SKA Saint Petersburg

Hockey Club SKA, often called SKA Saint Petersburg and literally the Sports Club of the Army, is a professional ice hockey club based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It plays in the Bobrov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). For many years, the team had never reached a league final until the 2014–15 KHL season, when they defeated Ak Bars Kazan to win the Gagarin Cup. They won the Gagarin Cup again later, this time defeating Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

In 2012, SKA made history by becoming the first Russian club to average over ten thousand fans per game. The club is owned by Gazprom, a large Russian energy company. Gazprom used its resources to bring together top Russian players to help prepare them for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Many people believe that the strong teamwork developed within SKA helped the Russian team win gold at those Olympics, marking the first time since 1994 that the Russian team won without any active NHL players.

History

The club started in 1946 in Saint Petersburg and was originally called Kirov LDO. Over the years, its name changed several times. During the Soviet era, it was part of the Ministry of Defense sports club system.

After many seasons, the club joined the International Ice Hockey League in the early 1990s. In 2008, the Kontinental Hockey League was formed, and SKA became a part of it. In the 2014–15 season, SKA reached the league final and won the Gagarin Cup for the first time, defeating Ak Bars Kazan. This was a big achievement for the club, as it was their first nationwide championship.

Awards and trophies

Team

Gagarin Cup

Winners (2): 2014–15, 2016–17

Continental Cup

Winners (3): 2012–13, 2017–18, 2022–23

Opening Cup

Winners (2): 2017–18, 2018–19

Soviet Championship League

3rd place (2): 1970–71, 1986–87

Pre-season

Spengler Cup

Winners (4): 1970, 1971, 1977, (/wiki/2010_Spengler_Cup)

Motorola Cup

Winners (1): 1983

Puchkov Cup

Winners (6): 2008,2015,2017,2018,2019,2021,2022

Basel Summer Ice Hockey

Winners (1): 2009

Donbass Open Cup

Winners (1): 2011

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup

Winners (1): 2012

Tournament Hameenlinna

Winners (1): 2013

Sochi Winter Cup

Winners (1): 2022

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	OTW	L	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Top scorer	Playoffs
2008–09	56	26	9	17	4	100	143	105	3rd, Tarasov	Maxim Sushinsky (45 points: 18 G, 27 A; 48 GP)	Lost in preliminary round, 0–3 (Spartak Moscow)
2009–10	56	36	4	10	6	122	192	118	1st, Bobrov	Maxim Sushinsky (65 points: 27 G, 38 A; 56 GP)	Lost in Conference quarterfinals, 1–3 (Dinamo Riga)
2010–11	54	23	9	13	9	96	171	144	2nd, Bobrov	Mattias Weinhandl (49 points: 21 G, 28 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference semifinals, 3–4 (Atlant Moscow Oblast)
2011–12	54	32	6	11	5	113	205	130	1st, Bobrov	Tony Mårtensson (61 points: 23 G, 38 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 0–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2012–13	52	36	2	11	3	115	182	116	1st, Bobrov	Patrick Thoresen (51 points: 21 G, 30 A; 52 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2013–14	53	33	1	13	4	105	174	113	2nd, Bobrov	Artemi Panarin (40 points: 20 G, 20 A; 51 GP)	Lost in Conference semifinals, 2–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2014–15	60	36	2	14	2	123	210	136	2nd, Bobrov	Artemi Panarin (62 points: 26 G, 36 A; 54 GP)	Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Ak Bars Kazan)
2015–16	60	29	2	21	2	100	163	197	2nd, Bobrov	Vadim Shipachyov (60 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 0–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2016–17	60	39	7	8	8	137	249	114	1st, Bobrov	Ilya Kovalchuk (78 points: 32 G, 46 A; 60 GP)	Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
2017–18	56	40	3	9	2	138	227	97	1st, Bobrov	Ilya Kovalchuk (64 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2018–19	62	45	4	5	8	103	209	80	1st, Bobrov	Nikita Gusev (82 points: 17 G, 65 A; 62 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 3–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2019–20	62	30	14	13	5	93	179	118	1st, Bobrov	Vladimir Tkachev (42 points: 14 G, 28 A; 55 GP)	Won in Conference quarterfinals, 4–0 (HC Vityaz) Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19
2020–21	60	33	4	8	15	82	178	126	1st, Bobrov	Vladimir Tkachev (38 points: 11 G, 27 A; 45 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2021–22	48	25	6	11	6	68	146	98	1st, Bobrov	Andrei Kuzmenko (53 points: 20 G, 33 A; 45 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 3–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2022–23	68	40	10	5	13	105	243	150	1st, Bobrov	Dmitrij Jaškin (62 points: 40 G, 22 A; 67 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2023–24	68	40	6	19	3	95	220	139	1st, Bobrov	Alexander Nikishin (56 points: 17 G, 39 A; 67 GP)	Lost in Quarterfinals, 1–4 (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg)
2024–25	68	28	10	24	6	82	236	205	2nd, Bobrov	Ivan Demidov (49 points: 19 G, 30 A; 65 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 2–4 (Dynamo Moscow)

