Help me pick a KHL club to cheer for!

[Foppa]

I'm looking to adopt a KHL club...the league looks like it really has its act together and there's room in my hockey sporting fandom for more than just an NHL team.

Here's who I won't pick:
- SKA...too good of a roster I don't want to look like a front-runner.
- Lokomotiv...everyone has a little piece of their heart for this club due to the disaster so I don't feel compelled to make them my first choice.
- Dynamo, Ak Bars...too many trophies.
- Vityaz...a little bit I've always heard is that these guys were thugs. Looking at their roster it seems way less thuggish now but too late.
- The following crossed off due to my dislike for their logos, name, colors or some other not very rational reason: CSKA, Dinamo Minsk, Amur, Dinamo Riga, Medvescak, Slovan, Donbass, Severstal, Spartak, Metallurg Mg, Neftekhimik, Traktor, Yugra, Barys, Metallurg No, Salavat, Sibir.

This leaves me with the following finalists:

HC Lev Praha- I love their logo, Prague is a wonderful city, their roster looks pretty darn good to me despite a mediocre finish in their first season. Crappy old larger arena.

Atlant Mytishchi
- Love the colors and rebrand, really slick. Roster looks pretty decent to me although appear to be relatively chronic underachievers?. I assume Mytishchi is a suburb of Moscow? Arena new but boring and small.

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg- I think the name is cool especially when spelled with the 'v'. I love, love, love the newly tweaked logo and jerseys. They seem to be perpetually terrible but that's ok...I at least recognize Belanger and Lepisto on their roster. Yekaterinburg appears to be a really large city. Arena small and olf but looks newly remodeled.

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod- Appealing name "Torpedo". Like the logo, really like the jerseys. Doesn't look like they usually finish very high in KHL. Nizhny appears to be a large and culturally interesting city. Don't like the small arena.

Avangard Omsk- Badass arena and marketing imagery and jersey with the hawk wings is freaking cool. Appear to be usually one of the best teams with a history of big name players. Omsk looks big but remote which I find pretty cool actually.

Admiral Vladivostok- Might be fun to jump aboard an expansion team at the beginning. Really like the logo and colors, very well done but I hope the final jerseys are just as good. Going through the Admiral thread on this board it appears they will be pretty terrible but you gotta start somewhere. Brand new arena with an awesome name. I find the city of Vladivostok to be endlessly intriguing with its remoteness and history.

Any thoughts on any of these clubs? Keep in mind, I am coming from an North American-centric, little knowledge point of view!

Click to read more...

 

[cska78]

I think you should choose Lev from the ones you have lested, will be the most pro-western club. From the non-listed one - Medvescak is almost fully North-American roster, or wait another year for Jokerit, will also be a nice exposed western team.

 

[penepi]

Choose Atlant, it's also my number 2.
Or Slovan. Some reasons - European club, healthy economics - small as well and still has made good results. Nice stadium, great atmosphere in it....

 

[Fragmuffin]

Depends whether you wish to watch games in the evening (admiral) or in the morning (lev), rigt?

 

[Kennel]

What a silly question. It's obvious that you should wait for one year and pick Jokerit.

 

[Foppa]

I think you should choose Lev from the ones you have lested, will be the most pro-western club. From the non-listed one - Medvescak is almost fully North-American roster, or wait another year for Jokerit, will also be a nice exposed western team.

I don't need it to be a Western roster at all, I'm just saying my approach (looking at team names, colors, logos, the cities and arenas) is one somebody who knows nothing about club hockey in Russia or Eastern Europe would use because I don't know the finer points of Russian history, geography, society etc.

The roster of the team I choose can be full of Egyptians for all I care (so long as they have an owner committed to winning or a fan base that is full of passion!)

 

[Foppa]

Choose Atlant, it's also my number 2.
Or Slovan. Some reasons - European club, healthy economics - small as well and still has made good results. Nice stadium, great atmosphere in it....

I do like the eagle, I feel it could be updated a bit but you are selling me on nice stadium and good atmosphere! And do like small clubs who do well...

