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Review of the Season: Avtomobilist. Shaking off the playoff hoodoo
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2023/24 season with Avtomobilist. The Motormen didn’t pull up any trees in the regular season, but hit form in the playoffs to knock out Ak Bars and SKA to reach the semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history.
The regular season in Yekaterinburg was fairly consistent. True, there were no exhilarating winning streaks, but also no serious slumps. It all added up to fifth place in the East, which feels fairly typical for Avtomobilist. In its KHL history, the club has only once cracked the top four: in 2018/19 Avto finished top of the conference, going on to reach the second round of the playoffs for the first (and, prior to 2024, only) time.
Since the mid 2010s, the club has often had a roster that seemed capable of more but never managed to be a genuine contender for the Gagarin Cup. However, in the spring of 2024 Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team shook off some of that playoff hoodoo. The first round brought a convincing 4-1 win over Ak Bars, then SKA was despatched by the same margin in the second. In the semi-final, eventual champion Metallurg went all the way to game seven before advancing. In the end, a semi-final run and a bronze medal represented the best results in Avtomobilist’s history.
Best players
55 games, 28 wins, 92.7% saves, 2.06 GAA
Alikin came to Avtomobilist in the summer of 2023 and established himself as the first-choice goalie. He enjoyed one of his best KHL seasons both in terms of stats and team results. Evgeny made the top five goalies for GAA and in the playoffs he had a fantastic 93.9% save ratio. It was also the first taste of playoff action for the 29-year-old, who never played post season in eight years at Amur. There were some isolated failures (for example, game four in the series against Ak Bars) but overall Alikin’s playoff debut was a success.
78 games, 51 (19+32) points
Funnily enough, Golyshev wasn’t really a key player for Avtomobilist’s offense in regular season. The stats suggest that Anatoly has had better campaigns. However, he came to the fore in the playoffs with 18 (9+9) points in 16 games making him the top scorer in post season while he tied with Reid Boucher for second highest goalscorer. Among other things, by the end of the season Golyshev’s +20 rating was second on the team, with only Sergei Zborovsky’s +24 beating him. The highlight of Golyshev’s season was a playoff hat-trick on Ak Bars.
72 games, 64 (24+40) points
As a team, Avtomobilist shook off its reputation for playoff failure; as a player, Da Costa did the same with 10 (6+4) points in 12 games. It was his first time in double figures in the players since he was at CSKA in 2016. In 2023/24 he once again topped 50 points in regular season play, leading his team in points and tying with Brooks Macek for goals.
65 games, 6 (2+4) points
Don’t be fooled by Vorobyov’s modest scoring return. This player’s value lies elsewhere, and his role on the team is in front of his own net. Vorobyov’s job is to block shots, and he did that consistently all year. Last season, with Neftekhimik, he led the KHL with 192 blocked shots; this season he stopped slightly fewer – 143, reflecting Avtomobilist’s more attacking style of play. However, add in the playoffs and we’re up to 212 blocked shots (against 210 last season). One of his most important came in the closing stages of game five against SKA, as Kirill helped to repel a desperate bid to save the game and the series.
Coaching
Nikolai Zavarukhin took charge of Avtomobilist in Nov. 2021 after the departure of Bill Peters. He was immediately entrusted with the head coach job on a contract until the end of 2022/23. That season saw Avto crash out of the playoffs to Metallurg in the first round, but the management kept faith with Zavarukhin and was repaid this season. It wasn’t just a historic advance to the last four, but also the way many observers highlighted the quality of Avto’s team play, attributing much of the success to the coaching staff. After a successful season, the club immediately offered a contract extension through 2025/26, and that offer was accepted.
Best game
Game five of the SKA-Avtomobilist series was full of drama. The teams returned to Petersburg with SKA on the brink of elimination, but the home team rallied to lead 4-2 by the 34th minute and was seemingly poised to keep the series alive. But Zavarukhin’s men did not buckle and instead battled their way back into the game. Alexei Byvaltsev pulled a goal back, Nick Ebert tied it up and Andrei Obidin grabbed the game-winner on 51:40. The closing stages saw a huge offensive effort from SKA, but the Motormen held on to roll into the semi-finals.
Youngsters
Zavarukhin did not lean heavily on his team’s prospects this season, with only six u23s featuring in championship play. Artyom Kashtanov made most progress: the 19-year-old played 38 games, including 12 in the playoffs, and contributed 4 (2+2) points.
Aside from Kashtanov, only two youngsters appeared in more than 10 games: Vladislav Razdyakonov (12 games, 1 goal) and Ilya Ovchinnikov (14 games, 1 goal).
Summer work
So far, Avtomobilist has made two decent signings this summer: defenseman Evgeny Kashnikov and forward Brendan Leipsic. Four more players have joined from the VHL farm club.
The main task for the management was to keep hold of the leaders, and that has been achieved: Golyshev signed a new five-year deal, da Costa, Ebert, Byvaltsev and Curtis Valk all agreed to return. The most notable departure was Sergei Shirokov, who moves to Sibir.
