This off-season in the KHL promised to be especially fun – many teams needed to rebuild to fit the new realities. At first, it might have looked like the level of the league would plummet. Someone has lost key legionnaires, somewhere funding is being reduced.

But now it becomes clear that not everything is so bad – it will be very interesting to follow several projects.

Kazan Rangers. Version 2.0

The first serious newsmaker was Dynamo Moscow – back in early May, the blue and white released key players for free: captain Vadim Shipachyov and best defender Vyacheslav Voinov. The obvious purpose of the transfer of both players is to reduce the club’s payroll.

They moved to Ak Bars, which became the most active club of the off-season. After being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by Avangard, the Kazan team got really angry. Following the leaders of Dynamo, they also invited a coach who won two Gagarin Cups with the blue and white in 2012 and 2013. Instead of Dmitry Kvartalnov in the 2022/2023 season, the team will be coached by Oleg Znarok.

Photo: © KHL / Tukhbatov Ilnar

Also defender Dinar Khafizullin returned to Kazan. But even this was not enough for Ak Bars to make claims for the fourth Gagarin Cup. Alexander Radulov is moving to the team from Dallas.

And there is no way to avoid the association with the Kazan Rangers project, when in 2004, during the NHL lockout, the club invited Nikolai Khabibulin, Darius Kasparaitis, Alexei Kovalev, Ilya Kovalchuk, Dany Heatley, Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier. That project failed miserably – Ak Bars lost in the first round to Lokomotiv, after which the earned stars flew back to America.

Another superstar line-up is SKA from the 2010s. Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, the Panarin-Shipachev-Dadonov troika, where Nikita Gusev later took the place of Artemy – the richest period in the history of St. Petersburg hockey was crowned with victories under the leadership of first Vyacheslav Bykov, and then Oleg Znark. Which way will the current Ak Bars go?

Znarok is ready to lead the stellar team again. Will he be able to find a common language with Alexander Radulov? According to the experience of playing the forward in CSKA from 2012 to 2016, it will not be so easy to do this: most recently, the president of the Moscow army team, Igor Esmantovich, said that Radulov literally betrayed the club when leaving abroad.

Yes, and with the national team in 2016 there was an ugly story: he did not come to the training camp in Novogorsk after the official call, flying away to negotiate with Montreal. The team was then led by Oleg Valerievich. Everyone knows about the difficult nature of Radulov. But if old grievances are forgotten, and the coach and the hockey player show synergy, it can turn out to be very powerful.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Danichev

Finally, Ak Bars brings the contract with Dmitry Yashkin to the bohemian status. The Czech hockey player with Russian roots was the best sniper in the KHL the season before last. Together with Vadim Shipachev and Dmitry Kagarlitsky, they formed the best link of that championship. It seems that now it will play in full force for Ak Bars.

Well, immediately give them the cup or someone will compete?

Legionnaires remain

The hope for maintaining the intrigue in the East lies primarily with Metallurg. The finalists of the recently completed Gagarin Cup set themselves two tasks: to keep the backbone of field players and strengthen the goalkeeper line – 39-year-old Vasily Koshechkin will definitely not pull the load alone. Magnitogorsk needed someone to take the place of Juha Olkinuora, who hastily left Russia during the playoffs and became the MVP of the World Championship.

Where the runaways will play is a good question. Their agents have to work hard. A vacancy will always be filled by someone. Canadian Eddie Pasquale came to Metallurg’s aid. In Lokomotiv, he did not have the most successful season, and in the third and fourth matches with CSKA, he was even replaced by debutant Daniil Isaev. Relations with Yaroslavl did not work out, but Pasquale decided to stay in Russia: it is still better to play than not to play, especially for good money. He will spend the next season in Magnitogorsk – perhaps, together with Koshechkin, he will be able to play at the required level.

Edward Pasquale / Photo: © KHL / Yury Kuzmin

There were no problems with the preservation of key players either. “We are not afraid. And we are back, ”the photo with Brendan Leipsik and Philippe Maye was published from California by their agent Alyosha Pilko. Apparently, it did not grow together with the NHL, and the hockey players preferred to stay in Metallurg over vague prospects somewhere in the AHL or Europe.

Their partner in the most productive three of the playoffs, Nikolai Goldobin, also extended the contract with Magnitogorsk. The team of Ilya Vorobyov, well-played, full of cones and filled with revanchist moods, should become the main obstacle for the stellar, but still raw Ak Bars. In the new season of the KHL there will definitely be something to follow.