Overboard: Vityaz left the Kontinental Hockey League

The Vityaz hockey club from Moscow region will not play in the new KHL season. A statement on the suspension of participation was posted on the league's website. It's not new for the KHL to lose clubs. HC MVD and Atlant did not even save reaching the finals, Novokuznetsk Metallurg and Ugra went down to the VHL, and pretty Medveschak and Slovan returned to their home championships. But Vityaz has been in the league for all 17 seasons, so saying goodbye to him is doubly painful. Although the team has not become popular over the years, it has not gained a large fan base, and it has not attracted the attention of neutral viewers. The reasons for the loss of another KHL club are in the Izvestia article.

Vityaz has been associated with the Tafgai team for many years. The ideologist of the fight club was Nikolai Pavlinov. The former owner of Vityaz invited famous fighters from both sides of the ocean. John Mirasti, Darcy Vero, Jeremy Jablonski, Chris Simon staged shows, received suspensions, but provided powerful black PR. Until now, the most popular fights in the history of the KHL are associated with the days of the fighting "Vityaz". Solely from a hockey point of view, these are not the most attractive years of the club. The performances often resembled circus acts or MMA fights. They had nothing to do with hockey. With the end of the Pavlinov era, the fights at Vityaz ended, and then the team focused on hockey and the fight for the playoffs.

It didn't bring her much fame. The attention to Vityaz has definitely decreased. Migration in the Moscow region also hindered. The club managed to change three cities: Podolsk, Chekhov and Balashikha. This has affected the interest of the fans across the region. Over time, Vityaz came under the wing of SKA through its general sponsor, Gazprom. Not only did the team hang out at the bottom of the table, but it also had to cultivate one or two talented hockey players, as they were immediately taken to the pencil in St. Petersburg. That's how Vasily Podkolzin, Ivan Demidov, Peter Kochetkov, Zakhar Bardakov, Alexander Samonov ended up in SKA — the flow of players moved in both directions, but one club remained the beneficiary.

Over time, the army's influence became less, but Vityaz's life did not get any better. Now the KHL has lost a clear outsider of the "West", and from a sporting point of view, there is no reason for great pity. However, compared to Sochi or Kunlun, Vityaz's history is longer and richer. That is why the club's disappearance is a blow to Russian hockey. He remained extremely original, and became famous for his students and teachers who came to Russia to earn money for fighting on the ice (unfortunately, many played hockey quite badly, but this was not required of them).

One large fertilizer company could have saved Vityaz, but they didn't want to invest in the least popular club there. It takes too much money and effort to do this. And there are no guarantees of results, much less income. They did not find funds for Vityaz in the regional budget.

The disappearance of Vityaz significantly changes the very structure of the KHL. Most likely, Lada will be transferred from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference, for which this will significantly complicate the task of reaching the playoffs. And reducing the number of participants to 11 in the East will make it easier for the top 8 teams in this conference. It is still unclear whether the number of matches in the regular season will change or whether the same 68 meetings will be achieved due to fundamental confrontations between the teams.

After the global sale at Vityaz, several clubs significantly strengthened their squad at once: Buchelnikov and Roy went to CSKA, Dorozhko and Soza to Amur, Vorobyov and Yarovoy to Spartak, Stewart to Salavat Yulaev. The market has been significantly enriched by Vityaz players, but at the same time, several hockey players will definitely be out of work in the KHL. There are 20-25 fewer jobs in the league at once, and this increases competition.

For the KHL, the removal of Vityaz is an obvious blow to its reputation. Especially since the Board of Directors approved the membership in the spring, and there were no questions about the Moscow club. But the financial situation changed dramatically in May, so what could the league do? The contributions from sponsors are serious, one contract with a major bookmaker is estimated at several billion rubles, but the finances are distributed evenly between the clubs, and the money received from the league is still far from sufficient to exist on it.

Of course, Vityaz will be missed. Not because he was anything special. They just got used to it. But no one will be very sad — except, perhaps, a small group of the team's fans. I really feel sorry for them.