Players

Current roster

The team’s current players were last updated on September 4, 2025.

All-time KHL scoring leaders

These are the top ten players with the most points in the team’s history. The numbers are updated after each regular season in the KHL.


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
10	Joseph Blandisi	C	R	31	2025	Markham, Ontario, Canada
55	Nikita Dishkovsky	RW	L	23	2025	Kogalym, Russia
79	Danila Galenyuk	D	L	26	2024	Tyumen, Russia
87	Nikolay Goldobin	RW	L	30	2025	Moscow, Russia
91	Rocco Grimaldi	RW	R	33	2025	Rossmoor, California, United States
1	Sergei Ivanov	G	L	22	2022	Chernushka, Russia
61	Marat Khairullin (A)	RW/C	L	29	2022	Volzhsk, Russia
71	Matvei Korotky	C	R	20	2024	Krasnoyarsk, Russia
59	Grigori Kuzmin	LW	R	23	2023	Yaroslavl, Russia
69	Igor Larionov	C	L	27	2025	Detroit, Michigan, United States
17	Andrei Loktionov	C	L	35	2025	Voskresensk, Russian SFSR
27	Brennan Menell	D	R	28	2025	Woodbury, Minnesota, United States
39	Pavel Moysevich	G	L	21	2024	Minsk, Belarus
8	Trevor Murphy	D	L	30	2025	Windsor, Ontario, Canada
97	Amir Nugmanov	LW	R	20	2023	Nizhnekamsk, Russia
3	Andrey Pedan	D	L	32	2022	Kaunas, Lithuania
18	Markus Phillips	D	L	27	2025	Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
73	Artemi Pleshkov	G	L	23	2023	Moscow, Russia
16	Sergei Plotnikov (C)	F	L	35	2024	Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Soviet Union
98	Vladislav Romanov	LW	R	22	2025	Megion, Russia
9	Sergei Sapego	D	L	26	2023	Vitebsk, Belarus
33	Nikita Smirnov	D	L	23	2021	Kuznetsk, Russia
42	Mikhail Vorobyev (A)	C	L	29	2021	Salavat, Russia
84	Ivan Vydrenkov	D	L	21	2023	Balashikha, Russia
22	Nikita Zaitsev	D	R	34	2024	Moscow, Russian SFSR
30	Yegor Zavragin	G	L	20	2024	Novosibirsk, Russia
20	Ivan Zinchenko	C	L	24	2023	Rostov-na-Donu, Russia
90	Valentin Zykov	RW	R	31	2021	St. Petersburg, Russia

Head coaches

The Hockey Club SKA, often called SKA Saint Petersburg, has had many head coaches over the years. They began with Gennady Dmitriev in the 1946–47 season and continued with several coaches through the years, including Nikolai Puchkov, who coached multiple times, and Boris Mikhailov, who also returned several times.

In more recent years, coaches like Vyacheslav Bykov, Andrei Nazarov, and Oļegs Znaroks have led the team. The most recent coach mentioned is Roman Rotenberg, who took over in the 2021–22 KHL season.