 

[penepi]

I do like the eagle, I feel it could be updated a bit but you are selling me on nice stadium and good atmosphere! And do like small clubs who do well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw0u278pSE4&fb_source=message
This is after the second game in Prague - I just do not want you to support Lev!

 

[Foppa]

What a silly question. It's obvious that you should wait for one year and pick Jokerit.

What is the ultimate goal of number of teams for KHL? Is there one? It looks like nice even division right now, any other clubs coming in with Jokerit?

Sorry for so many questions, this is exciting for me though, very rarely you get to have an open mind for choosing a sports club to follow!

Thanks all!

 

[King EK65]

Idek if you should cheer for a team only because you like their jerseys, logo or colors, but you should cheer for teams that have loud and loyal fans like Slovan, Dinamo Riga etc.

Good luck with finding the team to cheer for!

 

[ult]

Well, out of the teams you've shortlisted, I'd say Avangard and Lev will be the most entertaining to watch. So it's hawks vs. lions.

 

[vorky]

My 2 cents..

HC Lev Praha - will be interesting to follow them in new season, they signed new players, it seems they will be good, IMO better than last season. If you want to follow international mix on ice, Lev is for you.

Atlant Mytishchi Yes, Mytishchi is suburb of Moscow, arena is small but one of biggest in league (welcome to Europe ). Atlant will skate many young players (1992 and younger) if compared to other teams. If you like young guns, Atlant is a good choice.

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg All I can say is "lets follow GM guru in action" GM Vaysfeld left Novokuznetsk, where he was GM since 2008 (??), to be GM of Avtomobilist. Look at results of Novokuznetsk in KHL, the club with smallest budget (?) with relativelly good results. I consider Vaysfeld as best GM in KHL, he knows what chemistry means. It seems that Avto will not have financial problems anymore. I will personally follow G Kovař, best goalie of czech league for years (IMO).

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Yes, city of Nizhny Novgorod has great history. Arena old but new for 15 000 is going to be under construction soon. Club´s mascot here



Avangard Omsk Club has good juniors, MHL champions for 2 last seasons (?). Will be interesting to follow them, if they get chance. Club has good PR on internet, so easier for you to follow them.

Admiral Vladivostok Players living in university campus of Rusky island.. I would love such living conditions. This club is speacial because it is only sport club of city which plays highest level of league, not the case of local basketball/soccer teams.

 

[Kennel]

What is the ultimate goal of number of teams for KHL? Is there one? It looks like nice even division right now, any other clubs coming in with Jokerit?

KHL wants to grab the whole Europe so either they'll raise the number of the teams notably or kick out some smaller Russian teams. So far Swedish and German teams have been quite uninterested but expansion to Finland (and possibly Italy and Switzerland) might lower the threshold.

Here's a wikipedia article about KHL expansion (probably partially outdated)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_Kontinental_Hockey_League_expansion

 

[Spektanto]

Last interviews say that the goal is 32 teams. The last 4 gonna be Jokerit, Lada Togliatti, a team in Sochi - maybe moved one, and some more. There are plans concerning Sweden, Switzerland and Germany, but I'm not sure if all this will happen.

@Foppa:
As for a team to cheer, I'd advise you just to follow the league itself for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Then you'll most likely find a favourite team.

 

[vorky]

Last interviews say that the goal is 32 teams. The last 4 gonna be Jokerit, Lada Togliatti, a team in Sochi - maybe moved one, and some more. There are plans concerning Sweden, Switzerland and Germany, but I'm not sure if all this will happen.

@Foppa:
As for a team to cheer, I'd advise you just to follow the league itself for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Then you'll most likely find a favourite team.

I dont want to start another debate about expansion, but as I remember, there are at least 2 spots (if we talk about 32 clubs) for Euros + Jokerit as 3rd. Of course, KHL expansion is complicated issue, it has chancged all the time... Btw, Gemany in KHL is matter of time, Sweden is more complicated, I dont know about Switzerland.

 

[Hockeyfan31*]

Omsk has the smartest/coolest logo in league, my opinion ofc, and damn exciting team to watch

 

[ViD]

As for a team to cheer, I'd advise you just to follow the league itself for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Then you'll most likely find a favourite team.

