| 2018–19 KHL season | |
| League: | Kontinental Hockey League |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| Duration: | 1 September 2018 – 19 April 2019 |
| No Of Teams: | 25 |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Season Champs: | CSKA Moscow |
| Season Champ Name: | Continental Cup winner |
| Playoffs: | Playoffs |
| Playoffs Link: | 2019 Gagarin Cup playoffs |
| Conf1: | Western |
| Conf1 Champ: | CSKA Moscow |
| Conf1 Runner-Up: | SKA Saint Petersburg |
| Conf2: | Eastern |
| Conf2 Champ: | Avangard Omsk |
| Conf2 Runner-Up: | Salavat Yulaev Ufa |
| Playoffs Mvp: | Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow)[1] |
| Finals: | Gagarin Cup Finals |
| Finals Link: | 2019 Gagarin Cup playoffs#Gagarin Cup Finals |
| Finals Champ: | CSKA Moscow |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Avangard Omsk |
| Finals Mvp: | Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow)[2] |
| Finals Mvp Link: |
|
| Seasonslist: | KHL#Seasons overview |
| Seasonslistnames: | KHL |
| Prevseason Link: | 2017–18 KHL season |
| Prevseason Year: | 2017–18 |
| Nextseason Link: | 2019–20 KHL season |
| Nextseason Year: | 2019–20 |
The 2018–19 KHL season was the 11th season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The season started on 1 September 2018 and ended on 19 April 2019. Continental Cup winners CSKA Moscow became the first team to win the Gagarin Cup finals in a series sweep,[3] defeating Avangard Omsk in four games to win their first Gagarin Cup,[4] after two previous Finals defeats.
For the 2018–19 season, 25 teams competed in the KHL – down from 27 in 2017–18. The two teams that were excluded from the league were HC Lada Togliatti and HC Yugra,[5] with both teams moving to the Supreme Hockey League. As well as this, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod were moved from the Western Conference,[6] to the Eastern Conference; as a result, the Western Conference consisted of 12 teams and the Eastern Conference consisted of 13 teams.
The 2018–19 season featured the most games of any KHL season to date, with each team scheduled to play 62 games,[6] up from 56 in 2017–18.
This season witnessed the first time that KHL games were played in Austria and Switzerland, as part of the KHL World Games.[7] Slovan Bratislava played in both Austrian games (on 26 and 28 October) at the Albert Schultz Eishalle in Vienna – home to the Vienna Capitals of the Austrian Hockey League – losing 9–0 to CSKA Moscow,[8] and 7–0 to SKA Saint Petersburg.[9] The Swiss games were played at the Hallenstadion in Zürich – home to the ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League – with Dinamo Riga playing in both games (on 26 and 28 November), losing 3–1 to SKA Saint Petersburg,[10] and 5–0 to CSKA Moscow.[11]
The 25 teams were split into four divisions: the Bobrov Division and the Tarasov Division as part of the Western Conference, with the Kharlamov Division and the Chernyshev Division as part of the Eastern Conference. On 24 April 2018, the KHL announced re-alignment after both Lada Togliatti and Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk left the league.[12]
| Western Conference | Eastern Conference |
|---|
Each team played 62 games, playing each of the other twenty-four teams twice: once on home ice, and once away from home. As well as this, each team played a further two games against each of their divisional rivals, and four games total against non-divisional teams.
Points were awarded for each game, where two points were awarded for all victories, regardless of whether it was in regulation time, in overtime or after a shootout. One point was awarded for losing in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for losing in regulation time. At the end of the regular season, the team that finished with the most points was crowned the Continental Cup winner.
See main article: 2019 Gagarin Cup playoffs.
| Rank | Team | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | 1 |  CSKA Moscow | |
| scope=row | 2 | Avangard Omsk | |
| scope=row | 3 | SKA Saint Petersburg | |
| scope=row | 4 | Salavat Yulaev Ufa | |
| scope=row | 5 | Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg | |
| scope=row | 6 | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | |
| scope=row | 7 |  Barys Astana | |
| scope=row | 8 | Dynamo Moscow | |
| scope=row | 9 | Metallurg Magnitogorsk | |
| scope=row | 10 | Ak Bars Kazan | |
| scope=row | 11 |  Jokerit | |
| scope=row | 12 | HC Sochi | |
| scope=row | 13 | Spartak Moscow | |
| scope=row | 14 | ||
| scope=row | 15 | Vityaz Podolsk | |
| scope=row | 16 | Traktor Chelyabinsk | |
| scope=row | 17 | Dinamo Riga | |
| scope=row | 18 | Sibir Novosibirsk | |
| scope=row | 19 | Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk | |
| scope=row | 20 |  Kunlun Red Star | |
| scope=row | 21 | Admiral Vladivostok | |
| scope=row | 22 | Severstal Cherepovets | |
| scope=row | 23 | Amur Khabarovsk | |
| scope=row | 24 |  Dinamo Minsk | |
| scope=row | 25 |  Slovan Bratislava |
The following players led the league in points, at the conclusion of the regular season.[13] If two or more skaters are tied (i.e. same number of points, goals and played games), all of the tied skaters are shown.
