No other hockey league compares to the NHL in terms of talent, but the KHL is the closest due to the fact that a lot of former NHLers are in the league.
For example, SKA Saint Petersburg has Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk, two of the best players in the NHL when they were in the league.
For Kovalchuk, the 2016-17 season was his fourth in a row with Saint Petersburg since leaving the NHL, and for Datsyuk, this was his first season in the KHL since 2012-13.
The dynamic duo helped their team reach the finals in the KHL playoffs, and on Sunday, Saint Petersburg won the Gagarin Cup with a 5-3 win in Game 5.
The pure joy of a team winning a championship is something we love to see, and Kovalchuk and Datsyuk were excited after the win to say the least.
As awesome as that moment was for the two former NHLers, the celebration after the game was just as epic.
As much as hockey fans would like to see both Kovalchuk and Datsyuk come back to the NHL and raise a Cup for their team, this will more than do for now.
(H/T: KHL)
