The 2009-10 KHL season will face some further changes as the KHL Board of Governors just announced the next year's formula through its official web site that can reached at www.khl.ru.
Most significantly, the Board of Governors adopted the Directors of the Clubs' proposal for a conference system with geographical alignments. The two conferences are further split in two divisions of six teams each. Khimik Voskresensk will be replaced by Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg. The competing teams will thus remain 24.
This is how the alignments look like:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
BOBROV DIVISION
Dinamo Moscow
Dinamo Minsk
Dinamo Riga
Spartak Moscow
SKA St. Petersburg
CSKA Moscow
TARASOV DIVISION
Atlant Mytischy
HC MVD Balashikha
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
Severstal Cherepovets
Vityaz Chekhov
EASTERN CONFERENCE
KHARLAMOV DIVISION
Ak Bars Kazan
Lada Togliatti
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk
Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Traktor Chelyabinsk
Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg
CHERNYSHEV DIVISION
Avangard Omsk
Metallurg Novokuznetsk
Sibir Novosibirsk
Amur Khabarovsk
Barys Astana
Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Each team will face division rivals for a total of 20 games (two games at home and two on the road), and play the other 18 divisions team a total of 36 games (one at home and one at the road). In the regular season, each team will thus play a total of 56 games.
The top eight teams from each conference will qualify for the playoffs (with the first two seeds being the divisions' winners. As in the NHL, the playoffs will be conducted separately within the two conferences. The conference quarterfinals will be played as a best-of-five series, while the other rounds, conference semifinals and finals, and Gagarin Cup finals will be best-of-seven series.
As the KHL will continue to conduct annual entry drafts, an innovative formula for the draft order was created in order to stop teams tanking hunting the first overall pick, like too often it's seen in the NHL: the teams that didn't get into the playoffs will play a short tournament and the winners will get the first pick, the runner-ups the second, and so on.
Finances
The financial conditions are similar to last season ones. The salary cap for the teams will be 620 millions of roubles, around $20 millions, with a salary floor of 200 millions of roubles ($ 6.5 millions). The 620 millions salary cap is the same as last year, but back then the change was $26 millions. Each team has the right to exclude one player from the salary cap count.
The minimum salary will be 300.000 roubles ($10.000) for any player contracted with the main team, and 80.000 for any player contracted with the junior team or loaned to the Vyschaya Liga.
Rosters and teams compositions
Each team can declare up to 25 players in the KHL and up to 25 in the MHL, the new, pan-russian junior league set to start this fall. Additionally, five further players can be loaned to not more than two Vyschaya Liga teams.
KHL franchises will be allowed not more than five foreigners, no matter their role. The only limitation is that only one foreigner goalkeeper is admitted.
The trade deadline is set for January 31st, 2010, at 24.00 Moscow Time.
Regarding the rosters' composition for the matches, up to 22 players can be dressed in each game: two goalies, eighteen skaters and two youngsters, who must be Russian citizens and born not previously than January 1st, 1990. The foreigner teams won't have the nationality limitation for this last rule.
Miscellaneous
There will be a little change in the refereeing system as half of the regular season matches and the whole playoffs will be judged by two main referees and two linesmen.
The goal crease will pass from the European one to the smaller North American one.
Furthermore, there won't be anymore playoff games decided after the shoot-out as all the matches will have continuous overtime periods 20-minutes long.
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