Karaganda

Before Kazakhstan had a hockey championship worth entering, Saryarka went looking for one in Russia. Set up by the Karaganda regional government in July 2006 at the initiative of Nurlan Nigmatulin, the club spent its first years testing itself in the Russian First League.

That path carried the club into the Supreme Hockey League, where it twice lifted the Bratina Cup, in 2014 and 2019, while still representing a country outside Russia's own championship pyramid.

Known as the Eagles and playing in yellow and blue, the club settled at the Karagandy-Arena, a 5,500-seat rink in the city, and its meetings with Kazzinc-Torpedo of Ust-Kamenogorsk became known as the Kazakhstani Derby. Edgars Siksna has worn the captaincy.

The domestic titles caught up eventually: Saryarka took the Kazakhstan Cup three years in a row, from 2020 to 2022, alongside two more championships in the same span.