Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Preview & Betting Guide

We look ahead to the 2024-25 season of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), can the reigning champions Metallurg Magnitogorsk win the championship for a seventh time?
Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Preview & Betting Guide
Andy Powell
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2024-25 KHL Preview

The new season of the KHL gets underway in September 2024 and Metallurg Magnitogorsk will be looking to defend their Gagarin Cup after whitewashing Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 4-0 in last season's final.

That was title number six for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and their first title since 2016 and they ended CSKA Moscow's quest for a third consecutive title who went out in the first round of the playoffs.

They will head into the 2023-24 season looking to back up their championship win, a feat they have yet to achieve in the past when winning previous championships.

Throughout the season be sure to head over to the Kontinental Hockey League Predictions from our expert ice hockey tipsters to see which teams they are backing to be successful.

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How often do Favourites win in KHL?

How do the Favourites Compare?

When it comes to comparing six of the most popular hockey leagues, then it is the KHL which comes out top as the most reliable for winning favourites. The league has seen 62.82% of favourites over the past five season go on to success. 

  1. Russian KHL: 62.82%
  2. Finnish Liiga: 62.61%
  3. Swiss NLA: 61.3%
  4. USA NHL: 60.82%
  5. German DEL: 60.61%
  6. Swedish SHL: 59.83%

Which teams are the most and least reliable?

The most reliable team when it comes to favourites in the KHL over the past five seasons is SKA St. Petersburg. They have a win rate of 70.93% when priced up by the bookmakers as favourites with 222 wins from a total of 313 games.

At the other end of the scale is Vladivostok with a win rate of 51.28%. That has come from 39 games producing 20 wins, they are maybe the team in this league to avoid when they are priced up as favourites.

KHL Favourite Statistics by Season


2019-202020-212021-222022-232023-24
Home Favs63.83%66.22%61.79%62.94%63.24%
Away Favs59.57%67.09%66.26%56.06%58.86%
Overall Favs62.32%66.58%63.47%60.55%61.63%

*Favourite statistics only include regular-season games

Ice Hockey Betting Tips
We offer Ice Hockey betting tips from all of the major leagues from the NHL in North America to the top European Leagues in Sweden, Finland, Germany and many more!

Past Continental Cup Winners

The Continental Cup is awarded to the regular-season winners, the team who amasses the most points before the playoffs, since the founding of the league, there has been a total of seven different winners of the trophy.

Do the Continental Cup winners do well in the playoffs? There is a simple answer to that and it's not really! You would expect following a very good regular season that the winners would go on to perform well in the postseason, however, in the twelve seasons (2019-20 had no postseason) only one Continental Cup winner has also gone on to win the Gagarin Cup, that was CSKA Moscow in the 2018-19 season.

Furthermore, only a total of three of the winners made the Gagarin Cup finals, the other two have also been CSKA Moscow who lost in the final in both 2016 & 2021. The Continental Cup has been awarded to a team from the Western Conference every year since 2013.

SeasonTeam (Points)Playoff Outcome
2023-24Dynamo Moscow (W) (98)Lost in Conference Quarter-Finals
2022-23SKA Saint Petersburg (W) (105)Lost in Conference Semi-Finals
2021–22No Winner
2020–21CSKA Moscow (W) (91)Lost in the Gagarin Cup Finals
2019–20CSKA Moscow (W) (94)Playoffs not completed
2018–19CSKA Moscow (W) (106)Won Gagarin Cup
2017–18SKA Saint Petersburg (W) (138)Lost in Conference Finals
2016–17CSKA Moscow (W) (137)Lost in Conference Semi-Finals
2015–16CSKA Moscow (W) (127)Lost in the Gagarin Cup Finals
2014–15CSKA Moscow (W) (139)Lost in Conference Finals

Past Gagarin Cup Winners

The winner of the KHL season after the playoffs receives the Gagarin Cup, named after the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, what does he have to do with hockey? Nothing, but the last game of the season is usually played around the anniversary (12th April) of his flight.

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) was founded in 2008, the 2019-20 season was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic which means we have had a total of fifteen winners of the Gagarin Cup and we are split at seven wins from the eastern conference teams and seven wins for the western conference teams, the inaugural season which was won by AK Bars Kazan did not have a conference split.

AK Bars Kazan has made the final five times whilst CSKA Moscow have made the final on six occasions and they are well matched with Kazan & CSKA both winning three titles but it is CSKA who have had better recent success winning two of the last three and beating Kazan in 2023 final. Metallurg Magnitogorsk's win in 2024 added to their wins in both 2014 & 2016 making them also three-time winners.

