Kunlun Red Star whose team. Newcomers from China - HC "Kunlun Red Star": composition, history. Who will finance Kunlun?

A guide to the most unusual story of the year.

What is the correct name for the club? And what is Kunlun?

Just as it is written on the emblem - “Kunlun Red Star”. Partial translation ("Red Star Kunlun") is not necessary. Club representatives also suggested using the abbreviation KRS, which is unlikely to catch on.

Kunlun Shan means "Mountains of the Moon" in Chinese. This is the name of one of the largest mountain systems in the country. From the point of view of local mythology, Mount Kunlun is an analogue of Olympus, the habitat of the gods. In addition, the main Chinese martial art Wushu has the Kunlun style, which was named after this mythical mountain.

Traditionally, this name is very popular in China. Thus, the Chinese named their first scientific station in Antarctica “Kunlun”.

Why does the Chinese club need the KHL?

Over the 8 years of its existence, the league has attracted foreign clubs mainly from small countries whose economies are smaller than Russia's. China, with its population of one and a half billion people, is a completely different case.

Expansion into the Far East in the future could bring the league a new audience and growing revenues from the sale of television rights. Even if 1% of the Chinese population is interested in hockey, that’s already about 15 million people, which is more than the total television audience of the decisive matches of the finals of the Gagarin Cup and Stanley Cup combined. There is something to fight for.

By the way, the NHL is also not sleeping - either they will select a Chinese in the draft, or they will send a delegation to master classes. A big game is unfolding for Asian markets. And the KHL begins to use its main advantage - geographical proximity.

What is China's interest?

Beijing's victory in the fight for the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics gave a new impetus to the development of hockey in the country. According to tradition, the hosts of the tournament get the opportunity to play in a hockey tournament without selection, so the Chinese desperately need to pull up the national team. The practice that local players will receive in the KHL could theoretically help with this.

It is worth considering that any drastic changes will not happen in the six remaining years. Now the Chinese team is significantly inferior in level to the team of South Korea, the host of the 2018 Olympics. And to secure a place in the first division of the World Cup, she had to resort to mass naturalization. It seems that the Chinese cannot avoid this either.

But in any case, they are actively developing many popular sports in the world, starting with football. The Olympics may be a reason to take a closer look at hockey. Yes, so that even after the Games you won’t forget about him. And here everything depends on what the KHL and Kunlun can achieve.

Who will finance Kunlun?

The general manager of the Chinese newcomer, Vladimir Krechin, assures that the money in the club is not Russian, but that the sponsors are some local companies. The leadership of the league also guaranteed 100% participation of Chinese business in financing the project, but there is no complete certainty about this yet.

But it is already clear that Kunlun will not have a huge budget. And it is at least premature to expect buying up stars in the style of local football clubs.

What about the arena?

On paper, everything was great from the very beginning - the 18,000-seat LeSports Center basketball arena remained in Beijing from the 2008 Olympics, which can be adapted for hockey. The capacity in the ice configuration is 14 thousand spectators, so it still will not become the largest in the KHL.

At some point, the Chinese began to complain about difficulties with repurposing (they have no experience) and suggested holding matches in an inflatable tent. This plan was rejected, and in the end they returned to the previous one.

But the arena’s readiness for hockey matches will have to be tested during the season. And there is a possibility that at some point Kunlun may need an alternate airfield.

Who was hired to play there?

In terms of composition, Kunlun will be noticeably different from other foreign clubs in the KHL. There are many Russians in the team, among whom the former goalkeeper of the silver Bragin youth team, Andrei Makarov, who came from the AHL and was not appreciated in Buffalo, stands out. The team was also headed by a Russian specialist, Vladimir Yurzinov Jr.

Among the other foreign players, Finns predominate (today there are already six of them in the team, including experienced defenders Jalasvaar, Salmela and Mäntylä), which can be associated both with their favorable price/quality ratio and with Yurzinov’s experience of working in Finland. The American Chad Ro (the last name is similar to a Chinese one?), the best sniper of the local league last season, recently arrived from there.

