The Kontinental Hockey League (Континентальная хоккейная лига) was established in 2008, playing their debut season in 2008-09 with teams spread out across Europe and Asia but with most teams based in Russia. By their tenth season in 2017 the league had teams in seven different countries: Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, and Slovakia. The annual playoff champion in the KHL is awarded the Gagarin Cup (Кубок Гагарина) named for Yuri Gagarin the first human to be sent to outer space.
