Russian hockey to expand into China?

Is the KHL planning to expand into China? Maybe. A Russian delegation led by Hockey Operations Vice President Georgy Kobylyansky completed last week a tour of some of the most strategic cities of the country to plan and develop a possible introduction of the Russian ice hockey system there.

In Beijing, discussions with the Ministry of Sport were held, trying to introduce a structure similar to the Russian one; the possibility of a Chinese franchise joining the KHL was also discussed. Currently, a Chinese team is already playing in the Asia League, composed mainly of native players (the China Dragon, a result themselves of the fusion between two previous Chinese teams, Hosa and Changchun Fuao). In the aforementioned league takes part also a Russian team, HC Sakhalin. 

The other three cities visited, Shangai, Harbin and Qiqihar, are indeed the home cities of the Dragon, which plays there on an alternating basis. The former was discussed as a possible location for a small tournament to be held in March 2016, where four KHL teams would have to play among themselves (a special pause from the regular season will be granted to the chosen teams). In Harbin, there are plans of organising a game between the Dragon an a MHL team, the Sakhalin Sharks, during the league pause scheduled in early December; the MHL is the most important level of minor ice hockey in Russia, and it is contested by players whose age must be under 20 years old.

Kobylyansky has described himself as "pleasantly surprised" by the situation of ice hockey in China, and said that a Chinese youth team would be a "welcome addition" in the MHL; this would surely pave the way to a future KHL franchise, for which, maybe, is still too early to think about.

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