Both Dynamo Moscow (2012 & 2013) and SKA Saint Petersburg (2015 & 2017) have 100% records when making the finals having both won the two finals they have appeared in.

Who will be adding to their winning record this season? We have a lot of expert tipsters for ice hockey, try our Best Ice Hockey Tipsters page which will display only hockey tipsters who have shown a profit over the past year.

TeamAppsWinsLosses
CSKA Moscow633
Ak Bars Kazan532
Metallurg Magnitogorsk532
Avangard Omsk312
Dynamo Moscow220
SKA Saint Petersburg220
Salavat Yulaev Ufa110
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl202
HC MVD101
Atlant Moscow Oblast101
Traktor Chelyabinsk101
Lev Prague101

2023-24 Playoff Bracket

KHL Teams

Teams in the Bobrov Division

The Bobrov Division is named after the great Vsevolod Bobrov, the former Soviet Union gold medalist and former CSKA Moscow player.

TeamCityArenaCapacityFoundedJoined
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod (FIN)Trade Union Sport Palace
5,50019472008
SKA Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg (RUS)Ice Palace12,30019462008
HC SochiSochi (RUS)Bolshoy Ice Dome12,0002014
Spartak MoscowMoscow (RUS)Megasport Arena12,12619462008
Vityaz Podolsk
Podolsk (RUS)Vityaz Ice Palace5,50019962008

Teams in the Tarasov Division

Named after the 'Father of Russian Hockey', the hockey hall of fame legend Anatoli Tarasov, the man who put the Soviet Union on the hockey map.

TeamCityArenaCapacityFoundedJoined
CSKA MoscowMoscow (RUS)CSKA Arena12,10019462008
Dinamo MinskMinsk (BLR)Minsk-Arena15,08620042008
Kunlun Red Star
Beijing (CHN)Mytishchi Arena
7,0002016
Dynamo MoscowMoscow (RUS)VTB Arena10,49519462008
Lokomotiv YaroslavlYaroslavl (RUS)Arena 20009,07019592008
Severstal CherepovetsCherepovets (RUS)Ice Palace5,58319562008

Teams in the Kharlamov Division

The Kharlamov division is another division that is named after an Olympic gold medalist for the Soviet Union and former CKSA player, Valeri Kharlamov who is also inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

TeamCityArenaCapacityFoundedJoined
Ak Bars KazanKazan (RUS)TatNeft Arena8,89519562008
Avtomobilist YekaterinburgYekaterinburg (RUS)KRK Uralets5,54520062009
Lada Togliatti
Tolyatti (RUS)Lada Arena
6,00019762008
Metallurg MagnitogorskMagnitogorsk (RUS)Arena Metallurg7,70419502008
Neftekhimik NizhnekamskNizhnekamsk (RUS)SCC Arena5,50019682008
Traktor ChelyabinskChelyabinsk (RUS)Traktor Ice Arena7,50019472008

Teams in the Chernyshev Division

Arkady Ivanovich Chernyshev whom this division is named in honour of was remembered as more influential in the hockey world after he retired from playing, he was the coach of the national team (Soviet Union) and also Dynamo Moscow and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.

TeamCityArenaCapacityFoundedJoined
Admiral VladivostokVladivostok (RUS)Fetisov Arena5,5002013
Amur KhabarovskKhabarovsk (RUS)Platinum Arena7,10019662008
Avangard OmskOmsk (Balashikha) (RUS)Balashikha Arena5,67819502008
Barys Astana
Astana (KAZ)Barys Arena11,50219992008
Salavat Yulaev UfaUfa (RUS)Ufa Arena8,07019572008
Sibir NovosibirskNovosibirsk (RUS)Ice Sports Palace Sibir7,42019622008

Author Information

Andy Powell manages this Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Preview & Betting Guide and other hockey content in this section of the site as well as the Ice Hockey Tipsters in the OLBG tipster competition in his role in the OLBG Expert Team. Andy meticulously updates the date and results for these pieces and is an erstwhile Penguins fan in the NHL. He provides Ice Hockey betting advice in our bookmaker reviews as well as providing a huge contribution to the Best Ice Hockey Betting Sites Guide.

Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content Editor

Andy also possesses a keen interest in American sports with a particular affinity for the NFL and the NHL. He follows the Pittsburgh Penguins, emphasizing his broad palette for diversified sporting events.

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