Barys season preview: Nemirovsky’s return, Zhafyarov and a new roster
Continuing KHL.ru’s club-by-club preview for the 2024-2025 season, we’re looking at Barys. The Kazakhs returned David Nemirovsky to the club, reset their international players’ squad, and had a thoroughly rebuild of their roster. But will this be enough to avoid the last places?
Last Season
The 2023-2024 season was disastrous for Barys. The Astana franchise had its worst season in the Kontinental Hockey League by many measures, setting negative records for the fewest wins in a season (21), most goals allowed (205), and lowest finish in the standings (22nd place).
Many experts attributed these results to an imbalance between the quality of play from international and local players, while the club’s management saw the issue as lying with the coaching staff. Barys changed head coaches twice — Andrei Skabelka handed over the reins to Galym Mambetaliyev in October, and by December, the club’s general manager, Oleg Bolyakin, had taken over behind the bench. However, these changes failed to produce any positive results. Barys lost its chance to make the playoffs in early February, and the only battle left was a distant one with Vityaz to avoid finishing as the last team in the regular season standings.
Roster changes
Arrivals: goalie Johan Mattsson (SKA); defense: Nathan Beaulieu (Kloten, CH), Will Butcher (Iowa, AHL), Nikita Kamalov (SKA, trade); forwards: Andrey Buyalsky (Vermont, NCAA), Damir Zhafyarov (Avangard), Vladislav Kodola (Dinamo Minsk, trade), Vsevolod Logvin (Tri-City, USHL), Maxim Mukhametov (Metallurg), Connor Smith (JYP, FIN), Justin Allison (Milwaukee, AHL), Michael McLeod (New Jersey, NHL).
Departures: Goalies: Edward Pasquale, Andrei Shutov (Slovan, SLK); defense: Alex Grant, Kirill Nikitin (Nomad, Kazakhstan), Nelson Nogier, Emil Nurgaliyev (Admiral), David Sklenicka (Lausanne, CH), Christian Henkel (Dinamo Minsk, trade), Yegor Shalapov; forwards: Dmitry Gurkov, Anthony Camara, Joseph LaBate, Maksim Musorov (Fife, Great Britain), Pontus Aberg (Rapperswil, CH), Mikhail Rakhmanov, Yevgeny Rymarev, Rudolf Cerveny, Arkady Shestakov (Admiral).
Top 3 signings
Last season was a rough one for Damir Zhafyarov. He struggled to find a fitting role in Ak Bars, but things improved somewhat after he was traded to Avangard. In Omsk, Zhafyarov recorded 15 points (4 goals + 11 assists) in 25 regular-season games and added four assists in the elimination stage.
Now, Zhafyarov is moving to Barys, where he has the chance to return to his usual form. One key reason for optimism is that in Astana, he’ll be playing under a familiar coach, the same one under whom he scored 60 points in a season with Torpedo.
Will Butcher
At 29 years old, Will Butcher has had a career full of highlights. The American excelled in the NCAA and then made a powerful entry into the NHL, scoring 48 points (5 goals + 39 assists in the regular season and 1 goal + 3 assists in the playoffs) in his rookie season with the New Jersey Devils. He also represented the United States at the World Championship during that time.
The past two seasons saw Butcher playing in the AHL. His first season was solid (6 goals + 37 assists with Texas), but the second was marred by injury and a trade. Despite this, Barys is acquiring an excellent offensive defenseman, especially valuable on the power play, who can effectively replace David Sklenicka.
Johan Mattsson has joined Barys from Saint Petersburg as the team’s potential starting goaltender. The Swede debuted in the KHL with Dinamo Riga in the 2021-2022 season before moving to Avtomobilist, where he performed well in a highly competitive environment. Mattsson spent the 2023-2024 season with SKA, where he played in only 12 games, securing 5 wins with a save percentage of 91.7% and a goals-against average of 2.40.
While Mattsson’s injury history is a concern — he has missed time with both Avtomobilist and SKA due to injuries — he brings valuable playoff experience (having won the Swedish Championship and two Champions League titles) and is already adapted to the KHL, having played for both lower-tier and top-tier teams.