I agree with this approach

 

[obskyr]

Atlant is always one of the most likable teams, although it is unlikely that they will perform well in playoffs in the near future. Mytishchi is a suburb of Moscow located in a different state, it's similar to the NY/NJ thing. The players who are supposed to steal the show next season are their goalie Stas Galimov and newcomer Yevgeni Artyukhin, a rather controversial power forward who wants to use his opportunity to start off with a clean slate.

Torpedo and Lev are the teams I'd expect to make some noise pretty soon. Prague gathered a really impressive roster (Zherdev, Kapanen and Gragnani were among the surprise signings) that may or may not work out really well in the future. Torpedo is led by a young ambitious coach (Pittsburgh Penguins' Peteris Skudra) who seems to be really determined about making a strong playoff team. Losing their would be franchise player Varnakov and 2012 playoffs breakthrough Dmitri Makarov hit them really hard, but there are still some interesting newcomers who joined during this summer, incuding solid imports Immonen and Salminen, CSKA's Denis Parshin, who's likely to become a new leader, and fresh off the CHL rookie Daniil Zharkov.

Avangard is an easy pick. It has been one of the most popular teams in Russia for the last 20 years, they naturally aim for the highest spots, and even though without players like Rämö, Cervenka and Belov (and ofc evil genius Raimo Summanen) their success is less certain, there's a lot of things to anticipate, like Sergei Kostitsyn who appears to have revitalizing chemistry with Alex Frolov or undisputedly the most talented prospects in the league. The franchise staples Perezhogin and Popov are still in place, so is the team's new Czech (well okay, he's actually Slovak) star Zaborsky, they always seemed to have a soft spot for Czechoslovak players, even before Jagr.
As for the city itself it's one of the two main centers of Siberia (the other one is Novosibirsk), which also reflects in Sibir's rivalry with Avangard.

Avtomobilist may become a team to watch in the future, growing budget and their new GM who's one of the smartest and most progressive thinking people in the league are the first signs of that. Yekaterinburg is indeed a nice and vibrant city, which makes the poor performance of their sports franchises even odder. And it's probably going to change soon, it may be similar to the way the Kazan teams went through during the previous bdecade.

And then there's Admiral. In Russian language its name sounds a lot like "otmiral" ("was dying off") and it's far from being the most ridiculous and frustrating thing about this project.

 

[Chileiceman]

I'm a North American with no connections to Europe. Last year during the lockout I started following the KHL and continue to do so. It's a fun league, and I also realized that there's no reason to only watch one league, especially since they don't play at the same times.

The first game I ever watched was Loko v Dinamo Riga I believe. I was cheering for Loko because of their story, but something attracted me to Riga. Then I watched a game involving Torpedo, and was struck by the play of one Mikhail Varnakov. He was so dangerous every shift. So I picked those two teams as my teams to follow. Both have great fanbases. Neither are powerhouses (in fact neither made the playoffs last season), but I think they are teams on the rise.

 

[loppa*]

Look at the logos. Pick your favorite logo and that's your team for season one. Cheers!

 

[kedr]

Avangard Omsk.

At least you will not be bored with them

 

[pecheq]

I suggest you HC Lev Praha of course. I am really looking forward to visit home games this season. The team looks very powerful and hungry. - Prague Hockey Cup winners, yesterday Lev defeated Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the third place playoff at the Riga Tournament.

 

[RicEsteban85]

Go for Avangard,

good team, nice city and with a huge fanbase not just in Russia but all over the world...

 

[kiluj]

Lol, I remeber when I started follow the NHL in 90-s, I had two favorite teams: Detroit Red Wings (because of many Russian players) and New York Rangers (because I loved their jersey, colors, and the word "Rangers" sounds cool).

 

[cska78]

Lol, I remeber when I started follow the NHL in 90-s, I had two favorite teams: Detroit Red Wings (because of many Russian players) and New York Rangers (because I loved their jersey, colors, and the word "Rangers" sounds cool).

before i moved to the states I rooted for Quebec: Kamenskiy, Gusarov, rights for Bykov and Khomutov.