The Hockey Club SKA (russian: Спортивный клуб СКА), often referred to as SKA Saint Petersburg and literally as the Sports Club of the Army, is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Saint Petersburg. They are members of the Bobrov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The club never competed in a league final until the

2014–15 KHL season The 2014–15 KHL season was the seventh season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The season started on 3 September with the Opening Cup between defending champions Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Dynamo Moscow, replacing Lev Praha, last year's runner ...

, where they defeated Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup. They won their second Gagarin Cup in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, defeating Metallurg Magnitogorsk. In 2012, with an average of 10,126 spectators, the SKA became the first Russian club ever to average a five-digit attendance. SKA is owned by Russian state-controlled energy giant

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...

. The club used its immense wealth to gather almost all elite Russian KHL players under its umbrella to prepare them for the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

. The success of Russian team in winning gold at the first Olympics since 1994 that did not feature any active NHL players were attributed to players' chemistry developed in SKA.

History

The club was established in 1946 as a top-level club of the Soviet Championship League to participate in its first season. The original name of the club was Kirov LDO ( Kirov Leningrad Officers' Club). It was subsequently changed to ODO (District Officers' Club) in 1953, SKVO (Sports Club of the Military District) in 1957 and finally Sportivnyi Klub Armii (Sport Club of the Army) in 1959. During the Soviet era, the SKA (along with CSKA Moscow) belonged to the Ministry of Defense sports club system. After finishing last in their group during the first season, LDO skipped the next season and was downgraded to the second level of the championship in 1948. The club returned to the Soviet Class A in 1950–51 and remained in the top division of the Soviet league until

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

. The highest achievements of the club during that time were the 1968 and 1971 Soviet Cup Finals (the former was lost to CSKA Moscow 7–1, the latter to Spartak Moscow 5–1) as well as the bronze medals of the 1970–71 and 1986–87 Soviet Championships. After one season in the second level division of the Soviet League (the first and the only

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

Championship), the SKA joined the International Ice Hockey League established by the top ice hockey teams of the former Soviet Union. During its 1993–94 season, the SKA managed to advance to the IHL Cup semi-finals but lost to that year's champion Lada Togliatti. The club was less successful in the Russian Superleague, which replaced the IHL as the main Russian championship since 1996, failing to get further than the first playoff rounds. The formation of the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 marked the beginning of a new era for the team. HC SKA got into their first Conference Finals during the 2011–12 season and finishing first during the regular season the next year winning the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Continental Cup. In the

2015 Gagarin Cup playoffs The 2015 Gagarin Cup playoffs of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) began on February 27, 2015, with the top eight teams from each of the conferences, after the conclusion of the 2014–15 KHL regular season. Playoff seeds After the regular se ...

, after defeating both Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (russian: МГО ВФСО «Динамо»), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (russian: Динамо Москва) is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first ...

in five games in the first two rounds, HC SKA were in the Western Conference Finals for the third time in four years this time facing CSKA Moscow. HC SKA were already down 0–3 after the first three games, but managed to rebound and win the next four straight clinching the series 4–3. This made them the first team in KHL history to win a playoff series after being down three games to none. The team would go on to defeat Ak Bars Kazan 4–1 to win the Gagarin Cup and become the KHL champions, the first nationwide championship in club history. But they could not manage to retain the Gagarin Cup in the following season, as they were swept by 2015–16 Continental Cup winners CSKA Moscow in the Conference Finals and finished in 3rd place. In the 2016–17 KHL season, SKA drew an average home attendance of 11,735.

Awards and trophies

Team

Gagarin Cup *Winners (2): 2014–15, 2016–17 Continental Cup *Winners (2):

, 2017–18 Opening Cup *Winners (2): 2017–18, 2018–19 Soviet Championship League *3rd place ''(2)'': 1970–71, 1986–87

Pre-season

Spengler Cup *Winners (4): 1970, 1971, 1977,

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Motorola Cup Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

*Winners (1): 1983

Puchkov Cup Puchkov (russian: Пучков, from ''пучок'' meaning ''bundle'', ''beam'') is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Puchkova. Notable people with the surname include: *Aleksandr Puchkov (born 1957), retired male hurdler a ...

