Best Players of the 2024-2025 twentieth week

The Kontinental Hockey League’s commission has determined the best players of the 2024-2025 Regular Season’s twentieth week in four categories.

The League’s teams played 26 games last week, with 512 players (36 goalies, 172 defensemen, and 304 forwards) taking part in the action. The scoring was at 5.65 goals per game.

- Best goalie for the sixth time in his career was Alexander Samoilov (Severstal), who won one game and added another win in postgame shootouts in two games last week. The Cherepovets goalie faced 65 shots, or 32.5 per game, with a save percentage of 95.38% and a goals-against average of 1.44. In Thursday’s Severstal win over Kunlun Red Star (3:0), Samoilov posted his third shutout this season.

- Best defenseman for the fifth time in his career was Daniil Pylenkov (Dynamo Moscow), who scored 3 (0+3) points in two games last week. The Blue-and-Whites defenseman ended the week with a plus-3 rating. He also made eight hits, blocked two shots, and had two takeaways.

- Best forward for the third time in his career was Joshua Leivo (Salavat Yulaev), who scored 7 (6+1) points in three games last week, with a plus-5 differential. Leivo potted a double and had two hat-tricks, posting the game-winning goal in Salavat Yulaev’s win over Avangard (4:0) on Jan. 20. The Ufa forward also made two pass interceptions and had one takeaway.

- Best rookie for the first time in his career was Andrei Krutov (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod), who scored 2 (2+0) points in three games last week, with a plus-2 differential. He also made one hit, blocked one shot, and had one takeaway.