Hockey Club Barys, also referred to as Barys Astana or HC Barys, is a professional ice hockey team based in Astana, Kazakhstan. It is one of the founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). They play in the league's Chernyshev Division of the Eastern Conference. Their home arena is the Barys Arena, where they have played since the 2015–16 KHL season. Prior to 2015, the team played home games at the Kazakhstan Sports Palace for 14 seasons, beginning in 2001. The head coach is Andrei Skabelka and the president is Boris Ivanishchev. The team serves as a base club for the Kazakhstan national ice hockey team.

Ryan Patrick McDonagh is an American professional ice hockey defenseman and alternate captain for the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Drafted in the first round, 12th overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in 2007, he played college hockey for the Badgers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also played for the New York Rangers, for whom he served as team captain from October 2014 until being traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018. McDonagh won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021. He has played in another 2 finals in 2014 with the Rangers and 2022 with the Lightning.