Metallurg Magnitogorsk

History

Metallurg was founded in 1955 by the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) as a Class B team that competed in the Chelyabinsk Oblast and the RSFSR championships. Since 1980, they were led by the head coach Valery Postnikov. Under his leadership, the club won the Second League Class B, a fourth-tier league, and was promoted to the third-tier Second League Class A, then won its championships twice, in 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. After two more seasons in the second level of Soviet hockey, Metallurg became one of the founders of the International Hockey League (MHL), the first post-Soviet major professional hockey league. Thanks to MMK's funding, Metallurg acquired several key players from other clubs, including Sergei Mogilnikov from Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk, Andrei Martemyanov from Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Igor Ulshin from HC Sibir Novosibirsk. In their first season in the top flight, Metallurg managed to reach sixth place in the Eastern Conference, then upset HC Spartak Moscow, one of the historic powerhouses of Soviet hockey, in the first round of the playoffs before falling to Traktor Chelyabinsk in the second round. In the 1995 MHL playoffs, Metallurg reached the semifinals, and in 1996 they earned a spot in the final series, which they lost to HC Dynamo Moscow 1–3. Valery Postnikov coached the team until 1996, then his assistant Valery Belousov took over.

Metallurg carried over their status as one of the strongest teams into the Russian Superleague, and in the 1997–98 Russian Superleague season they won the cup for the first time, winning the final series 3–1 over Dynamo Moscow. This victory earned them a spot in the 1998–99 European Hockey League which they won. In the next season, Metallurg won both the regular season and the playoffs, earning the title of Champions of Russia. They also won their second European title in the 1999-2000 European Hockey League.

In total, Metallurg advanced to the Russian Superleague finals six times and became a three-time champion of Russia. The club also won the 2008 edition of the IIHF European Champions Cup and reached the finals the Champions Hockey League in 2009, losing the final series to the Swiss ZSC Lions.

Evgeny Malkin started his career with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, signing his first professional contract before the 2003–04 Russian Superleague season. He played three seasons for Metallurg before leaving for the Pittsburgh Penguins with one year of the contract left after a dispute with the club's ownership. He would return to play for Metallurg during the 2012-13 NHL lockout.

Victoria Cup

On 1 October 2008, Metallurg Magnitogorsk played against NHL's New York Rangers in the inaugural Victoria Cup at the PostFinance-Arena in Bern with an attendance of 13,794. Metallurg Magnitogorsk led most of the game, 3–0 at one point, but ultimately lost 4–3 by the Rangers' Ryan Callahan breakaway goal with 20 seconds remaining in the game. Denis Platonov, Vladimir Malenkikh and Nikolai Zavarukhin scored for Metallurg, and Dan Fritsche scored and Chris Drury scored twice for the Rangers. As a sign of respect, Russian Dmitri Kalinin and Ukrainian Nikolay Zherdev accepted the Victoria Cup trophy on behalf of the New York Rangers.

KHL

Metallurg Magnitogorsk was a founding member of the Kontinental Hockey League and qualified to the Gagarin Cup playoffs in all of its seasons. They won the Gagarin Cup in the 2013–14 KHL season, 2015–16 KHL season, and the 2023–24 KHL season.

In the inaugural season of the new league Metallurg played in the Tarasov Division and placed second after HC CSKA Moscow. In the playoffs, they won bronze medals after beating Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3-0 and Atlant Mytichtchi 3-1 and losing to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1–4.

In the second season, the KHL divided into conferences for the first time, and Metallurg was placed into the Kharlamov Division of the Eastern Conference. They finished the regular season on top of the division and defeated Traktor Chelyabinsk 3–1 in the first round of the playoffs, but were eliminated in the second round by the reigning champion Ak Bars Kazan in six games.

Sergey Mozyakin had been Metallurg's star player in the KHL. He played in Magnitogorsk between 2011 and 2021. His number 10 has been retired by the club. He holds the all-time goalscoring record in the KHL with 351 goals and held the points record with 928 points until it was beaten by Vadim Shipachyov in 2024. In the 2016-17 KHL season he set records for most points (85, beaten by Nikita Gusev in 2023-24) and most goals (48, beaten by Joshua Leivo in 2024-25) in a KHL regular season.

The 2021–22 KHL season had a nonstandard format because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 Winter Olympics, as the regular season was ended early and the Kontinental Cup was not awarded. Also, before the playoffs started, starting goaltender Juho Olkinuora elected to leave the team due to the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War. Despite that, the team, with the veteran Vasily Koshechkin in net, built back on its momentum from the regular season, where they had the best points percentage and most goals scored of all KHL teams, and defeated Barys Astana, Avangard Omsk and Traktor Chelyabinsk on the way to the Gagarin Cup Final against HC CSKA Moscow. Metallurg then took a 3-1 lead in the series but allowed CSKA to come back, win three games in a row and the Gagarin Cup.

In the 2022–23 KHL season struggled during the regular season, finishing fifth in the conference, overcame a 3-2 deficit to win the first round matchup against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg in Game 7 overtime, and were then swept by Avangard Omsk. The club management considered the result disappointing, so Ilya Vorobiev, the head coach who led the team to two Gagarin Cups, left the team. It was also the final season for Vasily Koshechkin, who lost the starting job to Edward Pasquale that season. At the time of his retirement Koshechkin held KHL records in games played (765), wins (378) and shutouts (90).

Season-by-season record

For the full season-by-season history, see List of Metallurg Magnitogorsk seasons.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Players

Current roster

Updated 12 September 2026.

Franchise leaders

All-time KHL scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed KHL regular season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Metallurg player;

Awards and trophies

Gagarin Cup

Winners (3): 2014, 2016, 2024

Runners-up (1): 2017

Kontinental Cup

Winners (1): 2025-26

Opening Cup

Winners (2): 2014–15, 2016–17

Russian Superleague

Winners (4): 1997–98, 1998–99, 2000–01, 2006–07

Runners-up (1): 2003–04

3rd place (3): 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2005–06

Silver Stone Trophy

Winners (3): 1999, 2000, 2008

IIHF Super Cup

Winners (1): 2000

Runners-up (1): 1999

Champions Hockey League

Runners-up (1): 2008–09

Spengler Cup

Winners (1): 2005

Victoria Cup

Runners-up (1): 2008

Tampere Cup

Winners (3): 2005, 2006, 2008

Hockeyades (Vallé de Joux)

Winners (1): 2009