| Player | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | SKA Saint Petersburg | 62 | 17 | 65 | 82 | +39 | 10 | |
| | Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg | 60 | 28 | 41 | 69 | +20 | 12 | |
| | Dynamo Moscow | 61 | 20 | 48 | 68 | +22 | 30 | |
| | Dynamo Moscow | 61 | 24 | 37 | 61 | +22 | 40 | |
 | Jokerit | 62 | 13 | 45 | 58 | +7 | 30 | |
| | Metallurg Magnitogorsk | 61 | 23 | 32 | 55 | +14 | 10 | |
 | Metallurg Magnitogorsk | 62 | 20 | 35 | 55 | +12 | 34 | |
| | Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg | 61 | 25 | 28 | 53 | +22 | 6 | |
| | Barys Astana | 62 | 15 | 38 | 53 | +30 | 59 | |
| | CSKA Moscow | 55 | 17 | 35 | 52 | +33 | 10 |
The following goaltenders led the league in goals against average, at the conclusion of the regular season.[14]
| Player | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | SKA Saint Petersburg | 28 | 1680:51 | 24 | 4 | 31 | 10 | 95.27% | 1.11 | |
 | CSKA Moscow | 24 | 1406:51 | 20 | 3 | 27 | 9 | 94.50% | 1.15 | |
| | CSKA Moscow | 40 | 2327:53 | 28 | 6 | 45 | 11 | 94.04% | 1.16 | |
| | SKA Saint Petersburg | 34 | 2048:13 | 24 | 7 | 45 | 8 | 93.98% | 1.32 | |
 | Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg | 50 | 2958:08 | 38 | 9 | 88 | 8 | 93.90% | 1.78 | |
| | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | 45 | 2416:58 | 25 | 15 | 76 | 10 | 92.96% | 1.89 | |
| | Dynamo Moscow | 38 | 2113:41 | 19 | 16 | 68 | 3 | 93.27% | 1.93 | |
| | Metallurg Magnitogorsk | 25 | 1102:49 | 12 | 7 | 36 | 4 | 92.44% | 1.96 | |
| | Avangard Omsk | 49 | 2682:16 | 25 | 17 | 89 | 8 | 91.44% | 1.99 | |
| | Salavat Yulaev Ufa | 48 | 2761:22 | 25 | 20 | 93 | 4 | 93.44% | 2.02 |
The KHL's end-of-season awards ceremony was held on 28 May 2019 in Barvikha.[15]
| Award | Recipient(s) | Team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | Best Sniper Award (most goals) | Kirill Kaprizov | CSKA Moscow |
| scope=row | Coach of the Year | Igor Nikitin | CSKA Moscow |
| scope=row | General Manager of the Year | Igor Yesmantovich | CSKA Moscow |
| scope=row | Gimayev Prize (for loyalty to hockey) | Alexander Popov | CSKA Moscow |
| scope=row rowspan=6 | Golden Helmet | Juha Metsola | Salavat Yulaev Ufa |
| Darren Dietz | Barys Astana | ||
| Nikita Nesterov | CSKA Moscow | ||
| Mikhail Grigorenko | CSKA Moscow | ||
| Teemu Hartikainen | Salavat Yulaev Ufa | ||
| Ilya Mikheyev | Avangard Omsk | ||
| scope=row | Playoffs Most Valuable Player | Ilya Sorokin | CSKA Moscow |
| scope=row | Rookie of the Year | Ilya Konovalov | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl |
| scope=row | Top Scorer Award (most points) | Nikita Gusev | SKA Saint Petersburg |
| scope=row | Continental Cup | CSKA Moscow | |
| scope=row | Eastern Conference winner | Avangard Omsk | |
| scope=row | Vsevolod Bobrov Prize (most team goals) | SKA Saint Petersburg | |
| scope=row | Western Conference winner | CSKA Moscow |
Best KHL players of each month.
| Month | Goaltender | Defence | Forward | Rookie | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row | September[16] | Jakub Kovář (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) | Darren Dietz (Barys Astana) | Anatoly Golyshev (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) | Nikita Mikhailov (Sibir Novosibirsk) | |
| scope=row | October[17] | Juha Metsola (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) | Paul Postma (Ak Bars Kazan) | Nigel Dawes (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) | Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) | |
| scope=row | November[18] | Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) | Darren Dietz (Barys Astana) | Nigel Dawes (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg) | Nikita Mikhailov (Sibir Novosibirsk) | |
| scope=row | December[19] | Henrik Karlsson (Barys Astana) | Vojtěch Mozík (Vityaz) | Vadim Shipachyov (Dynamo Moscow) | Kristian Vesalainen (Jokerit) | |
| scope=row | January[20] | Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) | Viktor Svedberg (Barys Astana) | Nikita Gusev (SKA Saint Petersburg) |  Mārtiņš Dzierkals (Dinamo Riga) | |
| scope=row | February[21] | Anton Krasotkin (Admiral Vladivostok) | Staffan Kronwall (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) | André Petersson (Barys Astana) | Ilya Konovalov (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) | |
| scope=row | March[22] | Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow) | Mat Robinson (CSKA Moscow) | Nikita Gusev (SKA Saint Petersburg) | Daniil Misyul (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl) | |
| scope=row | April[23] | Juha Metsola (Salavat Yulaev Ufa) | Mat Robinson (CSKA Moscow) | Mikhail Grigorenko (CSKA Moscow) |