Evgeny Biryukov: Stay-at-home recordbreaker
KHL.ru continues its series about the league’s legends with the story of defenseman Evgeny Biryukov, the man who has played more KHL games than any other.
Malkin’s team-mate
For a long time, the elders of Russian hockey looked down on Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Even when the team was getting results on the ice, the club did not always get much respect off it. Gennady Velichkin, the club’s GM at the end, recalled a conversation in the mid-90s with Vladimir Vasiliev, the head coach of Khimik Voskresensk.
“What are you so happy about, young man? How many homegrown players do you have? This won’t last long. You’ve jumped up now, and you’ll soon fall,” said Vasiliev, according to Velichkin. “It was a bit scary,” added the Metallurg man.
However, Metallurg had a long time plan, building some impressive foundations. For a time, the progress was only visible from within. But as years passed the club’s academy reached a high level. And gradually, Russia’s hockey community got to see the results. Anton Khudobin, Evgeny Biryukov, Rinat Ibragimov, Evgeny Malkin and Nikolai Kulemin won the 2004 World U18 championship. Who could have imagined such a vein of talent from Magnitogorsk a few years earlier? In 2006, Khudobin, Biryukov, Malin and Kulemin won World Junior silver. The last three were already first-team players at Metallurg.
Evgeny Biryukov 968 games 145 points
Sep. 7 2006 Debut for Metallurg
April 13 2007 Won Russian Championship with Metallurg
Sep. 3 2008 First KHL game
May 20 2012 World Champion
April 30 2014 First Gagarin Cup win
May 17 2015 World Championship silver
Biryukov said that his path to the first team was carefully planned. First, he was taken from the academy team and began playing with the reserves. Then, from Metallurg-2, he was called to training camps with the first team.
“Sometimes during the season they called: when someone was injured, they were short of players, and we got a chance to go with the pros for training. That was a huge experience,” the defenseman recalled in an interview with KHL.ru.
Biryukov made his first team debut at the start of the 2005-2006 season. Before that campaign, renowned Canadian coach Dave King took over at Magnitka. He had a very strong team, with Malkin at the top. On defense, Biryukov’s colleagues included Dmitry Yushkevich and Vladislav Bulin, Vitaly Atyushov and Evgeny Varlamov, Vladimir Malenkikh and Alexander Seluanov, Alexander Boiov and Roman Kukhtinov. During the season, Anders Eriksson, a former partner of Vyacheslav Fetisov on Detroit’s cup-winning teams, joined. Nonetheless, aged 19, Biryukov got a place on the first team. And within 12 days he had his first goal, scoring on Severstal in a 2-2 tie on Sep. 19.
That season Metallurg was clearly stronger than the rest, finishing 29 points clear in regular season. Even so, it was notable after the Spengler Cup that some of the early-season fluency had gone. With Malkin tired after the World Juniors, Metallurg fell in the semi-finals, losing to Avangard after three OT defeats. Nonetheless, the team claimed bronze. That was the first Russian championship medal in Biryukov’s career.
Records and cups
King was fired during the following season. Unlike the previous year, Metallurg never looked like a clear favorite. Ak Bars always looked stronger. The defending champion had the highly productive Morozov-Zinovyev-Zaripov line and lost just one game in the playoffs.
However, the favorite doesn’t always win. Just as Metallurg stumbled the previous year, so Ak Bars came up short here. The two met in a dramatic five-game final series. Metallurg had a chance to wrap it up on home ice in game five, but lost 3-4. Then, in the decider in Kazan, Ilya Nikulin’s tying goal midway through the third period seemed to put Ak Bars on the way to the title. However, 82 seconds into overtime Mika Noronen failed to make a routine save from Jan Marek, and Metallurg had the championship. Biryukov upgraded bronze to gold.
Metallurg had to wait seven years for its next title. By then, the Superleague was replaced by the KHL and Magnika was the fourth club to lift the Gagarin Cup after Ak Bars, Salavat Yulaev and Dynamo Moscow. That 2014 triumph kicked off another big run of success: in 2016, Metallurg won it again before reaching the 2017 final.
April 19 2016 Second Gagarin Cup win
May 8 2020 Moved to Salavat Yulaev
Sep. 21 2021 1,000th game in Russian championship
Sep. 12 2022 First to play 900 KHL games
Most games in KHL
Seventh in games in all Russian and Soviet championships 1,117
Gagarin Cup winner 2014, 2016
Russian Champion 2007, 2014, 2016
World Champion 2012, runner-up 2015
World U18 Champion 2004
World Junior silver 2006
Metallurg won both cup finals in seven games. And both times, Biryukov made the headlines. In the deciding game in 2014 he scored only his second playoff goal. Then in 2016, Metallurg won the cup on his 30th birthday.
“The Gagarin Cup is the perfect birthday present,” he said. “It’s just super. Winning on this day, especially on the road, especially in a final against such a great team, it all means a lot. It’s unforgettable.”
Biryukov was never noted as a scorer. But that wasn’t his game. He was respected for his reliable, consistent defensive qualities. Oddly, as a child Biryukov started as a forward. But he ended up as a stay-at-home defenseman.
Evgeny played 15 years with Metallurg. When he moved to Salavat in 2020, it was genuinely the end of an era. He remains Metallurg’s all-time leader for games played. On Nov. 29, 2016, he made his 704th appearance and overtook another graduate of the Metallurg academy, Alexei Kaigorodov.
“To be honest, I can’t quite believe it,” he said. “How fast time flies! It doesn’t seem so long since I was just a young player making his first steps in pro hockey.”
In the fall of 2020, Birtyukov was the first to play 800 KHL games. Two years later, he reached 900. Today, he has 968.
“Of course, I’m pleased to be the leader for games played – it’s pretty cool. But in the end, there’s nothing special about it. The big thing is that I still have the strength and desire to play on,” the defenseman said.
Team Russia and an upcoming milestone
Biryukov first played for his country under Vyacheslav Bykov on Feb. 7, 2008 in a Eurotour game against Sweden in Stockholm. His World Championship debut came in 2012. He was unusually productive (1+3 in 7 games) as Russia won gold. That year, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s powerful team won all 10 games.
“Our success was recognized at the very highest level, which is nice to say,” Biryukov recalled. “The president invited us to a personal reception at his residence at Novo-Ogarevo. Everyone was looking forward to it and it was really cool. We chatted, drink tea, recalled some of the games from the championship. Vladimir Vladimirovich gave us awards, we took photos with him.”
The next year, the team lost in the quarterfinals. Biryukov’s next appearance at the Worlds came in 2015 under Oleg Znarok. However, he suffered an injury in the second game and missed the rest of the tournament. Russia went on to win silver, and Biryukov got another medal as a member of the squad.
In 2020, Biryukov moved from Metallurg to Salavat Yulaev, where he still plays. In April, aged 37, he signed a contract for a further year. That means that this season, most likely, we’ll see him reach another great milestone – Biryukov is on course to play his 1,000th KHL game.
“As long as I’m healthy and still have the desire, I’ll play,” he said of his potential record.
Dossier
Evgeny Biryukov
Born April 19, 1986 in Kasli (Chelyabinsk Region)
Playing career: Metallurg 2005-2020; 2020-present Salavat Yulaev
Honors: U18 World Champion (2004); World Juniors silver (2006); World Championship gold (2012), silver (2015); Russian championship gold (2007, 2014, 2016), silver (2017) and bronze (2006, 2008). Gagarin Cup winner (2014, 2016), European Champions Cup (2008)
