Izhevsk

Izhevsk grew around gun and steel works, and its hockey club came out of the same factory floor: the team began in 1958 as the works side of the Izhevsk Metallurgical Plant, skating under the name "Trud" before short spells as "Zenit" and "Metallist." In 1967 the Presidium of the Udmurt ASSR sports society folded it into SK Izhstal, and the name has stuck since.

The jersey's white, yellow, red and blue trace the colours of metal as it heats, and the nickname that goes with it, Stalevary — Steelworkers — reads the same way. On the ice that identity peaked in the Soviet years: the RSFSR championship in 1975, back-to-back wins in the USSR First League in 1979 and 1981 that pushed the club into the top flight, and a silver medal there in 1987. The 1990s cut through that run — the club sat out the 1993/94 and 1994/95 championships altogether before finding its way back onto the ice.

Since 2010 Izhstal has settled into the Supreme Hockey League, the country's second tier, and now works as a development side for Kontinental Hockey League club Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, a role it took on in 2021 after years of sending players up through Severstal Cherepovets. Its closest edge on the ice belongs to Molot-Perm, and the derby between the two has carried through both clubs' years in the lower leagues. Izhstal came closest to the modern-era title in 2014/15 and 2015/16, losing the Bratina Cup final to Toros Neftekamsk both times.

No one is tied to the club more than Sergei Abramov, who still holds its scoring records from the Soviet Top League years and later came back to coach the team he once led on the ice.