Kovalchuk wants Shanghai Dragons to move to China within two seasons

Ilya Kovalchuk, president of the Shanghai Dragons, wants the club to move from St Petersburg to Shanghai next season or the year after. He said the talks with the Chinese side are still going on.

"The main thing is for the team to move to Shanghai next season or in a year's time," Kovalchuk said. "So several matches are planned for February, exhibition games, like the ones played last year. This year that is planned too, but now we simply want to understand what exactly our Chinese partners want from us. Do they want us just to come and, as they say, show the goods? Do they already have a vision of how to be part of the team, and of the team moving to Shanghai next year? So the talks are under way."

The club gave the same timeline on 14 September, when Kovalchuk spoke of a move within two seasons and February exhibition games. What he added this time is that the club does not yet know what the Chinese side expects of it.

On the city itself he was direct. "I have been to Shanghai myself, a wonderful city," he said. "I believe that for our league it will be one of the top cities where hockey can be developed. There are 25 million people there, and I am sure we will find 15,000 to 18,000 to come to every match."

Youth hockey is not yet on the agenda. "As for youth hockey, there is no such task for now, but I am sure that we should gradually build a full vertical: teams in the Higher Hockey League, and a youth one, definitely, and women's hockey," Kovalchuk said. "There is a women's team on the border of cities in China that is popular. So the prospects are big, and there is no end of work."

If the Chinese partners answer the question Kovalchuk has put to them, the February games could show whether the move happens in 2027 or a year later.