Ilya Nikulin: Irreplaceable
KHL.ru continues to explore the careers of the league’s legendary players and coaches. Today we’re talking about Ilya Nikulin, a key part of Ak Bars title-winning team and Vyacheslav Bykov’s golden Russian team.
From Spartak to Dynamo
In the late 1990s, Spartak had a very strong roster of players born in 1982. Ilya Nikulin, Andrei Zabolotnev, Alexander Frolov, Alexander Suglobov and Alexander Tatarinov. One way or another , they all progressed to the highest level. But their journey to the pro game did not start at their first club after the catastrophic 1998-1999 season. At that time, the club was so short of money it couldn’t even finance road trips to far-flung destinations like Novokuznetsk, forcing the owner to foot the travel bill personally. Or Khabarovsk, where the Red-and-Whites were a no-show. Spartak dropped out of the Superleague and lost all the star players from the juniors. Including Nikulin, who went to Dynamo.
In 1999-2000, he was assigned to TKH, Dynamo’s farm club. He found himself alongside the likes of Alexander Yeryomenko, Igor Shadilov, Dmitry Kokorev, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Andrei Kuzmin and Dmitry Semyonov, all of whom progressed to the senior team. Meanwhile, the first team won the Russian championship in 2000, sparking an exodus of key players. Defensemen Andrei Markov and Alexander Khavanov went to the NHL, while Alexei Troshchinsky joined Metallurg.
09.09.2000 Pro debut for Dynamo Moscow vs Molot-Prikamiye
08.04.2005 Wins first Russian Championship with Dynamo
14.01.2007 Wins European Champions Cup with Ak Bars
Nikulin was fortunate that Dynamo’s head coach at that time was Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who enjoyed working with young players and knew how to get the best from them. Even so, Nikulin did not make an immediate impact. He was big, he could handle himself in a fight, but he was a reliable squad player rather than a team leader. In 2004, during the NHL lockout, Dynamo assembled a very strong roster and many good players struggled for ice time. Nonetheless, Nikulin played regularly and won his first Russian Championship.
A pivotal season
During that lockout season, Ak Bars assembled a host of “galacticos” but failed to engender team spirit and crashed out in the first round of the playoffs. In the summer, all the NHLers left Kazan and only Alexei Morozov remained. The coaches and management started to build a new team and turned to players that Bilyaletdinov knew well from his time at Dynamo – goalie Yeryomenko, defensemen Nikulin and Shadilov, plus forwards Vladimir Vorobyov, Alexei Tereshchenko and Alexander Stepanov, who formed the second line.
That was the birth of a legendary Ak Bars team, one of the strongest in Russian hockey history. For six years, until Bilyaletdinov left to coach Team Russia, Kazan celebrated three championships (including the first two Gagarin Cups) and a silver medal.
Nikulin already had a new role on this team. In a matter of months, he grew into a true leader. From a strong, but average defenseman he became a key figure on the team, a player with no apparent weakness. Ilya set a personal record for scoring (22 points, including the playoffs) and scored 13 goals (having previously never registered more than two in the Superleague). He got a call-up to the World Championship, having never previously featured for the national team. It’s not unreasonable to describe the 2005-2006 season as a turning point for Nikulin. He won his second championship in three years, and his second with Ak Bars. And his team lost just one playoff game, against MVD in the first round. Subsequently sweeps of Salavat Yulaev, Lokomotiv and Avangard sealed the title in style.
18.05.2008 Wins first World Championship
12.04.2009 Wins first Gagarin Cup with Ak Bars
27.04.2010 Wins second Gagarin Cup, named MVP
Many expected Ak Bars to repeat that success. The team topped the regular season standings and advanced through three rounds of the playoffs with little apparent difficulty. However, in the final Metallurg provided serious opposition. The series went to a decider in Kazan. Midway through the third period, Nikulin tied the game at 1-1. However, 82 seconds later Jan Marek potted the season’s golden goal to send the title to Magnitogorsk.
