The All-Russian Hockey League (VHL) (, ''Vserossiyskaya hokkeinaya liga (VHL)''), also known as the Major Hockey League or Higher Hockey League (HHL), is a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

league in

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

, and the second highest level of Russian hockey.

History

Though currently acting independently, plans were in place to convert it to a

farm system In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

for the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

(KHL)'s 2010–11 season. It was preceded by the Major League of the Russian Championship (Vysshaya Liga) that formerly held a

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

role for the

Russian Superleague The Russian Superleague (, ''Russian Championship Superleague''), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was considered the second-best league in the world, after the Nation ...

and was governed by the

Ice Hockey Federation of Russia The Ice Hockey Federation of Russia (, ''Federatsiya Khokkeya Rossii'') is the Sport governing body, governing body overseeing ice hockey in Russia. In 2019, Russia had 110,624 ice hockey players registered with its ice hockey federation. After t ...

. As of the 2022–23 season, most VHL teams were affiliated with a KHL team (e.g., Khimik Voskresensk is affiliated with KHL's Spartak Moscow), while some teams of the VHL are not affiliated with a KHL team.

Russian Classic

The Russian Classic () is an outdoor ice hockey game that is played during the Supreme Hockey League regular season. So far, the visiting team has won every edition of the game. *

Seasons overview

Teams in 2022–23

All-time team records

Since its foundation in 2010, 40 different clubs have played in the VHL, and 34 of them have at least once qualified for the playoffs. Only one club ( Toros Neftekamsk) has made the playoffs in all nine championships of the VHL, reaching the semi-final stage six times. The table gives the final regular season ranks for all teams, with the playoff performance encoded in colors. The teams are ordered by their best championship results.

References

External links

VHL Official

VHL Official

VHL OfficialAllHockey.Ru
{{Ice hockey in Russia

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Professional ice hockey leagues in Russia Ice hockey competitions in China Ice hockey competitions in Kazakhstan