Back to the East. Torpedo season preview

With the reshuffle of teams to accommodate Admiral’s sabbatical, Torpedo is returning to the Eastern Conference for 2020-2021. David Nemirovsky’s team also has a fresh crop of imports in place as it looks to reach an eighth straight playoff.

Last season

Comeback kings, unpredictable to the last ... watching Torpedo in 2019-2020 was never dull. The early weeks of the season saw David Nemirovsky’s team make a flying start, jockeying for position among the league leaders. That success was partly due to a resilient attitude that repeatedly saw the team battle back to take points from unpromising situations.

However, maintaining that tempo throughout the campaign was too much. Torpedo slipped down the table and ended up in danger of missing the playoffs. A 3-1 win in a vital end-of-season game with Jokerit kept them in the top eight; the prize was a first-round series against CSKA that ended in four games.

Head coach

David Nemirovsky returns for his third season in Nizhny Novgorod. In his time at the club, he’s instigated an aggressive, attacking style that draws heavily on his upbringing in Canada. That’s been the catalyst for his team’s refusal to accept defeat and should mean that, after moving back to the Eastern Conference for the coming season, Torpedo will have a big say in the race for a playoff place.

However, a Canadian childhood shouldn’t be seen as a lack of Russian connections. Nemirovsky’s familied emigrated to Toronto from the USSR and as a player, he returned in the 21st century to represent several clubs in the Russian Superleague before ending his career with CSKA in 2013.

Key departures

Several of last season’s key figures have moved on. Goalie Anders Lindback joins Jokerit, along with high-scoring forward Jordan Schroeder. Defenseman Chay Genoway is off to Avtomobilist, as is forward Stanislav Bocharov. Given that Schroeder led the team in points (41) and Bocharov in goals (20), while Genoway was the leading blue liner on the roster, the new line-up will need to find some firepower from somewhere.

Key arrivals

Jordan Szwarz, freshly signed from the Senators, could be the answer to that. He’s been on the books of three NHL teams without ever quite establishing himself in the big league, but his AHL record is consistent and he captained Belleville last season. Andy Miele returns after a year in the AHL; he put up 32 points with Torpedo in 2018-19. On defense, Chris Wideman has more than 180 NHL appearances, mostly with Ottawa, while Brady Austin joins from Kladno in the Czech Republic.

Interestingly, there is no new goalie on the books thus far, suggesting that Andrei Tikhomirov and Nikita Serebryakov will get the chance to demonstrate their qualities between the piping. Both are 25 years old and both are looking to establish themselves as #1 for their team.

Star player

Damir Zhafyarov was the most productive of last season’s team to stay with the club. The 26-year-old spent the early years of his career bouncing from club to club but now seems ready to unleash his full potential with Torpedo. It’s surely not coincidence that he’s had his first taste of international action in the past two years, nor that his best spell of form came at the start of last season and had him heralded as one of the bright spots of the fall.

Zhafyarov is also benefitting from an extended association with Nemirovsky; the Torpedo head coach was Sports Director at Admiral when the forward joined in 2017. The two seem to have found a common language: Zhafyarov has compiled 67 points in the last two seasons; previously he never managed more than 15 in one campaign. This could be the year for him to step up another level and dominate his team’s offense.

Expectations

As always, Torpedo will expect to be involved in the playoffs. Switching Conferences is nothing new for the club and while few would expect to see Nemirovsky’s team pushing the Beasts of the East at the top of the table, most in Nizhny Novgorod would hope to see a good battle with the likes of Sibir, Traktor and Neftekhimik among the contenders for a top eight finish.

Whether that can happen will depend on how quickly the new imports fit into the system, and on whether two young goalies can cope with the challenges of playing a lead role.