Two Gagarin Cups
Ak Bars will always hold a special place in the KHL’s history as the first team to lift the Gagarin Cup. At the time, Lokomotiv stood out. Finnish coach Kari Heikkila created a powerful team that reached the 2007 final but lost 2-3 to Salavat Yulaev. A year later, Yaroslavl was back in the final. And, without Nikulin, that series might have been very different.
However, the story really starts in the second round. In game five, Avangard, a dangerous 16th seed that had already accounted for regular season leader Salavat Yulaev, was up 2-1 against Ak Bars. With 15 seconds left on the clock, Nikulin tied the game and saved the season. It took barely two minutes of overtime for Kazan to seize the win.
In game two of the final series, Nikulin repeated that trick. Lokomotiv won the opener 3-0. In game two, it was 3-0 again after 14 minutes. The home team steadily fought back, but with time running out the third goal would not come. With little over a minute to play, Nikulin stepped up to tie the game. Once again, Ak Bars won in overtime and a 0-2 deficit became a 1-1 tie. Even so, Loko led 3-2 after five, only for Ak Bars to rally and win the two remaining games – 3-2 in OT, then 1-0.
A year later, Nikulin was a game-saver in the play-offs once again. Most notably in the semi-final against Salavat Yulaev. In game three, his tying goal late in the third was the platform for an OT win that made the score in the series 3-0. In game six, he potted the game-winner five minutes before the hooter to wrap up the series.
In the final, Ak Bars again faced a serious test. It wasn’t just to do with the qualities of an MVD roster that ousted Loko in the semis and looked strong. There were also problems with the roster. Danis Zaripov was out injured throughout the playoffs. Then Alexei Morozov limped out of game three, leaving Kazan without its top line. MVD seized the initiative, winning three games in a row to lead 3-2. However, just as in the previous year, Ak Bars responded to win the two remaining games (7-1 and 2-0), claiming back-to-back Gagarin Cups.
Nikulin was a productive and eye-catching performer in both championship seasons. Including the playoffs, he had 43 and 44 points. Subsequently he kept up that pace and, after Morozov left for CSKA, he became club captain. Teammate Denis Abdullin summed him up in single word: “Irreplaceable.”
Five World Championship medals
The most eloquent tribute to Nikulin’s qualities might be his Olympic call-ups in an era when NHL stars dominated the Games. Despite crashing out in the QF in Vancouver (vs Canada, 3-7) and Sochi (vs Finland, 1-3), Nikulin’s presence remains noteworthy. In addition, he won a full range of World Championship medals. Ilya played in eight tournaments from 2006-2013. In that time, he won three golds, a silver and a bronze.
It's impossible to imagine Vyacheslav Bykov’s epochal team without Nikulin. He helped his country win four medals in five seasons. In 2007, on home ice, Russia collected bronze. Then came back-to-back gold, ending a drought that dated back to 1993. In 2010 it could have been three in a row, save for the brilliance of Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun in the final. Nikulin added another gold in 2012, this time under the guidance of his old mentor Bilyaletdinov. In that tournament, Russia had an incredibly strong team, winning all 10 games with a 44-14 goal differential. That was Nikulin’s final international medal. He was part of the 2013 World Championship team, and the afore-mentioned 2014 Olympics, but lost out in the quarter-finals both times.
20.05.2012 Captains Russia to World Championship gold
17.09.2015 Returns to Dynamo Moscow
21.03.2019 Final KHL game
7x KHL All-Star 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018
3x World Champion 2008, 2009, 2012
4x Russian Champion 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010
European Cup 2007
Leading scorer among Russian D-men in the KHL
Nikulin finished his club career where it began, at Dynamo. After returning from Ak Bars, he played four seasons, two as captain. Many dream of finishing at their ‘home’ club, but by no means everyone gets that chance. For Nikulin, everything worked out well, and it’s hard to imagine he has many regrets from his career.
Dossier
Ilya Vladimirovich Nikulin
Born 12.03, 1982 in Moscow
Playing career: Dynamo Moscow (2000-05, 2015-19); Ak Bars (2005-15)
Honors: Russian Championship gold (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010) and silver (2007); Gagarin Cup (2009, 2010); European Champions Cup (2007); Continental Cup (2008); World Championship gold (2008, 2009, 2012), silver (2010), bronze (2007).