There are no bright names yet, which raises certain questions in terms of popularizing hockey in the country. However, they managed to sign an interesting Frenchman, Damien Fleury, who played in almost all strong European leagues and reached the KHL, as well as a Canadian of Chinese origin, Zach Yuen (pictured), once drafted by Winnipeg, potentially one of the main stars of the Chinese national team. But it is too early to consider the selection finished; more status newcomers may still appear.

What about the Chinese?

More than a dozen Chinese players were invited to Kunlun's first training camp. Their level, of course, is very weak - many this year, along with the Chinese team, were relegated from the second division of the World Cup, where they lost to opponents like Spain or Iceland.

At the KHL level, local hockey players will play purely episodic roles for now. Unless, of course, a fighter is found among them - a sort of analogue of Damir Ryspaev with knowledge of kung fu.

As for the future, the youngest of the invited Chinese stands out here - captain of the junior team Rudy Ying (pictured). At the age of 17, he had already played in a number of junior teams from North America, where he went to complete his hockey education on the advice of the legendary basketball player Yao Ming. He and defenseman Andong Son, who was selected by the Islanders in the NHL draft a year ago, are considered the main hopes of Chinese hockey.

What will the Chinese club's kit look like?

The main colors are red and yellow, as on the national flag of the People's Republic of China. This is a plus for the KHL, since such a combination was almost never used in the league.

Other elements of the uniform and emblem also have a direct association with China. There is the Great Wall of China, a dragon, and the red star itself - a symbol of the country's armed forces.

The club's emblem has already been compared to the screensavers of the popular games Mortal Kombat and Guild Wars 2. It’s somewhat similar, but in any case this is a fresh start for the KHL.

Why was there such a rush, why not organize the entry of a new club like in the NHL?

It's a matter of big politics. The agreement on the entry of Kunlun into the KHL was signed in the presence of the President of Russia and the Chairman of the People's Republic of China, who thus once again demonstrated the existence of a “special level of relations” between the countries.

Against this background, all the conventional problems with the unpreparedness of the arena, the difficulty of recruiting a “late” team, the formation of a calendar, and so on, fade away.

And then, who knows, these Chinese, what if they change their minds in a year?

What can Kunlun claim in the new KHL season?

The current team composition and potential organizational difficulties do not foreshadow the Chinese club making it to the playoffs. At the same time, many foreign newcomers to the KHL made their debuts very well and presented surprises.

But Kunlun’s main tasks at this stage are developing the popularity of its brand in China and maximizing the number of spectators at home games. If the average attendance reaches 10 thousand spectators, this will be the first big victory of the KHL in Asia.

Photo: REUTERS/Andy Clark; hc-kunlun.ru; RIA Novosti /Sergey Guneev

), founded in 2016 to participate in.

Story

On March 17, 2016, a letter of intent was signed to create a Chinese team in the Kontinental Hockey League. The document was signed by FHR President Vladislav Tretyak, Chairman of the KHL Board of Directors Gennady Timchenko, as well as the management of Red Star Kunlun. IIHF President Rene Fasel approved the emergence of a Chinese club and expressed hope that this will help the development of this sport in China.

On April 30, 2016, the management managed to fulfill all the conditions necessary for admission to the league. A few formalities remained to be resolved. KHL President Dmitry Chernyshenko called this issue practically resolved, but the final decision was postponed until June 2016.

On June 24, 2016, the KHL Board of Directors approved the Kunlun Red Star club as a participant in the 2016/17 season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The next day in Beijing, as part of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the PRC, an agreement was signed on the team’s participation in the KHL championship of the 2016/17 season. The document, in the presence of the heads of Russia and China, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, was signed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League Gennady Timchenko and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of HC Red Star Kunlun Ngoc Yan Yu.

The name of the club was given by the Chinese mountain system.

On June 25, 2016, it was announced that Vladimir Yurzinov Jr. would become the club's first head coach.

Red Star Kunlun played its first official match in history on September 1 at the Platinum Arena in Khabarovsk with the Amur club and won with a score of 2:1. The club played its first home match at the LeSports Center arena on September 5 against Admiral and ended with a victory with a score of 6:3.

