Continental hockey league raises the ceiling of salaries
The continental hockey league (KHL) for the first time raises the hard ceiling of salaries existing from the beginning of the decade. By 2028, it will grow by 100 million rubles. Compared to the current, reaching 1 billion rubles. The ceiling seems to have fulfilled its main task, aggravating competition in the KHL, and its increase is good news primarily for several graders, whose payment were closely approached the permissible expenditure limit, and possibly primarily for the Moscow Dynamo. It is to this team that he is going to return through the season in order to complete the career, which has just become a record holder among snipers of the National Hockey League (NHL) Alexander Ovechkin.
The most curious news related to the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Continental Hockey League was the news of the future of two tools that are one of the key for it. We are talking about the so -called field and ceiling of salaries – the minimum and maximum amounts that each club can spend during the season to pay for hockey players. The salary gender, designed to not allow performances in the club league with too modest opportunities that lower the overall level of the championship, will rise from 450 million rubles in the next three seasons. up to 600 million rubles. (pull up to the line almost half of the KHL members), the ceiling is from 900 million rubles. up to 1 billion rubles. True, in the second case, the first increase – by 50 million – will happen only in 2026. Clubs will be able to climb the ceiling only thanks to the bonuses paid for achievements after the end of the regular championship in Play-OFF.
This is a rather remarkable event. Hard, that is, practically no excess, the KHL ceiling was first awarded in 2021. In this sense, she followed the example of the National Hockey League. In it, a hard ceiling acts from the middle of the zero. True, the main goal of its implementation in the two structures seemed to be different.
The NHL introduced the ceiling in order to first of all limit the rapid “salary race”, which led to the financial difficulties of the championship participants and to the seasons spoiling seasons, the KHL – to raise the level of competition, to align the alignment.
In the domestic league, the ceiling, despite the fact that at different times, the functionaries had complaints about the control of it, seemed to fulfill his task. At least recently, it has been quite a noticeable stratification of the teams into a number of niches that have previously been noticeable in the KHL, and today it is quite difficult to outline a group of obvious favorites. An illustration of this can be the results of the Gagarin Cup. Already in a row, his owner flew in the starting round: in 2024, CSKA became such a victim, in 2025-Metallurg. They were knocked out by Lokomotiv and Avangard. A degree of competition is emphasized by another indicator. Last year, in the 1/8 finals, in the first Play-OFF round, there was not a single series that ended with a “dry” account in four matches. In the current only confrontation in which Lokomotiv knocked out the Torpedo. In two pairs, “Automobile” – “Ak Bars” and “Salavat Yulaev” – “Siberia”, it came to the decisive, seventh matches. Moreover, earlier “dry” defeats were more likely to be the norm than the exception to the rule.
The degree of competition jumping upwards seemed positively influenced the demand for the League of the audience. Following the results of the regular championship, the attendance of his meetings for the first time exceeded the viewers of 7 thousand spectators that considered for European hockey.
Commenting on his decision after a meeting of the board of directors, KHL President Alexei Morozov made it clear that they were affected by the “requests of clubs to“ consider the issue ”, noting that the“ financiers ”of the structure, determining the future ceiling,“ calculated the model, looked at inflation, as it affects the salaries of hockey players. ” What first of all the clubs are meant, of course. The hard ceiling causes mainly inconvenience to grandi with large financial resources, which are forced to limit their own breeding ambitions because of it. This season, according to Sport-Express, the minimum, no more than 10 million rubles, “gap” under the ceiling had 4 clubs out of 23: CSKA, SKA, Lokomotiv and the Moscow Dynamo. He had a little more for several more. At the same time, the interest in the KHL among the players performing in the NHL, including quite expensive, is preserved. Say, this season, the famous striker Yevgeny Kuznetsov, who, who left the American league, spoke behind SKA, who, however, did not help Petersburgers in the starting round to cope with Dynamo’s capital.
It is Dynamo, judging by Alexei Morozov, that can turn into the main beneficiaries of the jump in the ceiling of salaries.
Mr. Morozov said that he discussed with Wayne Gretzky’s record of the NHL regular championships with the NHL regular championships with the recorded record on Sunday Alexander Ovechkin His return to Dynamo, his own club, after the expiration of the contract with Washington Capitals. The great sniper, according to the president of the KHL, was also interested in him, « how things are with the ceiling. » The agreement of Alexander Ovechkin with Washington expires after the completion of the next season, in 2026. Its annual salary for it is $ 9.5 million – about 100 million rubles in total. Below than the current ceiling of the salaries of the Russian league.
