Barys Astana Barys Hockey Club ( in Russian : " Барыс Астана хоккей клубы " , " Astana Panthers " ) is a professional hockey team based in Astana , capital of Kazakhstan . The team plays in the Kontinental Hockey League . History . Barys Astana was founded in 1999 . The Panthers ' ( Barys is a kazakh word meaning panther ) inaugural season was 1999 - 00 , where they played in the Kazakhstan Championship . Barys would stay there until 2007 . In 2004 - 05 , Barys was admitted into the Russian hockey system . They made their debuts in the Pervaya Liga ; in parallel , Barys kept a second team in the Kazakh Championship . Barys ' debuts in Russia was interesting , with the team doing fairly well . They played three seasons in the Pervaya Liga , where they finished respectively 3rd , 2nd and 1st of the Ural - Western Siberia zone where they played . With this first place in 2007 , Barys was allowed into the Vysshaya Liga . Astana played a single season in the Vysshaya Liga , a good one , where they finished second out of 14 in the West conference . They reached the playoffs , where they began by sweeping HK Belgorod in three straight games in the first round , before falling to Khimik Voskresensk in four games . Barys however won the Kazakh Championship that year . Barys ' main team did not participate in the regular season of the league ( however , its affiliate , Barys Astana - 2 , did ) , but the league ' s format was so that the three best team of the league after the regular season would play the three best Kazakh teams ( Barys ' main team , Kazzinc - Torpedo Ust - Kamenogorsk and Kazakhmys Satpaev , all three playing in the Vysshaya Liga ) in the playoffs . Barys won the tournament , dethroning defending champions Torpedo , en route to their first Kazakh title . In 2008 , Barys applied to join the newly formed Kontinental Hockey League . The league ' s authorities allowed Barys in , making it the first Kazakh team into the new league . The team won its first game in the KHL on September 3 2008 abroad , defeating Metallurg Nizhnekamsk 2 - 1 in the shootout s . They registered their first home game eleven days later by beating defending Russian champions Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3 - 2 , this time again in shootout . The team finished its first season with a 15th place overall in the league ( 5th out of 6 in the highly competitive Chernyshev division ) . The team made the playoffs and faced Ak Bars Kazan in the first round ( 2nd overall in the league ) ; Kazan swept Astana three games to nothing to advance to the second round . Kevin Dallman finished the season as the league ' s fifth best scorer with a 28 goals and 30 assists ( 58 points ) record ; he also finished as the league ' s leader for shots on goal with 217 . Konstantin Glazachev finished 9th overall in the league in scoring with 52 points ( 28 goals and 24 assists ) . Meanwhile , the team secured a second straight Kazakhstan Championship title . The 2009 - 10 season saw Barys have a very similar season than the previous . Veteran Jozef Stümpel finished top scorer of the team , with 13 goals and 39 assists ( 52 points ) , two better than Maxim Spiridonov , who was the best goal scorer of the team with 24 . Fan favourite Kevin Dallman also was a major contributor , with 14 goals and 27 assists . Newcomer Jeff Glass did a fine job between the pipes , with 19 wins and a 2 . 87 goals against average , helping the team finish fourteenth overall of the KHL , a one place improvement from 2008 - 09 . Barys was however once again swept in three games by Ak Bars Kazan in the first round of the playoffs . Captains . Nik antropov