Kunlun Red Star

Lore & Background

Kunlun Red Star was established in March 2016 when representatives of the club and the KHL signed a protocol of intent, supported by the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and the KHL chairman. The club was officially accepted into the KHL on 25 June 2016, with an announcement ceremony attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Home games were initially planned for the LeSports Center in Beijing and the Sports Center Pavilion in Shanghai, but due to scheduling conflicts, the team played its early games at the Feiyang Skating Center in Shanghai before returning to Beijing in December 2016.

The team's inaugural season saw a pre-season brawl against Barys Astana that led to a lifetime ban for Damir Ryspayev. Kunlun won its regular-season debut 2–1 against Amur Khabarovsk, with Sean Collins scoring the first goal. The team qualified for the 2017 postseason but lost to Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Subsequent seasons saw coaching changes—Mike Keenan, Bobby Carpenter, Jussi Tapola, and Curt Fraser—and inconsistent performance, with the team missing the playoffs in 2017–18 and finishing 20th in 2018–19. By the COVID-19 era, the club played home games in Mytishchi, Russia, and its roster lacked China-born players.

Reader's Guide

Kunlun Red Star's significance lies in its role as the first Chinese team in the KHL, intended to boost Chinese hockey ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics. However, the article notes that the team's connection to Chinese hockey was limited; by its final season, no China-born players were on the roster, and home games were played in Russia. The club's legacy includes milestones such as Zach Yuen becoming the first player of Chinese descent to score in a KHL game, and Sun Zehao becoming the first native-born Chinese goalie to play in the league. Despite early attendance success in Beijing, interest in Shanghai was poor, and the team's on-ice performance was inconsistent, with only one playoff appearance. On 6 August 2025, the team announced relocation to Shanghai to become the Shanghai Dragons, ending its tenure as Kunlun Red Star.

Did You Know?

• The team's first goal in franchise history was scored by Sean Collins.
• Damir Ryspayev received a lifetime ban from the KHL for attacking multiple Kunlun players in a pre-season game.
• Sun Zehao was the first native-born Chinese goalie to play in a KHL game, on 17 January 2019.

The Great Relocation: From Beijing to Shanghai

On August 7, 2025, Kunlun Red Star announced a transformation that would fundamentally alter the club's identity. Following a change of ownership, the organization revealed plans to rebrand as the Shanghai Dragons and shift its home base from Beijing to Shanghai. However, the transition would not be immediate in every respect: the club would remain initially headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, even as its new name and city affiliation pointed toward the Chinese metropolis. Despite the dramatic shift in branding and geography, the Dragons would retain their existing slot in the Tarasov Division, ensuring continuity within the league's competitive structure. This announcement arrived amid a broader season of upheaval in the KHL, making the club's own metamorphosis a particularly striking chapter in the league's eighteenth campaign.

A Season in Flux: The 2025-26 KHL Landscape

The 2025-26 campaign marked the eighteenth iteration of the Kontinental Hockey League, and it arrived with a reduced field. Following HC Vityaz's withdrawal—announced on June 24, 2025, due to financial constraints and confirmed by an emergency board meeting that barred the club's return until 2030—the league fielded 22 teams. Each club would contest 68 regular-season games spread across 182 playing days, with the schedule running from September 5, 2025, through March 20, 2026. The season opened with the Opening Cup on that first September date, pitting Lokomotiv Yaroslavl against Traktor Chelyabinsk. For the newly named Shanghai Dragons, entering this reshaped competition under a fresh identity added an extra layer of uncertainty to an already transitional year.

Structural Shifts Reshaping the Competitive Field

The 2025-26 season brought several rule and structural adjustments that would directly affect how the Shanghai Dragons navigated their schedule. To maintain conference balance after Vityaz's departure, Lada Togliatti was transferred from the Kharlamov Division in the East to the Bobrov Division in the West. The league also raised its salary floor to 475 million rubles while keeping the cap at 900 million rubles, excluding certain bonuses. On the ice, a notable rule change reduced shootout attempts from five to three per team, potentially altering late-game strategy. The playoff format carried over from the previous two seasons, featuring a cross-playoff system where Conference Quarterfinals are followed by a cross-conference switch and re-seeding beginning in the second round. These changes collectively shaped the competitive environment into which the Dragons would step.

The Tarasov Division and the Road to the Gagarin Cup

The Shanghai Dragons would compete in the Tarasov Division, part of the Western Conference alongside the Bobrov Division. Their 68-game slate was structured so that each team faced every opponent once at home, yielding 21 home and 21 away matchups, supplemented by 10 home and 10 away games against fellow conference teams, plus six special games. Scoring was straightforward: two points for any win, one for an overtime or shootout loss, and none for a regulation defeat. The Gagarin Cup playoffs commenced on March 23, 2026, with the cross-conference re-seeding ensuring that the path to the final was never a simple intra-conference march. In the Finals, the higher-seeded team in their conference earned home ice, with regular-season points serving as the tiebreaker if both clubs held identical seeds.