No fewer than 18 players from SKA and CSKA have been included in the Team Russia roster for the first stage of the Eurotour, the Karjala Cup in Finland, which runs from the 8th to the 12th of November. The four traditional participants – Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Russia – are joined this year by Canada and Switzerland, eager for competitive practice as pre-Olymic preparations gather pace.

Russia head coach Oleg Znarok has put the accent firmly on youth – Salavat Yulaev's Andrei Kareyev, at just 22, is the eldest of the three goaltenders, and there is no place for Pavel Datsyuk or Ilya Kovalchuk. In addition to the the Petersburg and Moscow Army Men, five other KHL clubs - Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Avtomobilist, Ak Bars, Lokomotiv and Salavat Yulaev – have players in the 25-man roster.

Goaltenders:

Igor Shestyorkin (SKA), Ilya Sorokin (CSKA), Andrei Kareyev (Salavat Yulaev);

Defense:

Vladislav Gavrikov, Vyacheslav Voynov, Dinar Khafizullin, Andrei Zubarev (all – SKA), Bogdan Kiselevich, Nikita Nesterov (both – CSKA), Ilya Lyubushkin (Lokomotiv), Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist), Vasily Tokranov (Ak Bars);

Forwards:

Nikita Gusev, Alexander Barabanov, Sergei Shirokov, Sergei Kalinin, Sergei Plotnikov (all – SKA), Kirill Kaprizov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Valery Nichushkin, Ivan Telegin, Sergei Andronov (all – CSKA), Vladimir Tkachyov (Ak Bars), Sergei Mozyakin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk), Pavel Kraskovsky (Lokomotiv).