Igor Nikitin: Getting results
KHL.ru continues its series of features on the league’s legendary coaches and players with a look at the career of a Gagarin Cup winner who ended CSKA’s long wait to lift Russia’s top trophy. Today, we’re talking about Igor Nikitin.
First experience
Some players give a hint of their future coaching style even before they hang up their skates. Igor Nikitin was a reliable, disciplined, uncompromising, stay-at-home defenseman. There were only two times when he scored more than one goal in regular season. As a coach, Nikitin continues to preach the same gospel. However, for fans the gameplan is always second to the result – and Nikitin delivers results.
Nikitin began his coaching career in Omsk, where he spent nine seasons as a player. He returned in 2008 and worked behind the bench in the first KHL season. It was a busy summer as the club recruited 10 new players, led by Jaromir Jagr. But that didn’t set up a great season. After just six games, Avangard replaced head coach Sergei Gersonsky and his assistant Igor Zhilinsky. Nikitin got his first experience as head coach when he was given interim charge.
19.09.2008 First KHL game Avangard vs Lada
05.03.2009 Biggest playoff shock as 16th seed Avangard knocks out top seed Salavat Yulaev
20.05.2012 Won World Championship gold as assistant coach on Team Russia
Nikitin’s team won five games in a row, but the management was not ready to back a young coaching prospect and hired Canada’s Wayne Fleming. However, he only remained until February, when Nikitin was again thrust into the hotseat. Igor did enough to get the team into the playoff, but only as the 16th seed (in the KHL’s first season, the standings were not divided into East and West conferences). A first-round meeting with defending champion and regular season leader Salavat Yulaev ended in a sensational upset as the Hawks advanced. Moreover, Avangard ran eventual Gagarin Cup winner Ak Bars close in the quarter final, getting within 15 seconds of winning the game five decider before Ilya Nikulin saved the Kazan team and Oleg Petrov potted an overtime winner. Those results and performances were in stark contrast with the lackluster play in regular season, and Nikitin’s claims to the top job could not be overlooked any longer.
Nikitin the coach differed little from Nikitin the player. He remained calm, composed and almost unemotional. Early in his first season, Dynamo lost 1-2 at Dynamo after seeing two goals disallowed. “We need to score goals that are counted,” Nikitin commented in even tones, confounding the expectations of journalists who expected an angry rant.
Even in the previous season everyone could see that Avangard’s management was prone to unpredictable decisions. However, it was hard to believe what happened on March 10, 2010. On the eve of the playoffs, with the team already in Nizhnekamsk for its first game, Omsk replaced Nikitin with Raimo Summanen. Nikitin remained as an assistant, but the team suffered a first-round sweep at the hands of Neftekhimik.
Seven years in supporting roles
It’s never easy for a young coach to get a second chance after losing his job. Nikitin dropped out of view for a period, spending seven years as an assistant. He worked under Summanen and Rostislav Cada at Avangard, but in Dec. 2011 the Czech left the team and his staff were dismissed. Nikitin was not out of work for long, and got a new role as assistant to Zinetula Bilyaletdinov at Team Russia that summer.
“Bilyaletdinov won’t be national team coach forever, so part of his job is to develop several other strong coaches,” said FHR President Vladislav Tretiak in an interview with Sport Day-by-Day in Aug. 2011. Bilyaletdinov delivered. His coaching staff also feature Dmitry Yushkevich, Andrei Nazarov and Valery Belov. All of them have worked at the highest level, and some continue to do so, but Nikitin went on to be the most successful among them.
Nikitin worked at two World Championships, winning one and losing in the quarter-finals a year later. The national team produced the same result at the Sochi Olympics. After that tournament, Bilyaletdinov was replaced by Oleg Znarok, who brought an almost entirely new coaching staff. Nikitin was one of the few who remained.
