Teams and tournament structure for 2018-19 season confirmed
The League has officially approved and confirmed the structure for the XI season of the Kontinental Hockey League Championship and the teams for each Division and Conference.
In the first stage of the Championship, the regular season, each team plays one home game and one road game against every other team in the League (48 matches, 24 at home and 24 on the road) plus 14 matches against opposition from the given team's Conference (7 at home and 7 on the road). Therefore, each member club will play a total of 62 games (31 at home and 31 on the road) in the 2018-19 regular season.
The League will keep the traditional format for determining playoff qualification and seeding at the end of the regular season, i.e. at the end of the first stage, the top 8 teams from each Conference earn the right to participate in the second stage of the Championship (playoffs). In each Conference, the first two placings (the 1st and 2nd seeds for the playoffs) are given to the teams which finish top of their Division standings. Places (and seedings) from 3rd to 8th are allocated purely according to the total number of points earned, irrespective of Division standings.
The Divisions and Conferences for the 2018-19 season are as follows:
WESTERN CONFERENCE:
| Bobrov Division: | Tarasov Division: |
|---|---|
| Dinamo Riga | CSKA Moscow |
| Dynamo Moscow | Dinamo Minsk |
| Jokerit Helsinki | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl |
| Severstal Cherepovets | Slovan Bratislava |
| SKA Saint Petersburg | HC Sochi |
| Spartak Moscow | Vityaz Moscow Region |
EASTERN CONFERENCE:
| Kharlamov Division: | Chernyshev Division: |
|---|---|
| Ak Bars Kazan | Admiral Vladivostok |
| Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg | Amur Khabarovsk |
| Metallurg Magnitogorsk | Avangard Omsk |
| Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk | Barys Astana |
| Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod | Kunlun Red Star |
| Traktor Chelyabinsk | Salavat Yulaev Ufa |
| Sibir Novosibirsk |
