Review of the Season: Vityaz. Buchelnikov’s breakout and Dorozhko’s stability
KHL.ru continues to review the results of the 2024-2025 season for each of the League's clubs. Vityaz, under the leadership of a new head coach, showed certain progress compared to the previous campaign, but it wasn't enough to reach the playoffs.
The most notable event of the past offseason for Vityaz was the appointment of Pavel Desyatkov—he took over the team without having had previous experience as a head coach in the KHL. Now it can be confidently said that this decision paid off: Vityaz failed to make the playoffs, but in the regular season they performed better than in the 2023-2024 season (59 points versus 48, with the same number of games) and at times displayed very attractive hockey. That said, building a team takes more than one season, and Desyatkov’s debut as a KHL head coach can be considered satisfactory.
Over the course of the regular season, Vityaz had mixed results. There were wins against top clubs and setbacks in games against teams of similar status. The team managed to avoid overly long losing streaks—the longest being six straight losses (which happened twice)—but they also failed to put together any serious winning streaks. As a result: a modest improvement in points earned compared to the previous season, but still a 10th-place finish in the Western Conference. For the second year in a row, Vityaz missed the playoffs, losing their mathematical chance at a top-eight spot on March 3.
Best players
65 games, 54 points (15 goals + 39 assists)
Vityaz is the third KHL team in Buchelnikov’s career. While he played the 2023-2024 season for Admiral on loan from SKA, he joined the Moscow Region club as part of a trade. At Vityaz, he was given significant ice time and a role on the power play, for which Dmitry repaid the coaching staff with 54 points. Naturally, this became his most productive season in the League—more than that, he was Vityaz’s top scorer, finishing 11 points ahead of the next closest teammate, and he also set a new club record for assists in a single KHL regular season. Another testament to his performance was his invitation to the Fonbet KHL All-Star Game, the first appearance of his career.
Maxim Dorozhko
42 games, 12 wins, 92.1% save percentage, 2.68 GAA
Dorozhko has been playing for Vityaz for four seasons now and consistently puts up very solid numbers for a goaltender on a team that hasn’t made the playoffs. Statistically, this season was slightly better than the last one under a similar workload. He became the club’s KHL record holder for shutouts (11) and moved into sole possession of second place in games played (129) and wins (43) among Vityaz goalies in the League.
59 games, 19 points (6 goals + 13 assists)
Busygin can definitely be called the player who showed the most significant progress at Vityaz over the course of the season. He became the team’s second-highest scoring defenseman after Jeremy Roy, earned time on the power play, and more than tripled his personal best for points in a season. Considering Busygin is only 22 years old, he’s likely to continue improving and could very well become a leading defenseman on his team.
52 games, 15 points (5 goals + 10 assists)
Stewart joined Vityaz during the offseason and quickly became a regular contributor who made a tangible impact on the team. It’s important to remember that this was his first season in a new league, and naturally, he needed time to adapt. Even under those conditions, he posted respectable offensive numbers for himself and led the team in plus-minus rating (plus-5).
Coaching
Pavel Desyatkov took over the team in the offseason and began instilling an interesting, combination-style of hockey. In an interview with KHL.ru last August, he said: “Vityaz will be aggressive and feisty — we won’t give anything away for free.”
And, for the most part, he followed through on those words — the team really did fight in every game, regardless of the opponent’s status. The end result of Desyatkov’s debut season in the KHL was 24 wins in 68 games. Overall, not the worst numbers, but the main goal — making the playoffs — was not achieved.
Best Game
On Nov 17, Vityaz visited Severstal in Cherepovets and handed their opponent a blowout loss — 7:1. By the third minute, the Moscow Region team was up by two, and by the 30th — 5:0. Severstal’s lone goal at that point couldn’t change the momentum, and the visitors scored twice more before the final buzzer. This win became Vityaz’s largest in the KHL era — interestingly, their previous record (7:2) was also set against Severstal, on Jan 6, 2011.
Youngsters
A total of 14 players under the age of 23 appeared for Vityaz during the 2024-2025 season. Buchelnikov and Busygin were mentioned earlier, and attention should also be given to Ivan Vorobyov (60 games, 13+13), Stanislav Yarovoy (49 games, 9+3), and Daniil Malorosiyanov (63 games, 0+6). The other nine players didn’t see much ice time; only two — Nikita Almazov and Maksim Ilyichyov — played more than ten games, 18 and 12 respectively.
Summer work
So far, Vityaz has not made any major signings but has completed several important extensions — Busygin, Stewart, Vladislav Valentsov, Matvey Zaseda, and Ivan Chekhovich all signed new two-year contracts with the club.
The question of whether Vityaz will retain Jeremy Roy, their top defenseman, remains open — as a restricted free agent, Roy accepted a contract offer from CSKA on June 5. Vityaz has one week to match the offer.
Among those confirmed to be leaving the team are Andrei Chivilyov, whose loan from SKA has ended, and Dmitry Shikin, who transferred to HC Sochi.
