Zinetula Bilyaletdinov: a disciplined champion
After 15 full seasons of the KHL, it’s a great time to look back at the careers of some of the guys who have become league legends. Let’s start with Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, one of the most famous Russian coaches.
First championship
Bilyaletdinov returned to Russia from America in 1997. He was slim, stylish and modern, well-dressed ... and chewed gum frantically during games. It was as if he stepped out of a Hollywood movie. At this time, he acquired the U.S.-style nickname Coach Bill. But to sum up his work in a single word, you’d choose “disciplined”. And that certainly described the hockey that his teams play.
19.02.1984 Olympic Champion
12.04.2009 First Gagarin Cup winner
First KHL Coach of the Year
20.06.12 World Champion as head coach, having previously won six golds as a player
22.04.2018 Only head coach to win three Gagarin Cups with one club
20.01.2019 First and only head coach to attempt a penalty shot during the KHL All-Star Game
Bilyaletdinov was the first Russian coach to work in the KHL. From 1993-97 he was assistant coach at Winnipeg during the period when the franchise relocated to Phoenix. Then he came home to his first club, Dynamo Moscow, where he began as a player and later as a coach, assisting the likes of Yury Moiseyev, Vladimir Yurzinov and Pyotr Vorobyov in the late 1980s and early 90s.
In the 1996/97 season, Dynamo lost in the second round of the playoffs – a record low for the club. Over the summer, after years of seeing leading players head overseas, Dynamo strengthened its roster. The leading scorers of the previous season, Mikhail Ivanov and Lev Berdichevsky, arrived. The experienced Dmitry Frolov, Sergei Petrenko, Yury Leonov and Valery Belov all returned. Everyone assumed that this roster would put Dynamo back among the top teams.
But Bilyaletdinov’s debut wasn’t a success. Dynamo finished fifth in the Russian championship and lost the Euroleague final to Feldkirch of Austria. The Russian Cup final saw another defeat, this time to Metallurg. Today, it’s likely that Bilyaletdinov would have been fired. Back then, though, coaches got more time to build their teams. The following year, Dynamo looked even stronger. Several veterans moved on. Andrei Markov and Alexander Khavanov arrived, while Alexander Prokopiev came back after a couple of seasons in the Czech Republic.
Dynamo vs Metallurg was the definitive Russian rivalry of that time. In 1998/99 the match-up was at its height. But in February, Magnitka beat the Blue-and-Whites in the Euroleague final in Moscow. Then in April the Russian Championship final produced the same outcome. Dynamo was earning a reputation as a perpetual bridesmaid. For Bilyaletdinov and his team, however, that runners-up spot was a big step forward from fifth the previous year.
Bilyaletdinov continued constructing Dynamo. And in his third season, like a machine, his team powered to the title.
In an interview with Sport Express, Bilyaletdinov said it was a defining season for him. He added: “First, I’m happy that the players showed great commitment to their work. Second, every player made definite progress, which can only bring pleasure to any coach. In addition, everyone on the team cared. At times we were unlucky, at times we lacked class, but our thirst for battle and the greatest levels of commitment brought Dynamo a long-awaited victory.”
First dismissal
Bilyaletdinov left Dynamo during the following season when his team languished in 13th place in the fall.
The reasons for that poor start came from outside. Goalie Vitaly Yeremeyev, forward Alexander Kharitonov and the afore-mentioned Markov and Khavanov all moved to the NHL. Prokopiev led a mini-exodus to other Russian clubs, with Alexei Troshchinsky, Vitaly Proshkin and Alexei Kalyuzhny also moving on. Most of their replacements struggled to fill the roles required of them. “It will take time,” warned Bilyaletdinov at the start of the season. But time was not given: within three months he was dismissed.
That did nothing to help Dynamo. The team finished in the same 13th place, a new worst result in the club’s history. At the end of the following season, Bilyaletdinov was invited back. But neither then, nor in the two subsequent campaigns, could Dynamo get past the first round of the playoffs.
Super team
Bilyaletdinov began working with Ak Bars in 2004. He took over the team after the World Cup, where he coached the national team. His immediate predecessor in Kazan had been Vladimir Vuitek, the Czech coach who won the 2001 title with Lokomotiv before back-to-back bronze with Ak Bars.
A lot has been said about the lockdown season. In reality, hardly any coaches would have been able to assemble a real team from a distaff assortment of stars jetting in for an indefinite period. Among the NHLers, only Alexei Morozov remained for the following season, and the head coach began building a new team with the Morozov-Zaripov-Zinoviev trio at its heart.
