KHL players busy at the World Championships

Several former and current KHL players are competing at this year’s World Championships, which is taking place in Czechia.

The World Championships are heating up now that the group stage has concluded. Numerous KHL players have played crucial roles for their teams, with Kazakhstan boasting the highest number of representatives. The Kazakhs didn’t surprise like last year, when they even defeated Slovakia, but nevertheless managed to stay up with a win over France and a key victory over Poland in the very last game. In the Monday match, Gagarin Cup winning duo Nikita Mikhailis and Valery Orekhov got the tallies that kept Kazakhstan up, with captain Roman Starchenko sealing the deal in the closing stages. The Barys forward led the team in scoring, with 5 (3+2) points in seven games. Second in scoring for the Kazakhs was defenseman Samat Daniyar, who played 46 games for Barys this season, with goalie Andrei Shutov posting 23 saves between the piping.

The Kazakhs ended the round robin in sixth place in Group B, and twelfth place overall, down from their eleventh place last year. However, the team once again survived relegation and will be back to the elite as the tournament moves to Sweden and Denmark for the 2025 edition.

Following Kazakhstan in the standings was France. The team’s forward Stephane Da Costa led the team in scoring with 4 (2+2) points in just three games. Da Costa was instrumental for the French as he scored two points against both Latvia and Poland, as they got three points in these games, key to stay in the elite.

The group stage is now over, with the quarterfinals starting on May 23. The hosts, Czechia, are led by former KHL players Roman Cervenka and Lukas Sedlak, and they will face the USA. Canada, instead, will face Slovakia, whose top scorer is former Neftekhimik and Dinamo Minsk’s forward Libor Hudacek. Other former KHL players with prominent roles in their team include Sweden’s Tim Heed and Switzerland’s Sven Andrighetto – both will have good chance to reach the semis as they will face Finland and Germany, respectively.

Earlier, Amur’s Jan Drozg helped Slovenia returning to the elite next year as they ranked second in the Division 1A World Championship in Italy – he had two points in five games. In the same tournament, Yu Sato helped Japan avoiding relegation, leading the team with three goals.