From September 18, Kunlun will play 11 matches in Shanghai, at the Feiyang Arena.

On September 20, the club set an anti-record for attendance. Only 550 spectators came to the match against Neftekhimik.

Results of performance in the KHL

I - number of games played, B - victories in regular time, VO - victories in overtime, WB - victories in post-match shootouts, PO - defeats in overtime, PB - defeats in post-match shootouts, P - defeats in regular time, O - number of points scored points, Ш - ratio of goals scored and conceded, RS - place according to the results of the regular season

Club management

• President - Ngoc Yan Yu
• General Manager - Vladimir Krechin

Coaching staff

• Head coach - Vladimir Yurzinov Jr.
• Senior coach - Oleg Gorbenko
• Coach - Alexey Tertyshny
• Coach - Jukka Varmanen
• Goalkeeper coach - Jaakko Valkama

Current lineup

valid as of 09/05/2016

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An excerpt characterizing Kunlun Red Star

The rain passed, only fog and drops of water fell from tree branches. Denisov, Esaul and Petya silently rode behind a man in a cap, who, lightly and silently stepping with his bast-clad feet on roots and wet leaves, led them to the edge of the forest.
Coming out onto the road, the man paused, looked around and headed towards the thinning wall of trees. At a large oak tree that had not yet shed its leaves, he stopped and mysteriously beckoned to him with his hand.
Denisov and Petya drove up to him. From the place where the man stopped, the French were visible. Now, behind the forest, a spring field ran down a semi-hillock. To the right, across a steep ravine, a small village and a manor house with collapsed roofs could be seen. In this village and in the manor's house, and throughout the hillock, in the garden, at the wells and pond, and along the entire road up the mountain from the bridge to the village, no more than two hundred fathoms away, crowds of people were visible in the fluctuating fog. Their non-Russian screams at the horses in the carts struggling up the mountain and calls to each other were clearly heard.
“Give the prisoner here,” Denisop said quietly, not taking his eyes off the French.
The Cossack got off his horse, took the boy off and walked up to Denisov with him. Denisov, pointing to the French, asked what kind of troops they were. The boy, putting his chilled hands in his pockets and raising his eyebrows, looked at Denisov in fear and, despite the visible desire to say everything he knew, was confused in his answers and only confirmed what Denisov was asking. Denisov, frowning, turned away from him and turned to the esaul, telling him his thoughts.
Petya, turning his head with quick movements, looked back at the drummer, then at Denisov, then at the esaul, then at the French in the village and on the road, trying not to miss anything important.
“Pg” is coming, not “pg” Dolokhov is coming, we must bg”at!.. Eh? - said Denisov, his eyes flashing cheerfully.
“The place is convenient,” said the esaul.
“We’ll send the infantry down through the swamps,” Denisov continued, “they’ll crawl up to the garden; you will come with the Cossacks from there,” Denisov pointed to the forest behind the village, “and I will come from here, with my ganders. And along the road...
“It won’t be a hollow—it’s a quagmire,” said the esaul. - You’ll get stuck in your horses, you need to go around to the left...
While they were talking in a low voice in this way, below, in the ravine from the pond, one shot clicked, smoke turned white, then another, and a friendly, seemingly cheerful cry was heard from hundreds of French voices who were on the half-mountain. In the first minute, both Denisov and the esaul moved back. They were so close that it seemed to them that they were the cause of these shots and screams. But the shots and screams did not apply to them. Below, through the swamps, a man in something red was running. Apparently he was being shot at and shouted at by the French.
“After all, this is our Tikhon,” said the esaul.
- He! they are!
“What a rogue,” Denisov said.
- He will go away! - Esaul said, narrowing his eyes.
The man they called Tikhon, running up to the river, splashed into it so that splashes flew, and, hiding for a moment, all black from the water, he got out on all fours and ran on. The French running after him stopped.
“Well, he’s clever,” said the esaul.
- What a beast! – Denisov said with the same expression of annoyance. - And what has he been doing so far?
- Who is this? – Petya asked.
- This is our plastun. I sent him to take the tongue.
“Oh, yes,” Petya said from Denisov’s first word, nodding his head as if he understood everything, although he absolutely did not understand a single word.
Tikhon Shcherbaty was one of the most necessary people in the party. He was a man from Pokrovskoye near Gzhat. When, at the beginning of his actions, Denisov came to Pokrovskoye and, as always, calling the headman, asked what they knew about the French, the headman answered, as all the headmen answered, as if defending themselves, that they didn’t know anything, to know they don't know. But when Denisov explained to them that his goal was to beat the French, and when he asked if the French had wandered in, the headman said that there were definitely marauders, but that in their village only one Tishka Shcherbaty was involved in these matters. Denisov ordered Tikhon to be called to him and, praising him for his activities, said a few words in front of the headman about the loyalty to the Tsar and the Fatherland and the hatred of the French that the sons of the Fatherland should observe.
“We don’t do anything bad to the French,” said Tikhon, apparently timid at Denisov’s words. “That’s the only way we fooled around with the guys.” They must have beaten about two dozen Miroders, otherwise we didn’t do anything bad... - The next day, when Denisov, completely forgetting about this guy, left Pokrovsky, he was informed that Tikhon had attached himself to the party and asked to be left with it. Denisov ordered to leave him.
Tikhon, who at first corrected the menial work of laying fires, delivering water, skinning horses, etc., soon showed greater willingness and ability for guerrilla warfare. He went out at night to hunt for prey and each time brought with him French clothes and weapons, and when he was ordered, he also brought prisoners. Denisov dismissed Tikhon from work, began to take him with him on travels and enrolled him in the Cossacks.
Tikhon did not like to ride and always walked, never falling behind the cavalry. His weapons were a blunderbuss, which he wore more for fun, a pike and an ax, which he wielded like a wolf wields his teeth, equally easily picking out fleas from his fur and biting through thick bones. Tikhon equally faithfully, with all his might, split logs with an ax and, taking the ax by the butt, used it to cut out thin pegs and cut out spoons. In Denisov's party, Tikhon occupied his special, exclusive place. When it was necessary to do something especially difficult and disgusting - turn a cart over in the mud with your shoulder, pull a horse out of a swamp by the tail, skin it, climb into the very middle of the French, walk fifty miles a day - everyone pointed, laughing, at Tikhon.

