Kozyrev, Nikitin, and Razin named finalists for Best Coach award

KHL.ru presents the finalists for the Best coach award – the trophy for the top head coach of the 2023-2024 KHL season.

Andrei Kozyrev (Severstal)

70 games, 35 wins

In his first full season as head coach, Andrey Kozyrev led Severstal to the postseason from the fifth place in the Western Conference. Forward Kirill Pilipenko broke the club’s records for the most points and goals.

Igor Nikitin (Lokomotiv)

88 games, 57 wins

In the past season, Igor Nikitin became the third coach to reach the finals of the Gagarin Cup four times and the third coach for number of postseason wins, while Lokomotiv appeared in the Gagarin Cup final for the first time in 15 years.

Andrei Razin (Metallurg)

91 games, 60 wins

In his 8th season in the KHL, Andrei Razin achieved his first playoff series victory and his first win in a game seven, subsequently leading Metallurg to its third Gagarin Cup.

Oleg Znarok (four times), Zinetula Bilyaletdinov (twice), Milos Riha, Mike Keenan, Vyacheslav Bykov, Dmitry Kvartalnov, Igor Nikitin, Bob Hartley, and Sergei Fedorov (twice) have won this award in the past.

The Closing Ceremony for the 2023-2024 season will be held on May 13, 2024.