CSKA season preview: the dawn of a new era
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club preview of the upcoming season. Under new head coach Ilya Vorobyov, CSKA is making big changes to the core of the team.
Last season
The 2023-2024 season was a failure by CSKA’s standards. From time-to-time the Red-and-Blues showed their trademark game that won Sergei Fedorov’s team two Gagarin Cups. But it didn’t happen anything like enough to bring any meaningful success. In the end, the Muscovites finished down in sixth in the West and came out of the playoffs in the first round against Lokomotiv.
Recruitment
Arrivals: Goalie: Ivan Prosvetov (Colorado, NHL). Defenseman: Alexander Dryagilev (Ugra, VHL), Nikita Okhotyuk (Calgary, NHL), Dmitry Samorukov (Wilkes-Barre, AHL), Nikita Sedov (Severstal), Christian Jaros (Severstal). Forwards: Yegor Afanasiev (Milwaukee, AHL), Denis Guryanov (Philadelphia, NHL), Ivan Drozdov (Salavat Yulaev), Ruslan Iskhakov (Bridgeport, AHL), Nikita Rozhkov (Severstal), Yaroslav Yapparov (Traktor).
Departures: Goalies: Ivan Fedotov (Philadelphia, NHL), Alexander Sharychenkov (Kunlun Red Star). Defensemen: Darren Dietz (Avangard), Yaroslav Dyblenko (Severstal), Marsel Ibragimov (Traktor). Forwards: Mikhail Grigorenko (SKA), Sergei Plotnikov (SКА), Andrei Svetlakov (Traktor), Anton Slepyshev (Dynamo Moscow).
Top 3 signings
This 27-year-old Lada alum has just 55 KHL games and 6 (4+2) points in his career. However, that was back in 2014-2016 which Guryanov was a young player who didn’t see much game time. Then he went to North America where he developed into a finisher. In 298 NHL games he scored 52 goals, plus a further 66 in 217 AHL appearances. With an excellent shot and a scorers instinct, Guryanov offers a ready replacement for Mikhail Grigorenko.
Still only 24, Ivan Drozdov gets better with every year. In 2021-2022 he had 20 points for Spartak. Then came 32 point in his first season at Salavat Yulaev and 56 (including playoff games) in his second! Several analysts regard him as CSKA’s best signing, and Salavat’s biggest loss of the summer. He’s also reckoned to be the best Belarusian player based in Europe, and those assessments are perfectly justifiable.
Nikita Okhotyuk
Okhotyuk is a classic example of a stay-at-home defenseman, a player who revels in stopping the opposition’s game. It’s likely he’ll be paired with one of CSKA’s attacking defensemen, such as Nikita Nesterov. Last season, Okhotyuk was one of San Jose’s regular defenseman (43 games, 1+7, -22) before ending the campaign at Calgary (9 games, 0+1, -2). Okhotyuk’s game is tough and fearless: he averages almost three hits and 1.3 blocked shots a night.
Coaching
Ilya Vorobyov sat last season out,spending time with Vancouver and recharging his batteries. Now he’s ready to lead CSKA into the new season. Vorobyov is used to working with star players, he has plenty of playoff experience (including winning cups) and his teams always play attacking hockey.
Vorobyov has coached 522 KHL games, winning 318 of them for an impressive 60.9% success rate. He has twice been on a cup-winning team with Metallurg – as assistant coach in 2014, then as head coach two years later.
Goaltending
Ivan Prosvetov should be CSKA’s first choice this season. The 25-year-old hasn’t played in Russia since his schooldays, but made a big noise in the junior leagues across the Atlantic. He eventually reached the NHL, playing 24 games, 11 of them with Colorado last season.
The back-up role will go to one of Dmitry Gamzin or Vsevolod Skotnikov. Both of them did well in the VHL with Zvezda last season, but Gamzin, 21, had more opportunities in the KHL: 13 games, 7 wins, 93.7% saves, 1.98 GAA and one shut-out. Skotnikov, 22, had just over six minutes in January’s game against Severstal.
Defense
In terms of the core, the key figures remain in place – Nikita Nesterov, Vladislav Provolnev and Fredrik Claesson were still under contract, while Colby Williams signed a new deal in the off season.
Darren Dietz and Yaroslav Dyblenko left CSKA in the summer. However, the Muscovites compensated those losses: first, Christian Jaros returned after helping to win the 2023 Gagarin Cup. From North America, as well as the previously mentioned Okhotyuk, 25-year-old Dmitry Samorukov came home, ready to add to the 48 games he played in 2020-2021. Back then he had 8 (2+6) points and an impressive +24 rating.
Offense
The biggest stars of the championship seasons are gone: Sergei Plotnikov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Andrei Svetlakov and Anton Slepyshev are heading to new teams. Each of them played a big part for CSKA but, as things stand, none of them looks like an irreplaceable loss. In their place, newcomers are arriving: Drozdov, and a clutch of Russians returning from North America in the shape of Guryanov, Ruslan Iskhakov and Yegor Afanasiev.
In addition, the likes of Konstantin Okulov, Maxim Mamin, Prokhor Poltapov and Maxim Sorkin are going nowhere. CSKA’s attack may not have got much better or worse, it’s just undergone a major renovation.
Youngsters
During Sergei Fedorov’s time we got used to the fact that the club’s big ambitions did not prevent the head coach from incorporating prospects into his team. Moreover, these players emerged organically from the club’s structure and quickly became part of the team. That’s especially true of promising forward Prokhor Poltapov, who has long felt like a part of the first team despite being just 21!
CSKA’s immediate reserves has more than one line of players aged 20-21. Defenseman Artyom Barabosha (20) made his KHL debut last season and had 4 (1+3) points in 21 games. Nikolai Makarov (21) already has 85 appearances, including during the successful playoff campaigns. And among the D there is also Yegor Bryutov, a little older at 23, but also pushing for a first-team role. There’s a similar line of forward prospects: Ivan Yanchenko, Matvei Vasin, Kirill Dolzhenkov and Vasily Dronyk stand out, and that’s just the list of players who already made their KHL debuts.
Expecations
Can Ilya Vorobyov turn this CSKA into a championship team? Certainly. Can he do it this season? That’s an open question. Nonetheless, there’s a sense that the Muscovites will, at the very least, be back to the top four in the west by the end of the regular season.
