Refreshing the roster aiming the playoff. 2021-2022 Countdown. Admiral

KHL.ru starts the series about the state of the clubs approaching the start of the new season. Admiral has done serious work on the transfer market, retained the head coach Leonid Tambijevs, and is preparing to seriously fight for the playoffs.

Last season

Returning to the League after a year-long break, Admiral failed to make the playoffs, finishing 11th in the Eastern Conference’s standings. The team played unevenly for a number of reasons — the roster was essentially leftover and three head coaches were replaced between July and November. Admiral lost any Gagarin Cup playoff hope in the early regular season: In the fall, they suffered 27 losses in 34 games. After Leonids Tambijevs took over as coach, the Far East club had eight wins in 15 games, but they couldn’t simply catch up with the gap between them and the East’s top eight.

Roster

Arrivals

Goalies: Khomchenko Pavel (AIK, Sweden-2); Defensemen: Valiyev Rinat (Dinamo Minsk, trade), Ibatullin Ruslan (try-out, Metallurg Nk, VHL), Lisovets Evgeny (Vityaz), Musin Damir (Karpat, Finland), Pautov Yury (HC Sochi, trade), Sulak Libor (Orebro HK, SHL), Williams Colby (Belleville Senators, AHL); Forwards: Mikhail Belyaev (Lokomotiv, loan), Anton Berlyov (Krefeld, Germany), Svyatoslav Grebenshikov (Vasteros, Sweden-2), Nikolajs Jelisejevs (MODO, Sweden-2), Mikhail Zheleznov (try-out; Rubin, VHL), Gleb Zyryanov (Amur), Semyon Ivanov (try-out; Rubin, VHL), Michal Kristof (HC Kometa Brno, Czechia), Vadim Khlopotov (try-out; Rubin, VHL), Yegor Chezganov (Severstal, trade), Rudolf Cerveny (Karpat, Finland).

Retained

Goalies: Lazushin Alexander, Serebryakov Nikita; Defensemen: Metalnikov Leonid, Palivko Danila, Patrikeyev Mikhail, Rykov Yegor, Khamidullin Dinar; Forwards: Verba Mark, Gareyev Artyom, Grachyov Evgeny, Gutik Daniil, Lukin Vladislav, Shevchenko Alexander, Shen Pavel.

Departures

Defensemen: Belyakov Fyodor (Avangard), Fazylzyanov Kamil (Ak Bars, end of loan); Forwards: Bukarts Rihards, Yemakov Andrei (Yuzhny Ural, VHL), Ilyin Daniel (Dynamo Minsk), Kaletnik Vladislav, Kestner Josh (Lukko, Finland), Lugin Dmitry, Obidin Andrei (Avtomobilist, trade), Sayustov Dmitry.

The Admiral’s selection department did a good job this offseason. Their main transfer win was the return of Libor Sulak, who was the team’s top scorer last season despite playing on the blue line. Also, on defense the Far East side signed Damir Musin and Evgeny Lisovets. Moreover, they traded for Rinat Valiev and Yury Pautov from Dinamo Minsk and HC Sochi, respectively.

On the offensive end, it’s worth noting the new imports: Nikolaj Jelisejevs and Michal Kristof began to show themselves since the first preseason matches (both had four points in five games). Then there’s Rudolf Cerveny, who has already played in the KHL for Slovan Bratislava and Dinamo Riga. In addition, the offensive line was strengthened by players with quite a lot of experience in the League, though not in the top clubs — like Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov and Gleb Zyryanov.

If talking about departires, the biggest loss is Fyodor Belyakov, Admiral’s leader in blocked shots last season (103 in 31 games). Kamil Fazylzyalzyanov returned to the Ak Bars system after his loan ended, while Andrei Obidin was traded back to Avtomobilist. Among the foreigners, Josh Kestner and Rihards Bukarts left the team.

Coaching

Leonids Tambijevs took the helm at Admiral on Nov 30, 2021, and in a short period of time he managed to make the team play well, with the already mentioned eight wins in 15 games. Now he is spending the entire preseason with the team on his own, he is involved in the selection of players — all this should help Admiral to get even better results. In the interview with KHL. ru after the end of last year’s regular season Tambijevs said that his team deserved its place in the standings. According to him, in order to fight for the playoffs, the teams need to avoid the long losing streak that the Vladivostok side suffered last term.

Goalies

Vladivostok decided to bet on a Russian goaltending squad — the club re-signed Alexander Lazushin and Nikita Serebryakov, and found Pavel Khomchenko in the second-tier Swedish League. Most likely, the fight for the number one position will be between Serebryakov and Lazushin. Last season, Nikita performed very well, according to Tambijevs, he might even be considered a candidate for the Russian national team. Lazushin didn’t appear in the Admiral’s lineup that often, but he didn’t spoil the picture with his great experience.

Defense

In terms of names, Admiral’s defensive line looks very good right now — there’s Sulak, who was reliable in his own end and helped a lot in the attack. Valiyev, Damir Musin, Lisovets and Pautov also appear on the defensive squad — the latter three have played for top clubs (Ak Bars, Salavat Yulaev and SKA, respectively), while the first has experience playing in North America. Leonid Metalnikov, Mikhail Patrikeyev, Yegor Rykov and Dinar Khamidullin also remained in the team and the coaching staff will surely have someone to choose from.

Attack

Last season, according to Tambijevs, Admiral missed out on several points because of the poor performance of the imports. That’s why the club decided to change all its international players in the offseason. The main acquisition in the offensive lineup seems to be Jelisejevs, who had a good last season with Dinamo Riga. Kristof, who joined Admiral from Slovakia, represented his country at the Olympics in Beijing and won a bronze medal there. It will be interesting to see how Anton Berlyov, who played last season in the German DEL, will fit in the team.

Young players

There are three young players on the Admiral’s lineup who deserve special attention — defenseman Danila Palivko, and forwards Daniil Gutik and Yegor Chezganov. The first will surely try to fight for a place in the starting lineup, but it’s yet to see whether he can get it on a permanent basis given such a selection of blueliners. The second one played great last season, potting a double against Spartak, but this year he won’t have a guaranteed spot as he just fell out of the development rule limits. Chezganov was traded to the Far East franchise from Severstal, and he will surely get his chance — he just needs to take advantage of it.

Expectations

Admiral has all the tools to improve on last year’s result. Given the strengthening of the roster, it’s likely that the Sailors will be able to get into the top eight teams in the East. A lot will depend on the Far Eastern derbies: Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are direct playoff contenders and will play as many as 10 games between them. If Tambijevs and his assistants can integrate the newcomers into the team’s system and tune up their play in the special teams, advancing to the Gagarin Cup playoffs looks like an easy task for Admiral.