The 2009–10 KHL season was the second season of the Kontinental Hockey League. It was held from 10 September 2009 to 27 April 2010, with a break for the Olympic winter games from 8 February to 3 March. Ak Bars Kazan defended their title by defeating Western conference winners HC MVD in a seven-game play-off final. League changes On 16 June 2009, the KHL Board of Directors approved several changes to the league for the 2009–10 season. Team changes The league admitted a new team, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. Khimik Voskresensk did not play in the 2009–10 season due to financial problems, but they retained KHL membership and may return at a later date, meanwhile playing in the Russian Major League. Overall, the number of teams playing in 2009–10 remained at 24. Division realignment Teams were geographically aligned to aid travel conditions. The league were divided into a Western and an Eastern conference, each containing two divisions of six teams. Each team played the other teams in the same division 4 times (for a total of 20 games) and each team in the other divisions 2 times (for a total of 36 games). The regular season thus consisted of 56 games for every team. Play-off structure The top eight teams from each conference qualified for the play-offs. Division winners were awarded the top two seeds. In each conference quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be played and the conference winners play for the Gagarin Cup. Conference quarterfinals were best-of-five series, the remaining rounds best-of-seven series. Overtime periods last 20 minutes or until the sudden death goal. Salary cap The aggregate income of all players of a team was limited to 620 million rubles (~US$20 million). Minimum aggregate salary for the players was 200 million rubles (~US$6.5 million). Each teams was allowed one "franchise player" exception, who did not count towards the cap. Rosters 25 players are allowed to be in the major team roster and 25 in the junior team roster of every club. The number of foreign players is restricted to 5, at most one of them as goaltender. Junior league The league implemented a more advanced and organized junior hockey sub-league to focus on development. It features players from 17 to 21 years of age. Entry draft On 1 June 2009, the inaugural entry draft for the KHL was held. Each team's hockey school was able to protect 25 players from