살라바트 UFA

Soviet era

Founded in 1961, the club is named after Salavat Yulaev, a national hero of Bashkortostan. After years of competing in the low-level divisions the team was invited to the second level of the Soviet League "Class A" in 1964, subsequently getting promotion to the elite group for the 1978-1979, 1980-81, 1982-83, 1985-1986 and 1986-1987 seasons.^[]

Post-Soviet era

Salavat Yulaev was one of the founding clubs of the International Hockey League and later the Russian Superleague, and normally advanced to the playoffs at that time. The club reached its first Russian championship semifinals in 1996-97 and eventually won its first Championship title in 2007-08, beating Lokomotiv Yaroslavl by three matches to two.

KHL era

On July 11, 2008, Salavat signed NHL rising star Alexander Radulov. On June 9, 2009, a press release was issued, stating that Viktor Kozlov had signed a three-year contract to return to Russia. The club has also signed Norwegian forward Patrick Thoresen for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons.

Salavat Yulaev marked its first year in the KHL by winning its first two regular season titles and becoming the first club to be awarded the Continental Cup. The following season, the team advanced to the final against Atlant and won their first Gagarin Cup as champions. They remained a powerful club in the KHL over the following seasons, reaching the playoffs each year, though did not advance past the conference finals in any year.

In March 2022, all four Finnish players, including the all-time scoring leader Teemu Hartikainen, and Geoff Platt and Philip Larsen left the team due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.