From China. Due to the increased interest in this sport in the People's Republic of China, it was decided to create a professional hockey club to participate in the extremely popular Continental Hockey League, in which China had not previously participated.

History of creation

The professional Chinese team has been competing in the Asian Games and has been their leader since 1986. This year, the team from the Celestial Empire won the victory for the first time and won the cup. In general, the team is stable and rarely falls below third place. However, he was not represented in any club. The main difference between the Kunlun Red Star squad and the Chinese national team is the absence of players from China in the original main squad.

On June 24, 2016, the KHL board of directors decided to participate in the 2016-17 season. Kunlun Red Star team. The document was signed with the participation of top officials from Russia and China, who expressed hope for the development of this wonderful sport in China.

The very next day, the club’s management announced the beginning of the formation of the Kunlun Red Star team. Initially, the appointment of Vladimir Yurzinov as coach was announced.

Club name

The name "Kunlun Red Star" can be divided into two parts. The last two words are translated from English as “red star”. And “Kunlun” is the name of a mountain system in China. Literally from Chinese it can be translated as “mountains of the moon”.

Compound

The final lineup of Kunlun Red Star for the 2016-2017 season. was announced already on July 5, 2016. And already on February 18, 2017, after the efforts made, the team was able to make it to the playoffs.

In March 2017, the head coach was replaced; Mike Keenan was appointed as the new coach. Senior coach - Igor Kravchuk.

