Origins The Donbass Hockey Club founded as a successor to the original Donbass team formed in June 2001 in
Sievierodonetsk. This original team, in turn, was a spiritual successor to previous Donetsk teams
KOOPERATOR (from 1990) and
NORD (from 1993). Following the team's dissolution, most former Donbass players would go on to join
Khimik Sievierodonetsk of the Ukrainian Major League. and applied for participation as a professional team in the First League, a division of the annual
Ukrainian Hockey Championship. A lack of artificial ice in
Donetsk forced the team to practice on a lake in
Yasynuvata. Donbass was able to sweep
HC Verony in the qualifying round, and
Ekspres Lviv due to forfeiture, but were themselves swept by
HC Kharkiv 2–0. The first influential addition to the club after this change in management was former
Sokil Kyiv head coach,
Aleksandr Kulikov, in the summer of 2010. He came with Anatoliy Dyomin, his partner from
Sokil Kyiv, and Sergey Viter from Donetsk. Under the leadership of this coach trio, HC Donbass began to play in a new way, surpassing all expectations with a record-breaking 27 wins in the
Ukrainian Hockey Championship. Under Kulikov, the team broke the previous record for most consecutive wins in the Ukrainian championship as well. This year, Donbass was capable of sweeping HC Kharkiv in the first round of the best-of-three playoff series, and would go on to upset Sokil by sweeping them in the finals, with scores of 1–0 and 3–2. With the win, Donbass became the first non-Kyiv-based team to win the national title and began a new era of Donetsk as the epicentre of Ukrainian hockey. The title also secured the club's entry into the
2011–12 IIHF Continental Cup, the third round of which was hosted in Donetsk. Donbass secured a place in the Super Final, falling to the host
Dragons de Rouen in the final game 5–2.
Vladimir Malevich of Donbass took home honors as the best defenseman of the tournament.
Supreme Hockey League (2011–12 season) The
Supreme Hockey League (VHL) accepted HC Donbass to a non-commercial partnership in the league on May the 31st 2011. HC Donbass became the first domestic club in independent Ukraine history to have full-fledged days-long training sessions abroad, at the "Tin Ranch" center in Ontario, Canada. There, HC Donbass has won against the Ontario HL all-star team twice. A month later, in Donetsk, the club organized and held an international tournament, the "Donbass Open Cup", where three
KHL clubs took part. On September 23, 2011, owner Borys Kolesnikov elevated his role to that of team president over Serhiy Shakurov, who had held the role with the club since its inception. The year the club played in the VHL resulted in a third-place finish in the regular season and a semifinal loss against
Toros Neftekamsk who went on to become the champions.
Kontinental Hockey League (2012–2014) On April 23, Slovakian specialist
Július Šupler became the head coach of HC Donbass. In July 2012 the management of the KHL accepted HC Donbass. Because of lockout NHL-2012, Ukrainian players
Ruslan Fedotenko,
Alexey Ponikarovsky and
Anton Babchuk replenished the club's membership. Afterwards twice Stanley Cup winner Ruslan Fedotenko became the captain of the team. Donbass played its first KHL game on September 6, 2012, at
Slovan Bratislava, winning 4–2.
Evgeny Belukhin scored the first goal in Donbass's KHL history. Following the season the team hosted the 2013 KHL junior draft. In January 2013, HC Donbass won the
2012–13 IIHF Continental Cup as first Ukrainian club. Within the super final in Donetsk on the January 11 to 13, the champions of Ukraine HC Donbass beat
Metallurg Zhlobin from
Belarus with a score of 1–0,
Bolzano Foxes from Italy with a score of 3–0, and
Dragons de Rouen from France with a score of 7–1 and got a total of 9 points. As a result of its first regular season in KHL the club got the 9th stage in the West and fetched up to play-off. In the
2013-14 KHL season, Donbass moved from the Bobrov to the Tarasov division. The Russian specialist Andrey Nazarov was in charge of Donetsk team. On September 10, 2013, Alexey Braga was assigned to the position of the HC Donbass
GM. At the end of the regular season Donbass finished 4th in the
Western Conference, and qualified to the playoffs of the
Gagarin Cup for the first time. Donbass also set a
KHL record for the fewest goals against in a regular season with 99. In the first round, Donbass defeated
Dinamo Riga 4 games to 3 before falling to
Lev Prague in the Western Conference Semi-finals 4 games to 2. In the second game of the series with Lev, the teams set a record for the longest game in the history of the
Kontinental Hockey League. The game was won 4–3 by Donbass, and lasted for 126 minutes and 13 seconds before
Evgeny Belukhin scored the winning goal. Due to political events occurring in Ukraine at the time, the third and fourth games of the series, scheduled for Donetsk, were played in
Bratislava. The series returned to Donetsk for Game 6, which Lev won 1–0 to finish Donbass's season. At the end of the season HC Donbass was named the 2013 Best Sports Club of Ukraine at the
Heroes of Sports Year awards. On the night of May 26, 2014, because of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the home arena of the club was looted, vandalized and set on fire. Windows and equipment were destroyed. HC Donbass initially expected the arena to be reconditioned within 90 days and fully restored by the start of the KHL season, which never happened. The arena was subsequently condemned.
