The club never competed in a league final until the 2014–15 KHL season, where they defeated Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup.

The club used its immense wealth to gather almost all elite Russian KHL players under its umbrella to prepare them for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

During the Soviet era, the SKA (along with CSKA Moscow) belonged to the Ministry of Defense sports club system.

During its 1993–94 season, the SKA managed to advance to the IHL Cup semi-finals but lost to that year's champion Lada Togliatti.

[citation needed] The formation of the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 marked the beginning of a new era for the team.

The team would go on to defeat Ak Bars Kazan 4–1 to win the Gagarin Cup and become the KHL champions, the first nationwide championship in club history.