Sochi season preview: Youngsters ready for lift off

KHL.ru continues its round-up of each club’s progress towards the start of the new season with a look at HC Sochi. The Black Sea boys kept hold of their leaders and are looking to battle for a long-awaited playoff spot.

Last season

In 2020-2021, Sochi missed the playoffs for the third year running. The team won 18 of its 48 games, earning 41 points (42.7% of those available). That was only good enough to finish ahead of Dinamo Riga in the Western Conference. Despite this, Sochi’s young roster put up a real battle in most of its games and left an impression of an underdog with sufficient bite to make life tough for any opponent.

Roster

Arrivals

Goalie: Alexei Melnichuk (Orlando, ECHL)

Defense: Joe Morrow (Barys), Nikita Pivtsakin (Amur)

Forwards: Mikhail Abramov (Kunlun Red Star), Andrei Altybarmakyan (Rockford, AHL), Dmitry Zavgorodny (Stockton, AHL), Artyom Ivanyuzhenkov (Vityaz), Sergei Popov (Peliitat, FIN-2), Donat Stalnov (Lada, VHL, via Severstal); Artur Tyanulin (Torpedo)

Returning

Goalie: Maxim Tretiak

Defense: Yury Alexandrov, Vladislav Valentsov, Danila Galenyuk, Nikita Zorkin

Forwards: Ruslan Aliyev, Yegor Babenko, Amir Garayev, Vasily Glotov, Alexander Gordin,Ilya Kruglov, Maxim Nevolin, Artyom Nikolayev, Kirill Petkov, Mikhail Romayev, Nikita Tochitsky, Nikita Feoktistov

Departures

Defense: Yaroslav Dyblenko (CSKA), Yury Pautov (Admiral), David Rundblad (Karpat, FIN), Janis Jaks

Forwards: Alexander Zhabreyev (Severstal), Dmitry Kolgotin (Zauralye, VHL), Kirill Melnichenko (SKA), Ivan Morozov (Vegas, NHL)

Sochi’s big summer success in the transfer market was the extension of contracts with two of last season’s leading scorers. Vasily Glotov (13+11) and Artyom Nikolayev (8+15) made a big contribution last term. In addition, Andrei Altybarmakyan returns from North America and rejoins the team he represented in 2019-2020.

Experienced defensemen seem poised to form another important part of the roster. Joe Morrow, 29, knows all about the league from his time with Dinamo Minsk and Barys, while Nikita Pivtsakin, 31, has almost 600 KHL games to his credit. Normally, we wouldn’t identify players in this age bracket as the ‘grandads’ in the locker room. However, on a roster as youthful as Sochi’s, Pivtsakin and Morrow will surely be examples for others to follow. That will compensate for the loss of Yaroslav Dyblenko, one of CSKA’s first signings after its Gagarin Cup win, and Latvian Janis Jaks, who had an impressive season with the Leopards.

Coaching

Andrei Nazarov took over at Sochi in September 2021. He inherited a team at the foot of the Western Conference with just eight points from 13 games. His main slogan on arrival could be summarized as ‘be anything, as long as it isn’t dull’. Overall, Sochi managed to improve under its extrovert head coach but was unable to break into the top eight. Nazarov believes that was due to a lack of 100% commitment, something he felt was lost in pre-season. This time, Nazarov is in charge for the full summer, ensuring that he can instil the necessary mentality into his players. So far, Sochi has struggled to win many games in pre-season, but the players have been involved in plenty of fights.

Goaltending

Sochi was almost the first team to confirm its goaltending unit for 2022/23. Last season’s starter, Magnus Hellberg, left the KHL back in April with the Swede getting a chance in the NHL. To replace him, Alexei Melnichuk made the reverse journey and resumes a KHL career that has already featured SKA and Torpedo. His biggest rivalry is Maxim Tretiak, for whom Sochi is the club that finally gave him a decent run of games. Over the last couple of seasons he has played 48 times; prior to that he travelled around the league but managed only 10 appearances.

Defense

In addition to has new arrivals, Nazarov has a pair of 22-year-old prospects, Danila Galenyuk and Nikita Zorkin. Last season, both picked up a couple of points and finished with a plus / minus that just dipped into negative territory. Vladislav Valentsov, 25, posted similar numbers in his third season with the club.

One of the problems with Sochi’s d-core is the lack of a true two-way defenseman. Last season, Jaks made a good go of filling that role with 18 (6+12) points in 41 games. This season, it seems, the oldest man on the roster will be asked to do the job. Yury Alexandrov, 34, has more than 650 KHL appearances and averages 16 points over his past three seasons.

Offense

Sochi added several interesting new faces. For example, Artur Tyanulin arrives after compiling 15 points in 32 games for Torpedo. Sergei Popov, who has not played in Russia since childhood, arrives from Finland where the 22-year-old had 36 (21+15) points playing in the second tier.

The team’s biggest stars are set to be Vasily Glotov, 24, and Artyom Nikolayev, 23. Last season was Glotov’s second full term in the KHL and he emerged as real leader for the Leopards. He averaged almost 19 minutes per game and had 13 goals plus 11 assists to finish as the leader for goals and points. This time around, he’ll be expect to lead the team from the opening game. Similar expectations should fall on Nikolayev. While Glotov scored, Nikolayev created, ending as the assist leader on his team in 2021-2022.

Youngsters

Within the organization, Sochi has a wealth of players born in 2002 who are signed to two-way contracts. These include goalie Artemy Pleshkov, defensemen Sergei Kosovets, Fyodor Kroshchinsky and Yegor Smirnov, plus forwards Danil Avershin and Alexander Kulgain. Only Avershin has any KHL experience to date, sharing 30 matches over the last two season with Spartak and Sochi. The others are still awaiting their debuts in the league. However, it’s highly likely we’ll see several of them this season. Nazarov is known for his faith in young players, while the extended schedule for every team this season means every club will need to draw on its depth to get through the campaign.

Expectations

Sochi’s offense is stronger, there are experienced defensive reinforcements, and the team has a chance to put right last summer’s mistakes under Nazarov’s guidance.

While that does not guarantee unconditional success, it’s fair to assume that the Leopards will be more than capable of battling for a playoff place in the coming campaign.