Stars gather for KHL closing ceremony

At a glittering closing ceremony in Moscow, the KHL handed out its awards for the 2022 - 2023 season, the 15th since the league was established.

SKA’s Dmitrij Jaskin collected four awards — top scorer, top goalscorer, the golden stick for regular season MVP and a golden helmet as part of the top team of the regular season. The Czech international also got a surprise — his scoring award was presented by former his Washington Capitals team-mate Alexander Ovechkin, who was guest of honor at the event.

“Everything was just great,” Jaskin said. “As usual, the KHL put on a great event and I think everyone enjoyed it. Last time I got two awards at this ceremony. This year, I won even more. What can I say? Next time, I want even more! Everyone needs to be the best he can. As always, our season fell into two parts. The first part was good, the second, not so much.”

The KHL also named an all-star team of the top players from its first 15 years. Among the chosen six, Kevin Dallman was the only import. The defenseman starred for Barys and SKA in a long and distinguished career, but admitted that he did not expect a prize.

“It’s a great honor and a great surprise to be invited to this ceremony and be selected for the All-Star team,” he said. “The KHL has had so many great players over this time. Since I stopped playing, I’ve moved away from hockey a bit so it was good to see so many of the guys again. I’d like to thank so many people in Kazakhstan, at Barys, who welcomed me so warmly. I played a lot against Sergei Mozyakin [also part of the all-star team], we always had fun on and off the ice. He’s got a great sense of humor.”

CSKA’s head coach Sergei Fedorov won back-to-back Gagarin Cups, and also collected the prize for best coach for the second year.

“I always knew that a prize for the best coach is a team effort,” he said. “In modern hockey you have at least four coaches on the bench, and three more working away from the bench. This is a triumph for our coaching staff. We had our disagreements, but nonetheless we got results and our success is dedicated to everyone who helped me personally. It’s a very long list: thank you for your studies, your wisdom, and your support even when things didn’t work out.”

Fedorov also paid tribute to Zinetula Bilyaletdinov and Igor Larionov, who were also nominated for the prize.

“They are my teachers,” he said. “I learned my hockey from them. I haven’t been coaching for long, but those little blocks of thinking that our guys bring to training and to games is part of the Soviet tradition that taught me and so many others. It turns out that I managed to beat my teachers. They taught well, and we studied well.”

From the Women’s Hockey League, goalie Anna Prugova was named MVP after helping Agidel win the championship. She said: “This is a moment in the spotlight for all the girls. We can show off not just our achievements, but also remind people that women’s hockey is not some kind of scary thing. We can still dress up and enjoy a big occasion like this. It was another good season, both winning the cup and getting the taking to commentate on games in the KHL. There’s a lot of responsibility, but I wouldn’t say it was too difficult.”

All the winners:

Gagarin Cup: CSKA Moscow

Playoff MVP: Mikhail Grigorenko (CSKA)

Top scorer: Dmitrij Jaskin (SKA) 62 points

Top goalscorer: Dmitrij Jaskin (SKA) 40 goals

Most productive defenseman: Alexander Nikishin (SKA) 55 points

Golden stick: Dmitrij Jaskin (SKA)

Golden helmet: Nikita Serebryakov (Admiral), Nikita Nesterov (CSKA), Alexander Nikishin (SKA), Dmitrij Jaskin (SKA), Mikhail Grigorenko (CSKA), Alexander Radulov (Ak Bars)

Best goalie: Nikita Serebryakov (Admiral)

Alexei Cherepanov prize for best rookie: Nikita Grebyonin (Amur)

Best coach: Sergei Fedorov (CSKA)

Best plus/minus: Andrei Pedan (SKA) +32

Most productive line: Vladimir Tkachyov, Corban Knight, Reid Boucher (Avangard) 42 goals

Vsevolod Bobrov prize for the highest scoring team: SKA, 294 goals

Sergei Gimayev prize for loyalty to hockey: Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg)

Valentin Sich prize for best director: Igor Yesmantovich (CSKA)

Iron man: Denis Zernov (Avangard) and Konstantin Okulov (CSKA) 230 games

Best referee: Alexei Belov

Best linesman: Sergei Shelyanin

Fonbet golden team (line-up of the best players from the 15 KHL seasons to date): Zinetula Bilyaletdinov (coach), Alexander Yeryomenko (goalie), Kevin Dallman, Ilya Nikulin (defensemen), Danis Zaripov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Mozyakin (forwards).