Review of the Season. Amur: Unfulfilled expectations and Rylov’s retirement

KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season with a look at Amur. Back in the summer, the Tigers were hoping for a best-ever KHL season. However, things didn’t work out that way.

Amur has been in the KHL from day one, but has only made the playoffs three times. More than once, the Tigers have ended down near the foot of the standings, so this year’s second-bottom finish is hardly an unprecedented failure. However, given the high expectations at the start of the campaign, this is surely the most disappointing season to date.

Two years ago, the club’s finances got a big boost and, in response, targets were more ambitious. The Far East club made the playoffs and gave the future champion, Metallurg, a serious test in the first round. After that, Amur held on to almost all its leaders and added quality reinforcements. Most pre-season predictions had Amur comfortably in the top eight without even scrapping for the last playoff berth. But from the start of the season, things did not go to plan. Amur began with shut-out losses and earned just six points through September. October brought a similar points return and at the end of the month a road trip to CSKA, Lokomotiv and Severstal brought three losses with an aggregate score of 0-15. That brought an end to Andrei Martemyanov’s time behind the bench, but did not much impact upon results: 0-1 at Dynamo Moscow and 0-5 at home to Admiral left Amur rooted to the foot of the overall standings. Throughout November, the Tigers added just three more points.

In mid-January, Amur managed to climb one place in the table but that was as good as it got. There was a late flourish, with three wins in the last four games, but that meant little – not least because opponents Barys and Lada (twice) also had little to play for. That said, the game against Barys was notable as Yakov Rylov’s last appearance at Khabarovsk’s Platinum Arena. His farewell was an emotional occasion and it came not long after he reached 1,000 games in top-flight Russian hockey. That milestone was probably the highlight of a tough season for Amur.

Top players

Artur Gizdatullin
23 (10+13) points in 68 games
Gizdataullin is a defense-minded forward, so scoring isn’t his biggest task. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that he comfortably beat his personal best in a KHL season, having previously peaked at 14 (8+6) a year earlier. On the other side of the puck, Artur remains as effective as ever. He was the only player to feature in all 68 games and managed a plus/minus of -7. While that’s a negative return, on a team that allowed 235 goals (only matched by Kunlun, and nobody allowed more), it’s a more than decent return.

Alexander Galchenyuk
38 (20+18) points in 59 games
By way of comparison, Galchenyuk finished with -23 despite playing fewer games. It took Alexander some time to adjust to life on a new team but he nonetheless finished as the leader in points and goals. Of course, there was more expected of him, but that shouldn’t detract from the value of his goals and assists, nor the penalties he drew: without all that, the season would have been even more painful.

Ivan Mishchenko
23 (5+17) points in 64 games
Mishchenko, like Gizdatullin, had his most productive season. And, again, his greater contribution was measured less in points and more in the rest of his game. He was the leading defenseman for scoring and also for hits (84), while he blocked more shots (109) than any team-mate and racked up the most ice time (21:57 per game). Towards the end of the season he wore the ‘C’ for a team before it moved on to Galchenyuk.

Oleg Li
24 (11+13) points in 62 games
It’s a bit odd that Oleg Li was overlooked for a captaincy role. After all, following a disappointing season divided between Avtomobilist and Torpedo, he was surely invited to Amur as much for his leadership qualities as his hockey skills. And he demonstrated both. In tough times -–of which there were plenty for Amur – he often dragged his team-mates through adversity. He got through lots of hard work, matching Mishchenko for hits (only Vyacheslav Gretsky had more) and still managed to pick up points regularly.

Coaching

In hindsight, it seems that Amur was too quick to fire Martemyanov – the most successful coach for the club in the KHL. Partly because last season’s problems went deeper than any coaching issues. But mostly because firing a coach early rarely brings improved results (just look at Barys, where first David Nemirovsky and then Vyacheslav Butsayev came and went before Martemyanov left Khabarovsk). But there was even worse news to come: Martemyanov tragically died after suffering a stroke in March.

Viktor Kostyuchyonok took charge, having previously never worked even as an interim head coach. At the same time, talks were on-going with Alexei Zavarukhin and it seemed that a contract was signed. However, for some reason he never took up the post. Under Kostyuchyonok things didn’t really change: Amur won 13 of 48 games, picked up another six points from overtime losses and the PPG ratio improved slightly compared with the opening two months of the season. But 27.08% from 26.67% is hardly a season-changing upswing.

Best game

After New Year Ak Bars eased to three wins on the spin, including a 4-1 in Khabarovsk. The teams met again the next day and Amur was down 0-2 inside four minutes thanks to a double blast from Dmitrij Jaskin. That two-goal lead held up: 1-3 at the first intermission, 2-4 at the second. But it took just over a minute for Alex Broadhurst and Devin Brosseau to tie the game. Then, late in the third, Galchenyuk struck to give the Tigers a comeback win.

Young players

Returning to Gizdatullin’s plus/minus, we have to mention Ignat Korotkikh, whose -3 was the best on the team among players with 20+ games. Korotkikh played 52. At the start of the season he wasn’t on the team but got his chance at the end of September. By the end of the season, he was established as the center on the second line, getting 20 minutes and more in each game. Outscoring Oleg Li is another feather in Ignat’s cap.

Apart from him, neither Martemyanov nor Kostyuchyonok made much use of the juniors. We could mention goalie Damir Shaimardanov, although he turned 23 in February. He began to feature in the first team in December and played in 16 games (four of them from the bench). For a KHL rookie, Damir looked assured enough and even recorded his first shut-out.

Summer work

Last year, former SKA forward Alexander Galchenyuk was the headline-grabbing addition to a roster generally regarded as youthful. Now, Alexander Galchenyuk Sr. is the big news after he was appointed as head coach – despite never holding a comparable position before. He’s well-known in Khabarovsk, though, where he has worked as a development coach in recent years. At the same time, Oleg Filimonov was promoted to GM. He’s a former Amur goalie and has worked as the club’s goaltending coach since 2004.

At the start of June, Amur had two goalies, three defensemen and nine forwards signed up. While that’s obviously not enough, especially on defense, they are all drawn from the key players listed above (plus Korotkikh and Shaimardanov). Plus, this week Kirill Urakov joined from Neftekhimik and Artyom Shvaryov arrived from Ugra.

Of the players whose contracts expired, only two are confirmed as leaving. Yakov Rylov announced his retirement, and Dmitry Shevchenko is joining Torpedo.