Lokomotiv Tops KHL Club Ranking for 2025/26

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl have topped the Fonbet KHL club ranking for 2025/26, scoring 88.65 points and holding on to first place from last year's table.

Metallurg stayed 4th on 69.69, and Salavat Yulaev climbed two places to 5th with 63.77. SKA held 7th on 59.72,, and Shanghai edged up one place to 21st on 31.93.

The ranking draws on ten weighted criteria: sporting results (20%), the cost of those results (20%), reliance on budget funding (10%), timeliness of players' wages (5%), compliance with technical regulations (5%), arena attendance and occupancy (10%), fan services (5%), television index (10%), revenue from tickets and licensed merchandise (10%) and media work (5%). Three seasons feed into the score, weighted 100%, 75% and 50% from most to least recent, and the final table sets the payouts clubs receive for the previous campaign.

Lokomotiv's position at the top fits a pattern already confirmed elsewhere this month: the KHL is paying out a record 2.36 billion roubles for 2025/26, and Yaroslavl take the largest single share at 215.9 million.

Salavat Yulaev's rise to 5th comes against a difficult run on the ice., and parted with goalkeeper Ilya Konovalov earlier this month after he conceded seven goals in a 5:8 loss to Barys. The club's financial standing and its results on the ice are, for now, moving in opposite directions.