That Ak Bars team lasted for six seasons, until Bilyaletdinov took over Team Russia in 2011. In the first season, Ak Bars was unstoppable. In the playoffs, it lost just one game against MVD in the first round before sweeping Salavat Yulaev, Lokomotiv and Avangard to win the title. In the course of those six years, Ak Bars won three national championships, including the first two Gagarin Cups in 2009 and 2010. In 2007, it was runner-up while 2008 brought a run to the semi-finals and 2011 ended in the QF.
18.02.2019 360th win in the KHL. Fourth in KHL history
2009, 2018 Coach of the Year
2011, 2018 All-Star Game
366 wins in 589 games with Ak Bars
Fifth for games as a KHL head coach
Seven-time World Champion
Six as a player 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986
Once as head coach 2012
28.12.2022 Returned as Ak Bars head coach four years after retiring
Team Russia
At the 2010 Olympics, Russia suffered a painful 3-7 loss to Canada in the quarter-finals. Then the 2011 World Championship ended with five losses in nine games. That led to Vyacheslav Bykov’s departure, and Bilyaletdinov was the only viable candidate to replace him.
It wasn’t his first time with the national team. In his first year after returning to Russia, Coach Bill was part of Vladimir Yurzinov’s coaching staff at the Nagano Olympics. A coach with a different view on the game, one who had worked in the NHL, was seen as a trump card, especially with 1998 seeing NHLers at the Games for the first time.
Subsequent head coaches Alexander Yakushev (1999 and 2000) and Vyacheslav Fetisov (2002 Olympics) also worked with Bilyaletdinov.
Everyone talked about the importance of creating club lines for the national team, but not everyone could do this. Bilyaletdinov did. At the 1999 World Championship, there was a full “Dynamo Five” with defensemen Markov and Khavanov joined by forwards Petrenko, Prokopiev and Maxim Afinogenov. The following year, Kharitonov replaced Afinogenov for club and country, with Alexander Kuvaldin replacing Petrenko. However, the latter did not go to the World Championship after an influx of NHLers.
Bilyaletdinov first stood behind Team Russia’s bench in 2004 after taking over from the 73-year-old Viktor Tikhonov. Preparations for the World Cup were rocked by scandal as a bunch of star players refused to join up with the national team. Appointing a coach with NHL experience was intended to lure some of the dissenters back, but it was no magic wand. Russia’s results were mixed: victory over Slovakia, defeat to Canada and a win and a loss against the USA. Unfortunately, the victory came in the group stage and defeat in the quarter-finals proved terminal. Shortly before the start of preparations for the 2005 World Championship, Vladimir Krikunov replaced Bilyaletdinov.
When Bilyaletdinov returned to the national team in 2011, he was already strongly identified with Ak Bars’ success. Indeed, there were many suggestions that he never wanted to give up his role at a club that had become his own. However, at the time there was no realistic alternative: the decision to put him in charge of the national team came from the highest levels of government.
At its best, Bilyaletdinov’s team was irresistible. At the 2012 World Championship, Russia won 10 games out of 10, often running up big scores. But the following year brought a 3-8 loss to team USA in the quarter-finals. Then, more importantly, Bilyaletdinov’s Russia failed to reach the medal rounds at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Like Bykov before him, Bilyaletdinov could not survive an Olympic reverse. He went back to Kazan and took Ak Bars to the final in 2015 before winning the cup again in 2018. Of the five championships won by Ak Bars, four of them came under Bilyaletdinov.
At the end of the 2019 playoffs, Bilyaletdinov stepped down. However, in December 2022 he returned to the coaching staff after Oleg Znarok’s Ak Bars team stuttered through the first half of the season. By the end of the month, he was head coach once again.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, originally the plan was different, but the situation led us here. I cannot stand aside from the team in these circumstances,” the coach said.
Once again, Bilyaletdinov took Ak Bars to the Gagarin Cup final, losing in seven games to CSKA. He’s back behind the bench in Kazan for the upcoming season and could become the first coach to win four Gagarin Cups.
Dossier
Zinetula Khaidarovich Bilyaletdinov
Born March 13, 1955 in Moscow
Playing career: 1973-88: Dynamo Moscow
Honors: Olympic Champion (1984), World Championship (1978, 1979, 1981-83, 1986), Challenge Cup (1979), Canada Cup (1981)
Coaching career: 1997-2000, 2002-2004: Dynamo Moscow. 2001-2002: Lugano (SUI). 2004-2011, 2014-2019, 2022-present: Ak Bars. 2004, 2011-14: Team Russia.
Coaching honors: World Championship (2012), Champion of Russia (2000, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2018), Gagarin Cup (2009, 2010, 2018), European Champions Cup (2007)
