Potential Kontinental Hockey League expansion

The potential of including addition franchises to the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has been an ongoing topic since the league's inception. In June 2012, the league presented a plan that would see expansion to as many as 64 teams in up to 22 countries. It has later been stated that the league only can comprise 32 teams, because of problems with logistics with more teams.

United Hockey Europe was the first proposed pan-European ice hockey league. It was announced at the International Ice Hockey Federation's September 2009 congress by Alexander Medvedev, president of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

The proposed league would have consisted of two conferences split into four divisions. The current KHL would have made up one of the conferences. The other conference would have been composed of a Scandinavian division and a Central European division. The winners of the two conferences would have played each other for the overall championship.

The proposal of June 2012 at the International Hockey Forum in Barcelona was an updated version of this plan, that would see two conferences of 32 teams each, playing a 62-game regular schedule followed by five rounds of playoffs.

The KHL would essentially replace the current model of European hockey based on relegation and promotion within national systems, supplemented by an international tournament, most recently the Champions Hockey League, and replace it with a system of franchises much like that of the North American National Hockey League (NHL).

The Czech Republic's HC Energie Karlovy Vary signed letters of intent with the KHL in 2008 and hoped to begin playing in the 2009-10 season. However, they had to annul plans to join the league due to the financial crisis of 2007–2010.

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