Records tumble

It was a busy week for the statisticians in the KHL. Goal records, assist records, game records and a hat-trick record all tumbled. Find out more in the latest week in review.

A new hat-trick king?

Nigel Dawes famously went to the All-Star Game as the hat-trick king a few years ago. This year, Josh Leivo might be taking his crown. The Canadian forward potted his third treble in 21 days during Salavat Yulaev’s 5-0 victory over Neftekhimik. That’s the quickest any player has scored a trio of hatties in a KHL regular season. True, Danis Zaripov once had three in 11 days, but that was in the playoffs. Leivo’s impressive season saw him bring up 50 points in 30 games, and he also set a club record for regular season goals, outstripping the 29 managed by Patrik Thoresen and Alexei Tereshchenko.

Boucher sets Avangard record

Reid Boucher scored his 145th goal for Avangard when he potted two in a 4-0 win over CSKA. That puts him to the top of the Hawks’ all-time KHL scoring chart, overtaking Alexander Perezhogin’s 144.

Murphy is Sibir’s most prolific defenseman

Boucher wasn’t the only import setting records. Sibir’s Canadian blue liner Trevor Murphy picked up an assist during Sunday’s loss at home to CSKA, moving him to 47 points for the season. That’s a club record from a defenseman. His 37 helpers this term is also a club record from a D-man, and ties Taylor Beck for the overall club record.

Mayorov starts with debut shut-out

Young goalie Maxim Mayorov is a long way from establishing KHL records – but he’s off to an excellent start. The 20-year-old made his debut for Lokomotiv on Sunday and enjoyed a shut-out in a 3-0 victory over Barys. And Mayorov has the pedigree to do big things between the piping: his father, Vasily Koshechkin, is a goaltending legend who holds the league’s current shut-out record. Koshechkin blanked the opposition 75 times; Mayorov has 74 more to go to catch his dad!

Sochi ends skid, Zubov sets record

Two bits of news from the foot of the Western Conference. Sochi’s head coach Pavel Zubov took charge of his 189th game behind the Leopards’ bench. In doing so, he broke Vyacheslav Butsayev’s club record of 188 games. He’ll be happier with events later in the week, though, when Sochi snapped its skid with an unexpected victory at Dynamo Moscow.

All-Star coaches named

The KHL announced the four coaches who will take charge of the four divisions at the 2025 Fonbet KHL All-Star Game in Novosibirsk next month. Alexei Zhamnov of Spartak is back for the second year with Team Bobrov, while Lokomotiv’s Igor Nikitin is back with Team Tarasov after a five-year gap. In the east, Benoit Groulx’s impressive debut season with Traktor earned him the call for Team Kharlamov, while Viktor Kozlov of Salavat Yulaev takes charge of Team Chernyshev.

DeAngelo leaves SKA

After a brief and eye-catching spell in St. Petersburg, defenseman Tony DeAngelo has left SKA. The 29-year-old, who played eight seasons in the NHL, arrived in Russia in the fall with a reputation as a powerful attacking blue-liner. He delivered on that, with 32 points from 34 games. However, his defensive contribution attracted mixed reviews. Last week, it was announced that he was leaving SKA for family reasons. Another import, Spartak’s Canadian forward Brendan Perlini, also announced his departure at the weekend.