25.05.2014 Won second World Championship as assistant coach
21.08.2017 First game as head coach of CSKA
19.04.2019 Won CSKA’s first Gagarin Cup
At Znarok’s first tournament, Nikitin won his second World Championship gold. In Minsk, as in Stockholm and Helsinki two years earlier, Russia won all 10 games. Nikitin stayed with Znarok through the whole Olympic cycle and never failed to medal at a major tournament. After gold in 2014, there was silver in 2015 followed by two bronze. Then came Olympic gold in PyeongChang.
In club hockey, Nikitin reached a new level in that same Olympic season. After four years as assistant to Dmitry Kvartalnov at Sibir and CSKA, in 2017 he was appointed head coach of the Muscovites.
Champion coach
In 2015, Kvartalnov led CSKA to the Russian Championship. But there was a catch: in that season, a one-off change to the regulations meant that the regular season champion – CSKA – was named champion, not the Gagarin Cup winner, SKA. A year later, Kvartalnov’s team reached the final but lost to Metallurg in game seven. When Lokomotiv derailed CSKA in round two in 2017, it was clear that the team needed a change. Nikitin had one task – win the cup.
He came close in his first season, but in the final Nikitin came up against his old mentor and found that he still had something to learn. Ak Bars won the series in five games, but there were signs of progress for CSKA as well. The club’s management was happy to persevere and one year later that loyalty was rewarded. CSKA got to another final, and this time crushed Avangard 4-0.
28.05.2019 KHL Coach of the Year
27.09.2021 First game as head coach of Lokomotiv
08.10.2022 Fifth coach to win 300 KHL games
KHL All-Star 2018, 2019, 2020
3x Russian champion 2015, 2019, 2020
5th most wins among KHL coaches, 339 wins in 507 games
“We celebrated the victory, and literally the next day I was already thinking about the new season,” Nikitin said in an interview with KHL.ru.
That following season saw CSKA win the regular season championship, but the playoffs could not be completed due to the pandemic. Thus there was no cup defense, but Nikitin once again earned the title Russian Champion.
In 2021, Nikitin’s CSKA topped the regular season standings for the third time and reached another Gagarin Cup final. After moving 2-1 ahead against Avangard, many thought that another cup was already in the team’s grasp. Avangard, however, had other ideas and rallied to win three games and take the prize.
Then came a sensation: in July 2021, Sergei Fedorov replaced Nikitin. Now, after Fedorov’s back-to-back Gagarin Cup wins, it’s hard to argue with the decision. At the time, though, it was hugely controversial. In any event, it’s fair to point out that Nikitin played his own role in CSKA’s on-going success.
Today, Nikitin is at Lokomotiv. It’s not easy competing with CSKA and SKA in the West. It’s no coincidence that those two clubs have contested every conference final since 2018. Nonetheless, last season Lokomotiv took the eventual champion to seven games. The Railwaymen extended Nikitin’s contract until 2025.
“I believe in him as a coach and as a person who is capable of fulfilling our requirements, as he has already shown,” said Loko president Yury Yakovlev. “As we can see, Nikitin has our faith, he has time. He doesn’t lack the ability. Soon or later, he will deliver the desired result.”
Dossier
Igor Valerevich Nikitin
Born March 23, 1973 in Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan)
Playing career: Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk (1989-1994); Lada (1994-1996); Neftekhimik, Neftyanik (1996-1997); Avangard (1997-2006); Sibir (2006-2008).
Honors: Russian championship gold 1996, 2004), silver (1995, 2001)
Coaching career: Avangard (assistant, senior coach, (interim) head coach, 2008-2011); Team Russia (asst, 2012-2018); Sibir (asst, 2013-2014); CSKA (asst, head coach, 2014-2021); Lokomotiv (head coach, 2021-present).
Honors as head coach: Gagarin Cup winner (2019), runner-up (2018, 2021), Russian champion (2019, 2020), KHL Coach of the Year (2019).
Honors as assistant coach: Olympic champion (2018), World Championship gold (2012, 2014), silver (2015) and bronze (2016, 2017). Russian champion (2015).
