The team was a member of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) during the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons,[1] and was the sole representative from Ukraine competing at the elite international level.

Borys Kolesnikov, a prominent Ukrainian politician and businessman, purchased the team in 2010,[2] and from then until 2014 it was the most successful hockey club in Ukraine.

[7] The two-game competition took place between January 31 and February 3, 2006, and on only three weeks of practice,[7] the team still managed to top its respective division, and win the finals match against the Kharkiv Olympic Reserve Sports School (SDYuSShOR).

[7] Between 2006 and 2008, First League play was cancelled, but the team did compete in a series of tournaments and re-adopted the original Donbass club name, crest, and colours.

[9] In 2009 the club's management invited Andrey Ovchinnikov (a former player of Sokil Kyiv) to the position of head coach.

[10] The first influential addition to the club after this change in management was former Sokil Kyiv head coach, Aleksandr Kulikov, in the summer of 2010.

Under the leadership of this coach trio, HC Donbass began to play in a new way, surpassing all expectations with a record-breaking 27 wins in the Ukrainian Hockey Championship.

Like its parent club the year prior, Donbass-2 secured the second consecutive national title for the franchise, again defeating Sokil in the final.

Donbass won the fight-filled game 4–1 and was reported to have garnered overwhelming fan support from the local Ukrainian diaspora, accounting for approximately 500 of the 550 in attendance.

HC Donbass became the first domestic club in independent Ukraine history to have full-fledged days-long training sessions abroad, at the "Tin Ranch" center in Ontario, Canada.

[15] The year the club played in the VHL resulted in a third-place finish in the regular season and a semifinal loss against Toros Neftekamsk who went on to become the champions.

Because of lockout NHL-2012, Ukrainian players Ruslan Fedotenko, Alexey Ponikarovsky and Anton Babchuk replenished the club's membership.

At the end of the regular season Donbass finished 4th in the Western Conference, and qualified to the playoffs of the Gagarin Cup for the first time.

The game was won 4–3 by Donbass, and lasted for 126 minutes and 13 seconds before Evgeny Belukhin scored the winning goal.

[21] Due to political events occurring in Ukraine at the time, the third and fourth games of the series, scheduled for Donetsk, were played in Bratislava.

[22] On the night of May 26, 2014, because of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, the home arena of the club was looted and set on fire.

HC Donbass initially expected the arena to be reconditioned within 90 days and fully restored by the start of the KHL season,[23] which never happened.

After pre-season training session in Svyatogorsk (Donetsk region), the team arrived to Druzhkivka for preparation prior to the Ukrainian Hockey Extra League 2015–16 season.

HC Donbass continued to lead in the regular season, and at the same time having renewed club record of the greatest wins.

French "Ange", Danish "Odense" and champion of the British elite league season 2015/16 "Nottingham Panthers" was the opponents of HC Donbass.Performance in the group D «Donbass" finished in third place.

On February 5, 2017, the contract between HC "Donbass" and the coaching staff, who led the 56-year-old Anatoly Stepanishev, was to terminate by mutual agreement of the parties.

In a tense confrontation with the team from the Poltava region, "Donbass" with a total score 4–2 (3–1, 3–4 OT, 3–1, 2–1, 1–4, 2–1) became five-time champions of Ukraine, and Serhiy Viter first tried on a gold medal as head coach.

In 2014–15 season HC Donbass children's sports school has started work in Altair ice arena (Druzhkivka).

The club provided each of the young sportsmen with the necessary equipment, qualified coaching staff and comfortable buses that bring and take away children to ice arena "Altair" and back to their communities.

In the 2015–16 season, three teams of HC Donbass children's sports school were moved to "Terminal" ice arena base to Brovary.

In season 2015/16 Youth Sports School HC "Donbass" has done a lot of work, aimed at the education of children, their high-quality professional development.

During the year teams of the Youth Sports School HC "Donbass" held more than 250 official matches on the domestic and international arena.

The sportsman of the section of figure skating Youth Sports School HC "Donbass" Valery Karasev won the Open Cup of Ukraine.

At the international figure skating tournament Vinnitsa Trophy 2016 was attended by 12 of our students under the direction of Natalia Gordeeva, Tatiana and Igor Vystavkin malaria.

The modern Donbass logos feature prominently two spoil tips, which represent the city's strong ties to the steel and coal mining industry.