Suspension of operations (2014–15 season) On June 18, 2014, the KHL President
Alexander Medvedev met with the management of Donbass to discuss the team's situation. The parties agreed that HC Donbass would take a one-year "stop-out" from operations. The team bought an equity stake in the league and, as a result, would theoretically be guaranteed a place in the competition for the 2015–16 season, although the ongoing
War in Donbass combined with the league's financial situation leave the future uncertain. In order to ensure the team's ability to compete upon its return, all rosters and contracts have been frozen. Players and coaches affected by the suspension were permitted to sign one-year contracts with other clubs but otherwise remain under contract to Donbass. Donbass's new home, Kalmius Arena, would contain 12,800 of spectators for hockey. It was initially expected to be operational by the 2014–15 season, which never happened too although the project is currently on hold.
Resumed operation (2015–16 season) Instead of rejoining the KHL, the club and the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine (
FHU) signed a contract about the participation of the team in the
Ukrainian Hockey Extra League in the 2015–16 season. The team now plays their home games at the
Altair Arena, in
Druzhkivka, 90 km from Donetsk.
2016–17 season Within the pre-season training session HC Donbass took part in some domestic and international competitions. Within the period from 11 until August 13 the team played on Kremenchuk Open Cup, from 18 until 20 – on the Pavel Zaboynik Memorial and on August 25–28 it held the traditional domestic competition Donbass Open Cup in Druzhkovka. 5 Ukrainian clubs took part in this fifth draw of Donbass Open Cup – HC Biliy Bars, HC Vityaz, HC Kremenchuk, HC Krivbass and HC Donbass. Teams played 10 games in total. With 12 points gained in four games HC Donbass became the winner and saved the cup at home. In the season 2016–17 HC "Donbass" takes part in
Ukrainian Hockey League championship. The starting match of the season took place on September 9, 2016. On the ice of Altair arena in Druzhkovka the champion of the last season HC Donbass met silver medalists – HC Generals, Kyiv. The match ended with the score 4–0 in favor of the Donetsk "Donbass". On June 6, 2016, in Budapest a meeting of representatives of the teams participating in the 20th draw of the IIHF Continental Cup was held. Due to this meeting HC Donbass learned their first opponents. "Donbass" started with a semi-final round, which was held in Denmark from November 18 to 20. French "Ange", Danish "Odense" and champion of the British elite league season 2015/16 "Nottingham Panthers" was the opponents of HC Donbass.Performance in the group D «Donbass" finished in third place. On December 21, 2016 "Donbass" became the first club UHL, which guaranteed itself place in the play-off round of the championship. On February 5, 2017, the contract between HC "Donbass" and the coaching staff, who led the 56-year-old Anatoly Stepanishev, was to terminate by mutual agreement of the parties. On February 12, 48-year-old Igor Chibirev entered the coaching staff, and on February 21, a 54-year-old specialist from Latvia Andrejs Matzins. They became assistants to the acting head coach Serhiy Viter. On March 6, Serhiy Viter became the head coach of the hockey club "Donbass". The contract with the 42-year-old Ukrainian specialist was concluded for two years. On March 9, "Donbass" began the semifinal series of the playoffs UHL against "Kryvbas" Krivoy Rog. In a series of four wins, "Donbass" took 5 matches to beat the club from Krivoy Rog (4–0, 3–2 OT, 3–4, 3–0, 5–2). The opponents of Donetsk in the final was "Kremenchuk". In a tense confrontation with the team from the Poltava region, "Donbass" with a total score 4–2 (3–1, 3–4 OT, 3–1, 2–1, 1–4, 2–1) became five-time champions of Ukraine, and Serhiy Viter first tried on a gold medal as head coach. ==Ice hockey school==