2012–13 KHL season


The 2012–13 KHL season was the fifth season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The regular season began on 4 September with the Lokomotiv Cup between last year's finalists Dynamo Moscow and Avangard Omsk. For the first time, the league consisted of 26 teams from 7 different countries. Dynamo Moscow successfully defended their title after beating Traktor Chelyabinsk in the Gagarin Cup finals.

Changes

Team changes

After withdrawing from the previous season in the wake of the plane crash that killed the team's entire active roster, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl returned to the KHL with new players.
Lev Poprad was disbanded, but a team of the same name, Lev Prague, was established in Prague, Czech Republic, while Slovan Bratislava joined the KHL and thus continues the league's presence in Slovakia. Also HC Donbass from Donetsk, Ukraine joined the league. The team previously played in the VHL. This brought the total number of teams to 26, representing 7 different countries.

Salary cap

The salary cap changed from a soft cap to a hard cap, set at 1.1 billion rubles, but each club can waive the cap for one player transferred directly from the NHL, if he is eligible to play for the Russian national team.

Season structure

The regular season consisted of 52 games for each team — twice against each other team in the league and two extra games against a selected "rival" opponent. This was a change from previous seasons, where all intra-division opponents were played more frequently. The top 8 teams from each conference qualified for the play-offs, which are played as best-of-seven series in each round.

Nadezhda Cup tournament

In January 2013, a new repechage tournament known as the Nadezhda Cup was announced, which was held alongside the playoffs. Six teams from the Western Conference and four teams from the Eastern Conference who had not qualified for the playoffs competed in the tournament, whose prize includes the first overall pick in the next KHL Junior Draft. The new tournament was intended to extend the season, and help maintain interest in hockey for fans and players in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The first Cup of Hope was won by Dinamo Riga.

Regular season

The regular season started on 4 September 2012 with the Lokomotiv Cup between the finalists of the previous season, Dynamo Moscow and Avangard Omsk and ended on 17 February 2013 after every team has played 52 matches.

Notable events

NHL lockout

The league set up rules for the NHL lockout which lasted 16 September 2012 to early January 2013. According to the special regulations, each KHL team was allowed to add up to 3 NHL players to their roster, among them at most one foreign player.

Proposed matches in New York

Two regular season games between Dynamo Moscow and SKA Saint Petersburg were planned to take place in the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York in January 2013. However, the KHL reverted this decision in October 2012 and thus these matches will be played in Russia.

All-star game

The 5th KHL all-star game was played on 13 January 2013 in Chelyabinsk, with Team East, captained by Aleksey Morozov, winning 18–11 over Team West, captained by Ilya Kovalchuk.

League standings

Source: KHL.ru
Points are awarded as follows:
The conference standings determine the seedings for the play-offs. The first two places in each conference are reserved for the division winners.

Western Conference

y – Won division; c – Won Continental Cup ;
BOB – Bobrov Division, TAR – Tarasov Division
Source: khl.ru

Eastern Conference

y – Won division; z – Won conference ;
CHE – Chernyshev Division, KHA – Kharlamov Division
Source: khl.ru

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Updated on 17 February 2013. Source: khl.ru

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalty minutes
PlayerTeamGPGAPts+/–PIM
Sergei MozyakinMetallurg Magnitogorsk48354176+216
Alexander RadulovCSKA Moscow48224668+1286
Evgeni MalkinMetallurg Magnitogorsk37234265+2358
Patrick ThoresenSKA Saint Petersburg52213051+1749
Jori LehteräSibir Novosibirsk52173148+1848
Evgeny KuznetsovTraktor Chelyabinsk51192544–142
Dmitri KagarlitskyHC Donbass51143044–512
Mikhail VarnakovTorpedo Nizhny Novgorod51222143+962
Nikolay ZherdevAtlant Moscow Oblast50152843–729
Dmitri MakarovTorpedo Nizhny Novgorod52133043–214

