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The Hockey Oscars - KHL End of the year award ceremony |
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Wednesday Moscow - The annual KHL awards ceremony and the GM meetings were held to round out leagues 10th season.
News from GM meeting review (announcements):
The average attendance of 2017-18 KHL season – 6’377 fans per game. (Ranked 3rd in leagues history)
TV ratings of the KHL broadcast on a Russian federal sports channel “Match TV” have increased from last season: from 1.8% to 2.2% in the regular season, from 3.9% to 4.3% in the playoffs.
KHL has expanded the TV broadcasting territory and now reaches 32 countries. This season KHL games were available for hockey fans from Great Britain, Austria, Luxembourg, and Germany.
The main steps in the implementation of 2023 KHL Development Strategy will be aimed at increasing the commercial potential of the teams (commercial income level should be 25% of the total revenue).
The key moment in the development of the KHL is the introduction of Financial Fair Play. This will allow controlling the spendings and set the budgeting standards for the teams.
Starting 2018-19 season KHL will implement the SCAT-5 (Sports Concussion Assessment tool - 5th edition) to improve the concussion situation in hockey.
For 2018-19 KHL season two cameras will be installed on the blue lines at all arenas to provide quality angles in case of an “offside” coaching challenges. Within 2-3 years it is planned to install 2 more cameras for each half of the ice.
For the first time in KHL history, 25 teams will be competing in a 62-game regular season: 48 games with each other, 10 more games within the division, and 4 more games with principal rivals within the conference.
2018-19 KHL season dates.
Regular season: September 1, 2018 – February 22, 2019
2019 #GagarinCup Playoffs: February 25 – April 25, 2019.
KHL has scheduled a few 2018-19 regular season games in non-KHL European cities: in Vienna in October, in Zurich in November. Teams and dates TBD.
Season closing ceremony (KHL Awards):
The event is annually attended by KHL and Russian celebrities - this time around Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin as well as the President of International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel to witness the awarding of the best KHL players, coaches, and executives.
Chairman of the KHL Board of Directors Gennady Timchenko welcome everyone in an opening speech. He called KHL a beautiful project. ''We have found our heroes, this season we found stars'' he said. " For us, strong league is a strong national team, this time Russia won at the Olympics without the help of National Hockey League, for the first time in 26 years''.
Awards:
Viktor Tikhonov Trophy (Kontinental Cup/Regular season Winners) - SKA St.Petersburgh.
Eastern Conference Champions - AkBars Kazan.
Western Conference Champions - CSKA Moscow.
Rene Fazel presented a special award to Pavel Datsyuk - He is honored as the only person with Olympic Gold, Stanley Cup, Gagarin Cup and World Championship gold.
Golden Stick award (KHL Regular season MVP) - Nikita Gusev.
Konstantin Barulin and Svetlana Kolyago named Mastercard Priceless player and fan.
Valentin Sych award (Awarded to the executive of the year) - Nail Maganov (AkBars Kazan).
Best Defensmen - Philip Larsen (Salavat Julaev UFA).
KHL Top-scorer - Ilya Kovalchuk. (SKA St.Petersburgh)
KHL Top Sniper - Nigel Dawes. (Barys Astana)
KHL Goaltender of the year - Pavel Francouz. (Traktor Chelyabinsk, Colorado Avalanche)
Golden Whistle (Referee of the year) - Konstantin Olenin.
Linesman golden whistle - Alexander Sadovnikov
Women's hockey league best player - Olga Sosina (Agidel UFA)
KHL Coach of the year - Zinetula Bilyaletdinov (AkBars Kazan)
Best Journalist of 2017/2018 season - Igor Eronko (Sport-Express)
Vsevolod Bobrov Award (scoring the most goals of any team in the KHL) - SKA St.Petersburgh
KHL Rookie of The Year - Vitali Kravtsov (Traktor Chelyanbisnk)
The KHL Golden Helm Award (All-Star five):
Pavel Francouz (Traktor)
Bogdan Kisilevich (CSKA)
Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist)
Nikita Gusev (SKA)
Justin Azevedo (AkBars)
Dmitry Kagarlitsky (Severstal)
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