Man of the Week: Corban Knight
KHL.ru’s weekly column ‘Man of the Week’ goes on with Corban Knight. The Avangard’s forward, considered one of the best centers in the league, has just netted his second hat-trick in the league in yesterday’s 6:0 win over Barys, after his treble against Magnitka in the 2021 Gagarin Cup playoffs.
The Hawks had a rocky start of the season, yet the team is currently improving and they area always happy to face Barys. Avangard got its first victory of the season against the Kazakhs, winning 5:2 in Astana back in September after losing its first six games of the new season. Today, a morale-boosting 6:0 triumph gave the team its largest win of the campaign to date – with the win getting Omsk a top-eight spot.
Avangard’s top line had a night to remember, combining for five goals. Corban Knight finished with his hat-trick, while Vladimir Tkachyov and Reid Boucher collected five points each. As said, the Hawks are now flying in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, and Knight has 11 (6+5) points in 14 games – good enough for being the team’s fourth scorer despite playing significantly fewer games than his colleagues. He also trails only Boucher among all Avangard forwards for average minutes played and, as it could be expected, is the team’s leader in faceoff percentage.
Early years
Corban Knight was born in Oliver, British Columbia, but then moved to High River, Alberta at age 11. Despite getting good stats at the midget level, he was never drafted to play in the Western Hockey League. Instead, he went on playing Junior A with the Okotoks Oilers of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, where he won the league’s Rookie of the Year award in 2008–2009. After Alberta, he moved to collegiate hockey, spending four years with the University of North Dakota, one of the most prestigious programs in the NCAA. In the meantime, he was drafted by the Florida Panther in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. In North Dakota, he was also named a top-ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as top player in American college hockey in 2013.
Moving up
After graduation, the Panthers traded his rights to the Calgary Flames, where Knight had his NHL debut in the 2013-2014 season. Failing to get a full-time roster spot with the Alberta franchise, he was traded back to the Panthers in 2015. After playing mostly in the American Hockey League, he then first moved to the Lehigh Valley Panthers, the affiliates of the Philadelphia Flyers, then signed a two-year deal with the Flyers themselves, but only collected 23 appearances in the NHL with his new franchise.
Move to the KHL
As a free agent from the Flyers, Knight left North America and signed a one-year contract with Barys in May 2019. The forward made an instant impact with the Kazakh-based franchise, posting 20 goals and 40 points in 60 regular season games in the 2019–2020 campaign. He added a helper during Barys’ opening round victory in the playoffs before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After his excellent debut season in the KHL in Astana, Knight signed a two-year deal with Avangard. There, he continued providing strong play on the faceoff dots, and offensive excellence, helping Avangard reaching the Gagarin Cup finals in a losing effort against CSKA Moscow. Considering the importance that Knight has for his team, it’s easy to imagine that his role will only keep on growing on the Avangard’s lineup, and his recent hat-trick confirm that Mikhail Kravets has started building the team the right way, with a powerful first line. And now, the team is back on the right side of the playoffs line.
