moscow HC Sochi Lokomotiv Yaroslavl Severstal Cherepovets Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Vityaz Moscow Kharlamov Division Ak Bars Kazan Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg Lada Togliatti Metallurg Magnitogorsk Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk Traktor Chelyabinsk Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk Chernyshev Division Admiral Vladivostok Amur Khabarovsk Avangard Omsk Barys Astana Kunlun Red Star Metallurg Novokuznetsk Salavat Yulaev Ufa Sibir Novosibirsk
Topics Seasons 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 Playoffs 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Junior Drafts 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 expansion 2014 expansion All-Star Games 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Games and Cups Gagarin Cup KHL Conference Finals Continental Cup Nadezhda Cup Opening Cup KHL vs NHL games Related topics Team changes Potential expansion List of champions List of goal scoring champions List of scoring champions KHL territorial pick KHL Players' Trade Union Rivalries in the KHL KHL arenas