Groulx, Kozlov, and Nikitin named finalists for Best Coach award

KHL.ru presents the finalists for the Best coach award – the trophy for the top head coach of the 2024-2025 Fonbet KHL season.

Benoit Groulx (Traktor)

88 games, 57 wins

In his debut season, Benoit Groulx led Traktor to the second Gagarin Cup Final in the club’s history, where the Chelyabinsk team fell to Lokomotiv in five games. The team claimed the Eastern Conference champions’ trophy.

Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Yulaev)

87 games, 54 wins

The Ufa team finished second in the Eastern Conference at the end of the regular season and then reached the playoff semifinals for the first time in six years, securing two game-seven victories along the way.

Igor Nikitin (Lokomotiv)

89 games, 65 wins

Lokomotiv started the season with a win in the Opening Cup, then claimed the Viktor Tikhonov Continental Cup as the best team of the regular season. In the playoffs, Igor Nikitin led the Yaroslavl side to their first-ever Gagarin Cup triumph.

Oleg Znarok (four times), Zinetula Bilyaletdinov (twice), Milos Riha, Mike Keenan, Vyacheslav Bykov, Dmitry Kvartalnov, Igor Nikitin, Bob Hartley, Sergei Fedorov (twice), and Andrei Razin have won this award in the past.

The Closing Ceremony for the 2024-2025 season will be held on May 29, 2025.