The season started on 24 August 2015 with the Opening Cup between defending champions SKA Saint Petersburg and last year's Continental Cup winners CSKA Moscow, replacing Ak Bars Kazan, the previous season's Gagarin Cup finalists.

[1][2] Spartak Moscow returned to the league prior to this season.

[3][4] It was also announced by KHL President Dmitry Chernyshenko that Atlant Moscow Oblast would not participate in the league this season due to financial problems.

Thus, each team played a total of 60 games in the regular season.

[2][7] The playoffs started on 21 February 2016 with the top eight teams from each of the conferences, and ended with the last game of the Gagarin Cup final on 19 April 2016.