Current Kunlun Red Star roster 2017-18:

1. Goalkeepers: Manus Hellberg (Sweden) and Alexander Skrynnik (Russia).
2. Defenders: Rinat Ibraimov (Russia), Bladen Joe (Canada), Artur Kulda (Latvia), Brett Bellemore (Canada), Marek Dialoga (Slovakia), Nick Schaus (USA), Pavel Vorobey (Belarus), Nikita Khlystov (Russia), Joonos Jarvinen (Finland), Jesse Blecker (Canada), Roman Grabrenko (Belarus), Sergey Peretyagin (Russia).
3. Forwards: (Belarus), Kirill Lebedev (Russia), (Ukraine), Mikhail Mokin (Russia), Lucas Lessio (Canada), Brandon DeFazio (Canada), Brandon Yip (Canada), Luke Lockhart (Canada), Taylor Beck (Canada) ), Greg Squires (USA).
4. Centers: Corey Kane (USA), Brendan O'Donnell (Canada), Gilbert Brule (Canada), Kyle Chipchura (Canada), Jaakko Risanen (Finland).

On December 3, 2017, it became known about changes in the Kunlun Red Star lineup; again, these changes affected the team’s coaching staff. Mike Keenan has left his post and Bobby Carpenter has been appointed interim head coach. There is still controversy surrounding his departure. The main reason for the coach's departure is not known.

Otherwise, the composition of the Kunlun Red Star team remains stable, even if you do not pay attention to the frequent changes in the main coaching staff. Not only the board of directors of Kunlun Red Star, but also an increasing number of fans of the new club are satisfied with the work of the center forwards.

The date June 24 can now be written in red on the official KHL calendar. On this day, the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League approved the Beijing Red Star Kunlun club as a participant in the KHL championship for the 2016/17 season.

The ambitious league, which considers itself second in the world and first in Europe (in some respects - with good reason), has already expanded to the West several times, joining teams from Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia, and today it has made a huge step to the East.

Not to say that this news was unexpected. Representatives of the FHR, KHL and the team itself signed a letter of intent on March 17; all that remained was to submit the documents. However, the official announcement of the newcomer was still a big event.

Chinese hockey does not have glorious traditions or great popularity within the country, but it has something that, for example, many European KHL teams lack - huge money and a fantastic market in scale, in which our league will have no competitors.

Events from this day on will develop rapidly. Already on June 25 in Beijing, the KHL management will sign an agreement with Zvezda on the right to participate in the championship; this is a standard procedure for newcomers. In another five days, the final decision on the composition of the season's participants will be made.

When the formalities are settled, club representatives may reveal some information about their capabilities and future transfers, otherwise for now everything is limited to rumors and dry formulations: “Currently, the formation of the team’s composition and plans for its pre-season preparation continues.”

However, even the information that is leaked to the media allows us to assert that the financial support of “Red Star” will be at the level of the strongest KHL teams. According to experts, salaries in the Beijing club, which can be called a kind of national project, will be on average twice as high as in Russian KHL teams.

In addition, the tax system in China is loyal to sports. For example, in 2016, Chinese football clubs spent three times more on transfers than English Premier League clubs. This trough will probably give something to hockey.

These guesses were partly confirmed by the president of the FHR. In an interview with Sportfact, he said that Red Star Kunlun will be an economically wealthy and international club for which Russian and Canadian hockey players will play.

Among the potential newcomers to the Beijing team, the media mention the names of three Gagarin Cup winners - Ilya, and.

Kovalchuk, due to conflicts and unsuccessful play, was removed from SKA in the current Gagarin Cup, but the management of the St. Petersburg club has so far denied his departure.

Thus, the SKA president emphasized that Kovalchuk will not leave the club this summer, and a member of the board of directors called this information “ridiculous.”

There is also no certainty about Metallurg Magnitogorsk forward Danis Zaripov. The club president called his possible transfer “rumors” and noted that the issue of luring players to the KHL is not an issue.

But with the leadership of the new team everything is more or less clear. The post of general manager at the club will be taken by the ex-general director of the Moscow “Wings” and the Chelyabinsk “Traktor”, and the head coach, according to media reports, should be Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., who won silver medals in the Russian championship at the head of “Salavat”.

At the moment, there are six foreign clubs in the KHL - Jokerit, Medvescak, as well as Minsk in the Western Conference and Barys in the Eastern.

Two more teams, the Ukrainian Donbass and the Czech Lev, left the league for various reasons.

You can get acquainted with other news, materials and statistics on the Continental Hockey League, as well as in the sports department groups on social networks