Avtomobilist season preview: Looking for new heights in the Urals
Avtomobilist missed out on last season’s playoffs, but the Ural club has not undergone major restoration work this summer. KHL.ru continues its preview of the coming campaign in Yekaterinburg.
Last season
The 2021-2022 season can only be regarded as a disappointment for Avtomobilist. The summer signings brought high expectations, pre-season was impressive and, on paper, the Motormen looked like a solid proposition in the East. However, an unpleasant surprise awaited. Long-serving goalie Jakub Kovar suffered an injury at the start of the season and ultimately left the club and this seemed to spark a chain reaction: anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Quarantine, losing streaks, the departure of the head coach. In the end, Avtomobilist finished ninth in the East, six points adrift of Barys. It wasn’t such a big gap, but at the start of the season Avto clearly expected to be far higher in the standings.
Roster
Arrivals
Goalies: Igor Bobkov (Ak Bars), Vladislav Okoryak (VVS, VHL)
Defense: Denis Barantsev (Lokomotiv), Stanislav Gareyev (Jukurit, FIN), Alexander Sevostyanov (Neftekhimik, return from loan), Nick Ebert (Orebro, SWE), Sergei Yanevsky (Dynamo SPb, VHL)
Forwards: Curtis Valk (Barys), Stepan Grymzin (Saryarka, KAZ), Maxim Denezhkin (Lada, VHL), Oleg Li (Sibir), Andrei Obidin (Admiral), Arsen Khisamutdinov (Dinamo Riga), Sergei Shirokov (Spartak)
Returning
Goalies: Vladimir Galkin, Johan Mattsson
Defense: Jesse Blacker, Daniil Valitov, Alexei Vasilevsky, Yefim Gurkin, Daniil Zaitsev, Sergei Zborovsky, Stepan Ostrovsky, Semyon Perelyayev, Nikita Tryamkin, Alexander Shchemerov
Forwards: Yegor Baranov, Georgy Belousov, Anatoly Golyshev, Stephane Da Costa, Dmitry Zhukenov, Ilya Zakharov, Patrice Cormier, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Pavel Kulikov, Alexei Makeyev, Brooks Macek, Ilya Ovchinnikov, Maxim Rasseikin, Danil Romantsev, Vasily Filyayev, Stepan Khripunov
Departures
Defense: Vladislav Leontiev (Neftekhimik, loan), Yakov Rylov
Forwards: Stanislav Bocharov (Salavat Yulaev), Ryan Spooner (Dinamo Minsk), Sergei Shumakov
Avtomobilist is likely to have fewer departures than any other KHL team. Moreover, one of those players will likely return to the team as defenseman Vladislav Leontiev is only on loan to Neftekhimik.
Between them, Sergei Shumakov, Ryan Spooner and Stanislav Bocharov produced almost 80 points last season, but Avtomobilist will look to replaced them with the experienced Sergei Shirokov, a leading prospect from the VHL in Maxim Denezhkin, and Oleg Li another forward well known to head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin after they worked together at Sibir. The club also has a new foreigner following the arrival of Curtis Valk, who played the last four seasons with Barys and now counts as a Kazakh player rather than one of the five permitted imports.
Coaching
Before the start of last season, Nikolai Zavarukhin left his position as head coach at Sibir to work as an assistant to Bill Peters at Avtomobilist. By November, though, Peters was fired and Zavarukhin took his place behind the bench.
The spell Zavarukhin had in charge in Yekaterinburg can hardly be regarded as indicative. There was a bright start – three wins from five games – followed by a long losing streak. That ended with the team in quarantine. In 2022, Avtomobilist played just one regular season game, beating Severstal 5-2.
Nonetheless, the club’s management kept Zavarukhin in place. Now he is preparing the team for the new season and looking to improve on a disappointing campaign last time. “I want to see Avtomobilist play harder, more aggressively,” the head coach said in his summary of last season.
Goalies
Avtomobilist has put together a goaltending stable that many regard as possibly the most competitive in the KHL at present. The key figures are Sweden’s Johan Mattsson, experienced Russian Igor Bobkov and highly-rated 22-year-old Vladimir Galkin. Andrei Mezin, a legendary coach, will take responsibility for training the trio and realizing their full potential.
Fun fact: Mattsson and Bobkov are both very tall goalies. Mattsson stands 193cm tall, and Bobkov is 198cm. History suggests that Ural teams + big goalies = success. Just ask Vasily Koshechkin’s Metallurg.
Defense
Alexei Vasilevsky and Nikita Tryamkin are the twin pillars of Avtomobilist’s d-core. The pair were far ahead of the rest of the team for blocked shots (89 and 90 respectively), both were in the top three on the team for hits (79 and 62) and both finished last season with positive plus / minus scores.
Jesse Blacker is the main two-way threat. Last season was his most productive in the KHL with 24 (5+19) points.
Denis Barantsev, arrived from Lokomotiv, is a notable new addition. He has long established a reputation as a reliable defenseman in this league. Nick Ebert’s return to the KHL promises to be interesting. The American played with Slovan in 2017-2018 and is remembered as an effective and productive defenseman. Back then he led Slovan’s scoring from the blue with 7+12 in 44 games) and was one of just three players on that team to finish the season with a positive plus / minus.
Offense
Anatoly Golyshev is unquestionably the big star on offense. He made his debut for Avtomobilist in 2013 and has 409 games, 110 goals and 112 assists for the team in the KHL. Last summer he tried his luck across the Atlantic, but after spending part of the season in the AHL he returned to Yekaterinburg. Recently, he singed a two-year deal with his hometown club.
German-Canadian forward Brooks Macek remains at the club. He has made himself at home in Yekaterinburg and averages almost 40 points a year over his three previous seasons with Avtomobilist. Last term was his best in terms of points per game as Macek finished as top goalscorer and second in overall scoring on the team.
However, there are a few problems for Avto’s forwards as the season approaches. Stephane Da Costa is still training on his own as he recovers from injury and has not played in any pre-season games. Alexei Makeyev will be absent for a long time with a knee problem. However, there’s a long season ahead and it’s likely that both players will feature at some point.
Youngsters
Viktor Neuchev, an 18-year-old forward, is exciting great expectations. Last season he stormed the JHL, scoring 40 goals and collecting 67 points in 61 games. He has played just one game for Avtomobilist so far, but it would be no surprise if this talented forward establishes himself in the first team this season.
Within the system, there are some slightly older players who Nikolai Zavarukhin might call upon in the coming season. Among the forwards, Danil Mylnikov, 19, and Ilya Ovchinnikov, 20, stand out. Last season Mylnikov did well in the JHL, established himself at Avtomobilist’s farm club in the VHL and made his KHL debut. Ovchinnikov, predominantly used in the JHL, has featured in the KHL in each of the last three seasons and already has his first goal in the big league. The afore-mentioned Maxim Denezhkin also fits into the ‘junior’ category on the team: he is still only 21.
And it’s not just about the forwards. The Motormen have young defensive prospects in their garage. Daniil Valitov and Daniil Zaitsev lead the way. Both 22, they are steadily gaining experience in the first team. So far they have little KHL experience, but there is surely more to come.
Expectations
Avtomobilist did not make any radical changes in the summer. That’s not such a surprise: on paper, Yekaterinburg has a roster capable of making a splash in the Eastern Conference. If Zavarukhin and his colleagues can get the best out of the team, Avtomobilist could well be competing with the top teams in the East and should be looking at 4th to 6th place as a realistic target.