*Winners (6): 2008,2015,2017,2018,2019,2021,2022

Basel Summer Ice Hockey The Basel Summer Ice Hockey is an ice hockey tournament held in Basel, Switzerland every August before the start of many domestic European ice hockey seasons. All matches are played at the home of the EHC Basel ice hockey club, that being St. Jakob ...

*Winners (1): 2009 Donbass Open Cup *Winners (1): 2011

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup is an annual pre-season ice hockey tournament held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. The tournament was first held in 2010 by the initiative of the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. The event i ...

*Winners (1): 2012

Tournament Hameenlinna A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

*Winners (1): 2013

Sochi Winter Cup Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents ...

*Winners (1): 2022

Season-by-season record

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against''

Players

Current roster

All-time KHL scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed KHL regular season. ''Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; '' = current SKA player''

Head coaches

* Gennady Dmitriev ( 1946–47) * A. Semenov (

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...

—

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

) * Belyay Bekyashev (

—

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

) * Georgy Lasin (

—

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

) * Anatoly Viktorov (

— 1956–57) * Evgeny Voronin (

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

—

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

) * Aleksander Komarov (

—

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

) *

Yevgeni Babich Yevgeni Makarovich Babich (7 January 1921 – 11 June 1972) was an ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. Biography Babich played for HC CSKA Moscow. He was inducted into the Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame ...

( 1962–1963) * Nikolai Puchkov (

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

—

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

) * Veniamin Alexandrov (

—

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

) * Nikolai Puchkov (

—

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

) * Oleg Sivkov ( 1977–78) * Nikolai Puchkov (

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

) * Valeri Shilov ( 1978—1979) * Igor Romishevsky (

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

—

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

) *

Boris Mikhailov Boris Mikhailov may refer to: * Boris Mikhailov (Comintern), representative of the Communist International to the US in 1929-30 * Boris Mikhailov (photographer) (born 1938), fine art photographer * Boris Mikhailov (ice hockey) (born 1944), former ...

(

—

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

) * Valeri Shilov (

—

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

) * Gennadiy Tsygankov ( 1989–90— 1990–91) * / Igor Shurkov ( 1990–91— 1991–92) *

(

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

—

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

) * Nikolai Maslov ( 1998–99) * Alexander Zhukov (

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

) * Rafael Ishmatov (

— 2001–02) * Nikolai Puchkov (

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

) *

(

—

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

) * Nikolai Solovyev ( 2005–06) * Sergei Cherkas (

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

) *

(

) * Yuri Leonov (

—

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

) * Barry Smith (

—

) * Ivan Zanatta (

) * Václav Sýkora ( 2010—11) * Miloš Říha (

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

—

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

) * Mikhail Kravets (

) * Jukka Jalonen (

—

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

) * Vyacheslav Bykov (

—

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

) * Andrei Nazarov (

) * Sergei Zubov ( 2015–16) * /

Oļegs Znaroks Oleg Valerievich Znarok (russian: Олег Валерьевич Знарок, lv, Oļegs Znaroks; born 2 January 1963) is a Soviet-Latvian professional ice hockey player. In 2022, he was the head coach of Ak Bars Kazan in the Kontinental Hockey L ...

(

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

—

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

) *

Ilya Vorobiev Ilya Petrovich Vorobiev (russian: Илья Петрович Воробьёв; born in 1975) is a Russian and German retired ice hockey player who is currently coaching the Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Born March 16, 1975 in Riga, Vorobiev is the eldes ...

(

—2019) *

Alexei Kudashov Alexei Nikolaevich Kudashov (russian: Алексей Николаевич Кудашов; born July 21, 1971) is a Russian former professional ice hockey Forward (ice hockey), forward and current head coach for HC Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental ...

(

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

—

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

) *

Valeri Bragin Valeri Nikolayevich Bragin (russian: Валерий Николаевич Брагин) (born May 31, 1956) is the current assistant coach of SKA Saint Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He is also a retired ice hockey forward. He ...

(

—

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

) *

Roman Rotenberg Roman Borisovich Rotenberg (russian: Роман Борисович Ротенберг; born 7 April 1981) is a Finnish and Russian entrepreneur, manager and ice hockey executive. He is first vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, ge ...

(

—)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:SKA Saint Petersburg Ice hockey teams in Russia Sport in Saint Petersburg Armed Forces sports society Kontinental Hockey League teams Military ice hockey teams Bobrov Division (KHL)