KHL.ru continues with its pictorial chronicle of the IX season of the KHL, in which we present the work of our finest photographers to illustrate the fortunes of each competing team. Today we look back at how events unfolded for Traktor Chelyabinsk over the campaign.
The men from the Urals strode through the regular season with aplomb, and comfortably qualified for the Eastern Conference playoffs. Traktor’s goal tally was far from stunning, but a mean defense ensured they allowed far fewer than they scored.
The team was under the stewardship of Anvar Gatiyatulin in his first full season as head coach in the KHL, and the boss managed to tighten up the defense and ensure a smooth passage into the playoff places. During the season, the Chelyabinsk players lauded the head coach and the huge contribution he made to Traktor’s success.
Things grew tougher, of course, in the post-season. Traktor came up against Barys Astana in the first round of the knockout stage, and a hard-fought series eventually ended with a 4-2 win for the men from the Kazakhstan capital.
The Chelyabinsk goaltenders established themselves as favorites among the fans. Vasily Demchenko earned a call-up to the Russian national team for the Eurotour, and Pavel Francouz secured the League’s number one spot in the Save Percentage standings for the regular season.
Traktor’s leading scorer was Paul Szczechura with 41 (14+27) points, plus 3 more (1+2) in the playoffs. In the Canadian’s line were Alexei Kruchinin and Maxim Yakutsenya. This was a breakthrough season for Kruchinin, and he, too, was selected for Team Russia.
Another player who excelled during the season was Kirill Koltsov. The offense-minded defenseman was a constant threat to the opposition net, and was Traktor’s highest-scoring D-man of 2016-17.
Next season the Chelyabinsk fans have every reason to hope that their team will perform even better.
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КХЛ 2008—2021
KHL 2008—2021
All rights to materials posted on the website www.khl.ru (hereinafter referred to as the Website) and which are the objects of exclusive rights, including the registered trademarks and symbolics of the “КХЛ”/“KHL”, “МХЛ” / “JHL”, “ЖХЛ” / “WHL” (hereinafter referred to as the Trademarks), as well as on photo and video images, articles, etc., which are owned by CHL LLC, are protected in compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The placement and / or use of Trademarks and other intellectual property of CHL LLC without the direct consent of CHL LLC are considered and prosecuted as intellectual property rights violations of CHL LLC in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. It is forbidden to automatically extract information from the Website by any services without the official permission of CHL LLC. Quoting from the Website and satellite projects of the official messages of the Kontinental Hockey League is allowed only with a direct link to the site www.khl.ru.