Most people in this board know how much I love Russia and its hockey product in a very emotional and fiery way. Even when I'm extremely angry and upset about the league, it's only because I love it very much and hate the idea of losing what I deem one of the important pieces of my life. For this reason, regardless of how much I criticize KHL, I'm extremely happy that it exists. It is obviously the second best league in the world and will remain so for a foreseeable future. However, in recent years, I've been watching fewer and fewer games and my main concerns for, let's say, 2013-2023 period are,
* Broadcasting and marketing is a big issue unless you live in Russia. For many years, laola1.tv streamed hundreds of games every year... till 2017/18 season. For some reason, official KHL service doesn't work for me - tried it with several different laptops and networks yet it somehow manages to lag and buffer all the time. I can easily watch HD streams with my current connections but not official KHL stream at SD. So long story short, watching KHL requires a lot of effort (at least for me, dunno how the situation is in Europe or other countries) and most of the time is simply impossible.
* The gap between top and other teams is worrying. I don't know the root cause of this but the growth of the league benefits top teams only and this is a serious issue requiring to be addressed. Some people criticized me for whining too much about SKA when Ak Bars won but the problem is big and it is still there: KHL needs more than two or three competitive teams and honestly it is not that impressive for Ak Bars to win; you'd be right if it was Avangard, Avtomobilist or Lokomotiv. When you can tell the top three or four teams that'll make the conference finals, it takes a lot of fun from the game. I'm not necessarily saying that 12 teams should be competing for the title. I just want the possibility of Sochi knocking out SKA existing.
* KHL is still a young league and it's OK to experiment for a while to find the right balance with the expansion but I feel like the league is lacking guidance and path on this. There seems to be uncertainty and half measures. Where do we go from here? Expand westwards or eastwards? How will it pan out? Are there concrete plans or are we just testing the waters and just "see what happens next"? Kunlun joined and for me, made nothing interesting: no Chinese players, no fans, no new "flavour" as SoundAndFury states. For now, this might be partly acceptable... The question is: are there plans to make Kunlun an actual, real hockey team from China? How much progress have been made so far and what are the plans going forward? Questions like that need answers and proper plans not only for Kunlun but expansion projects in general.
* Well, this is not KHL's fault but the Russian reality is catching up with the organization. Economy is not good and most institutions are not reliable. I'm pretty sure that there are people who want a more balanced, stronger KHL in board yet at the same time they are more powerful people with influence who wishes to do something else, i.e stripping all teams of their stars for the sake of Russian NT and SKA.
Once these problems have been solved and the league has created an identity, pretty much everything will be perfect for me. Until then, I think it will be just a "good league" mainly because of the high quality of players, but not the most competitive and entertaining one from a hockey fan perspective. I mean, KHL may be better, but at this moment I prefer watching SHL play-off rather than KHL, mainly because the attendance is fantastic, teams are balanced and it's an actual "competition". When teams get swept in SHL, you know it is a surprise. Or when a higher seeded team leads the series 2-0, you always know there is a chance for the other team. This is not the case for KHL. Quality is high but so is discrepancy.
Since I study Russian philology, there is no possible way for me stop watching Admiral or Amur while having a breakfast or not talking to my lecturers about how SKA or Avangard has been doing recently. As I said, good or bad, this league is a part of my life; but KHL at its current shape is not good enough for me. It can definitely get better. I'm not asking it to become NHL or best hockey league to have ever existed. I just want it to fullfil its potential, nothing more.