Season preview: Amur. The perfect time for a step forward

KHL.ru continues its series about how each club is preparing for the current season. Amur, back in the playoffs last year, has made some interesting summer acquisitions and could be poised for a breakthrough season.

Last season

In Summer 2023, Andrei Martemyanov took over head coach, and his regular season with Amur could hardly be seen as a flawless success. The team struggled for consistency and ended up losing more than it won. In January, there was a nine-game losing streak. However, the team bounced back from that skid, driven by the prospect of missing the playoffs, the wrath of the coaching staff or perhaps a combination of both. The losing sequence came to a dramatic end with an incredible 7-6 win over Metallurg and it wasn’t long before a seven-game winning streak lifted the Tigers into the playoffs for the first time in six years.

The first round brought another match-up with Metallurg – and the champion-elect did not have an easy time of it. Amur twice levelled the series and was close to dragging it all to game seven. In the end, Magnitka prevailed thanks to a game six winner from Nikita Grebyonkin, a young player who announced himself in the KHL while on loan at Amur the previous season.

Recruitment

Arrivals:

Forwards: Devin Brosseau (Kunlun Red Star), Alexander Galchenyuk (SКА), Arnaud Durandeau  (Laval, AHL), Oleg Li (Torpedo), Ilya Talaluyev (Spartak).

Departures:

Goalie: Janis Kalinins. Defensemen: Yegor Martynov (Spartak), Yelisey Minayev (Torpedo). Forwards: Stanislav Bocharov, Kirill Kapustin, Yegor Korshkov (Ak Bars), Alexander Lazarev (Omskiye Krylya, VHL), Anatoly Nikontsev, Pyotr Khokhryakov.

Top 3 signings

Alexander Galchenyuk

The 30-year-old American, a truly big star, is heading for Khabarovsk. Last season with SKA, Galchenyuk played 70 games for 47 (18+29) points. That matches the return of Amur's leader last season, Yegor Korshkov, who left the club in the summer. While at SKA, Galchenyuk was one top player among many, at Amur he will surely be expected to lead the team, with all the game time and belief from the coaches that implies. That might have Alexander hit his peak in the KHL and return to his accustomed 50+ points a season.

Devin Brosseau

Another interesting signing, Brosseau was Kunlun Red Star’s leader for goals and points last season. He’s already adjusted to the KHL after two seasons here, scoring 14 goals, then 23. In addition, he can play on the wing or as a center. Devin is set to play a role on the top six and has the full toolkit required to make a success of it – a great shot, the vision for a pass and a willingness to battle.

Arnaud Durandeau

Durandeau, like Brosseau is another Quebecois at Amur. He’s 25 years old, and enjoyed his career best season at Bridgeport in the AHL, compiling 55 (24+31) points in 68 games. It’s possible that Amur’s coaches will use Durandeau and Brosseau on the same line, since two francophone players should have little trouble understanding each other.

Coaching

The coming season is Martemyanov’s second back at Amur, and his fourth in total with the club. For the past six seasons, wherever he has worked, he has never missed the playoffs. Moreover, he tends to work with middleweight clubs – Amur, Sibir, Avtomobilist – only the last of which enjoys resources that might be greater than average. The summer recruitment hints that Amur might be moving into that bracket, but this has yet to be tested on the ice. Wherever he works, Martemyanov is always a popular figure in hockey circles – he is respected for his directness and his emotional involvement with the game. At times, his comments to the media go viral and turn into hockey memes, as we saw more than once in 2022-2023.

Goaltending

Everything looks to be in order here, with last season’s #1 Igor Bobkov back again. He’s backed up by Dmitry Lozebnikov, who acquitted himself well in last year’s debut campaign.

Janis Kalnins left the club, but he wasn’t a big part of last season’s team and played just seven games. Amur may still be looking to add a third goalie, although that role could be filled from within the organization.

Defense

Again, it all looks pretty stable. Last year’s top players remain in place and it looks like Amur will use the same defensemen we saw last season. One player remaining on the team, Yakov Rylov, is set to make his 1,000th top-flight appearance in the coming season.

Several other regulars extended their stay in Khabarovsk: Evgeny Kulik, Viktor Baldayev, Alexander Bryntsev, Yefim Gurkin, Ivan Mishchenko and Sergei Ryzhikov. Of those leaving, neiter Yegor Martynov nor Yelisey Minayev played a significant role last term.

Forwards

The big changes are coming up front, where all of Amur’s new signings will look for a role. Last season’s top scorer Korshkov departed for Ak Bars, but now the club has several players capable of taking on that leading role – Galchenyuk, Brosseau, Durandeau and Vladislav Barulin, who had a real break-out last season.

Oleg Li and former Spartak man Ilya Talaluyev are likely to rotate in and out of the bottom six. As well as Korshkov, Stanislav Bocharov, second in team scoring last year, has left, along with Kirill Kapustin, Anatoly Nikontsev, Pyotr Khokhryakov and Alexander Lazarev. On paper, the new offense looks better than last year’s. However, it remains to be seen how the coaching staff can get the most out of this season’s roster.

Youngsters

There are several players in the organization worth looking out for. It’s entirely possible that at least one of them will make a real impact this season. First, defenseman Sergei Ryzhikov, 20, will look to build on the start he made last season. He got 13 games, but was limited to just 1:36 of ice time as he learns his trade in the big league.

The promising young forwards are Ignat Korotkikh and Roman Makarov. The former has had four seasons on the fringes of the KHL and featured in the playoffs for the first time last season. The latter had nine games last term, albeit with modest ice time. All three players have had chances in pre-season and with the right attitude any or all of them could establish themselves in the near future.

Expectations

Overall, Amur’s gains this summer far outstrip its losses so the team should secure a playoff spot more comfortably than last year. In its KHL career, Khabarovsk has seen just three playoff campaigns and has never finished higher than seventh in its conference. Today, judging by the reinforcements this summer and the quality of play at the end of last season (including the first round of the playoffs), Amur has a chance to push a little higher and compete for fifth or sixth spot. To break it down, the key factors are: a) a head coach who gets the best from his team; b) a good selection of players who can fit into his style; and c) last season’s results, since an equal series against the future champion is no small achievement.