Best Players of the 2024-2025 twenty-first week

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

The League’s teams played 29 games last week, with 536 players (36 goalies, 181 defensemen, and 319 forwards) taking part in the action. The scoring was at 6.1 goals per game.

- Best goalie for the second time in his career was Zach Fucale (Traktor), who won two games from three last week. The Chelyabinsk goalie faced 66 shots, or 22 per game, with a save percentage of 94.45% and a goals-against average of 1.03. In Thursday’s Traktor win over Vityaz (2:0), Fucale posted his eighth shutout this season.

- Best defenseman for the second time in his career was Semyon Chistyakov (Avangard), who scored 4 (2+2) points in four games last week. The Hawks’ defenseman ended the week with a plus-5 rating. Chistyakov potted the game-winning goal in Monday’s Avangard win over Admiral (4:1) and blocked three shots, made four hits, had three takeaways, and made two pass interceptions.

- Best forward for the seventh time in his career was Nikita Gusev (Dynamo Moscow), who scored 5 (3+2) points in three games last week, with a plus-2 differential. Gusev also made one hit and blocked one shot.

- Best rookie for the seventh time in his career was Ivan Demidov (SKA), who scored 5 (2+3) points in three games last week, with a plus-2 differential. He also made one hit, blocked one shot, and had one takeaway. In Tuesday’s SKA win over Vityaz (4:1), Demidov scored his first KHL hat-trick. He also blocked two shots and made two takeaways.