Coaching
This season, Barys will be headed by David Nemirovsky. The coach played for Barys in the 2009-2010 season and retired a few years later, but he remained in the KHL as a club executive.
He first served as the sporting director for Admiral from 2015 to 2018, then made a name for himself as the head coach of Torpedo from 2018 to 2022. Nemirovsky led the team in 245 games (only Peteris Skudra has coached more in the KHL for Torpedo, with 311 games) and guided them to the playoffs three times, establishing an attractive offensive style of play.
Nemirovsky started the previous season behind the bench in Novosibirsk, but the club parted ways with him in December 2023 after 40 games, with only 15 wins.
Goalies
Barys terminated its contract with Eddie Pasquale early, and Andrei Shutov decided to test himself with Slovan Bratislava. As a result, in the new season, Barys’ goaltending duo will consist of Johan Mattsson and Nikita Boyarkin. At 25 years old, Boyarkin still lacks extensive KHL experience, having played just 50 games in the league since the 2021-2022 season.
In the previous championship, Boyarkin only played one game in the KHL, but he wasn’t idle. Nikita also played for Nomad in the Kazakhstan league and represented the national team at the World Championship.
Defense
Barys’ defense has undergone significant changes. From last year's lineup, only Adil Beketayev, Tamirlan Gaitamirov, and Samat Daniyar remain. Among the losses, David Sklenicka, who was Barys’ second-highest-scoring defenseman last season, and Emil Nurgaliyev stand out. Nurgaliyev played 54 games with a minus-6 rating, which isn’t the most impressive, but still the best among Barys’ regular blueliners.
Sklenicka will be replaced by Will Butcher, and Barys has also signed experienced players Nathan Beaulieu (471 NHL games plus a season in Switzerland) and Nikita Kamalov (382 KHL games) to strengthen the defense.
Offense
The forward lineup has also seen numerous changes. For instance, Arkady Shestakov (15+10) has moved to Admiral, and 23-year-old Maxim Musorov, who never quite found his footing in the KHL, has gone to play in the UK. All of last season’s international forwards have left Barys as well, with the most significant loss being Pontus Aberg, who was the team’s top scorer.
To fill these gaps, Barys has signed Calder Cup winner C.J. Smith, who played last season in Finland, along with the physically imposing Canadian Justin Allison, who has experience in both the NHL and AHL. Another new addition is center Michael McLeod, a World Junior Championship winner with Team Canada in 2018, who has played 287 games over the past six seasons for the New Jersey Devils in the NHL, amassing 85 (29+56) points.
The team also brought in some familiar KHL faces, including the previously mentioned Damir Zhafyarov. Additionally, Barys traded for Vladislav Kodola from Dinamo Minsk and signed Gagarin Cup winner Maxim Mukhametov.
Young players
After a spring stint in the USHL to gain more game experience, Vsevolod Logvin has returned to Barys. The forward, who turned 20 in January, had a busy 2023-2024 season — he played for the Tri-City Storm in the USHL, Barys’ junior team in the JHL, Nomad in the Kazakhstan Championship, and even made his KHL debut, scoring two goals at the highest level.
Logvin’s peer, Ruslan Ospanov, also played his first games in the KHL during the 2023-2024 season and managed to score a goal — 21 games, 1+0. Twenty-one-year-old Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan (30 games, 0+1 last season) remains with the team, having signed a new contract with Barys this summer.
Barys’ coaches might also take note of Kirill Lyapunov, who was the top scorer for the Snow Leopards in the JHL last season (14+11 in 48 games).
What to expect
The revamped Barys lineup will need time to gel, and the start of the championship might be challenging for Nemirovsky’s team, potentially costing them some points early in the season.
While the nightmare of last season is unlikely to repeat, a major breakthrough isn’t expected either. Most likely, Barys will compete for a playoff spot but ultimately finish around ninth or tenth in the Eastern Conference.