Leading goaltenders

Updated on 17 February 2013. Source: khl.ru
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; SOP = Shootouts played; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
PlayerTeamGPMinWLSOPGASOSV%GAA
Rastislav StaňaCSKA Moscow341944:581862574.9341.76
Lars HaugenDinamo Minsk221289:291371392.9331.81
Alexander EremenkoDynamo Moscow301783:441776555.9311.85
Stanislav GalimovAtlant Moscow Oblast251389:581463454.9431.94
Sergei BobrovskySKA Saint Petersburg241419:361832464.9321.94

Playoffs

The playoffs started on 20 February 2013 with the top eight teams from both conferences and ended on 17 April with the last game of the Gagarin Cup final.
During the first three rounds home ice was determined by seeding number within the Conference, not position on the bracket. In the Finals the team with better seeding number had home ice advantage. If the seeding numbers were equal, the regular season record was taken into account.

Player statistics

Playoff scoring leaders

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/– = Plus-minus; PIM = Penalty minutes
PlayerTeamGPGAPts+/–PIM
Petri KontiolaTraktor Chelyabinsk2510919+1012
Viktor TikhonovSKA Saint Petersburg1510818+1120
Jakub PetružálekDynamo Moscow199716+44
Tony MårtenssonSKA Saint Petersburg1561016+88
Denis KokarevDynamo Moscow1811516+110

Playoff leading goaltenders

Updated on 17 April 2013. Source: khl.ru
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; SOL = Shootout losses; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage; GAA = Goals against average
PlayerTeamGPMinWLSOPGASOSV%GAA
Alexander EremenkoDynamo Moscow211309:24165038393.41.74
Rastislav StaňaCSKA Moscow9551:1254016093.91.74
Konstantin BarulinAk Bars Kazan181233:41117036294.11.75
Ilya EzhovSKA Saint Petersburg11645:2764019293.31.77
Jeff GlassSibir Novosibirsk7406:4734012294.11.77

Nadezhda Cup

Preliminary round
RankTeam
1 Dynamo Moscow
2 Traktor Chelyabinsk
3 SKA Saint Petersburg
4 Ak Bars Kazan
5 Avangard Omsk
6 CSKA Moscow
7 Salavat Yulaev Ufa
8 Severstal Cherepovets
9 Metallurg Magnitogorsk
10 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
11 Barys Astana
12 Sibir Novosibirsk
13 Slovan Bratislava
14 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk
15 Lev Prague
16 Atlant Moscow Oblast
17 Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk
18 HC Donbass
19 Dinamo Minsk
20 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
21 Metallurg Novokuznetsk
22 Vityaz Chekhov
23 Spartak Moscow
24 Dinamo Riga
25 Amur Khabarovsk
26 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

Awards

Players of the Month

Best KHL players of each month.
MonthGoaltenderDefenseForwardRookie
September Konstantin Barulin Yevgeny Medvedev Jori Lehterä Daniil Apalkov
October Alexander Eremenko Anton Belov Ilya Kovalchuk Nail Yakupov
November Rastislav Staňa Victor Hedman Artem Anisimov Viktor Antipin
December Karri Rämö Sergei Gonchar Evgeni Malkin Alexander Sharychenkov
January Vasiliy Koshechkin Dmitri Kalinin Igor Skorokhodov Valeri Nichushkin
February Vasiliy Koshechkin Yakov Rylov Mikhail Varnakov Valeri Nichushkin
March Michael Garnett Dominik Graňák Viktor Tikhonov Valeri Nichushkin

KHL Awards

On 22 May 2013, the KHL held their annual award ceremony. A total of 23 different awards were handed out to teams, players, officials and media. The most important trophies are listed in the table below.
Golden Stick Award Sergei Mozyakin
Best coach Oļegs Znaroks
Alexei Cherepanov Award Valeri Nichushkin

The league also awarded six "Golden Helmets" for the members of the all-star team: