Season review. Admiral: focus on attacking hockey and a fiery series with Traktor
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season with a trip to Vladivostok. Last summer, Admiral changed its style and looked to play a more attacking passing game. That helped the Sailors get back to the playoffs, where they gave eventual finalist Traktor a real battle in the first round.
During the regular season, Admiral showed a clear gap between results at home and on the road|. In Vladivostok, the Sailors were a real force – underlined by wins over Dynamo Moscow (4-1), CSKA (3-2 OT), Spartak (4-3 OT), Avangard (3-2 OT) and Traktor (4-3 OT), not to mention good results against less illustrious opposition. But things were very different on the road: losses at Kunlun Red Star (4-5 OT), Dinamo Minsk (2-7), Sochi (0-5) and Neftekhimik (1-2, 2-7). For much of the season, Admiral was in the top eight and usually hovered around sixth or seventh spot. However, on the home straight Sibir got ahead and the Sailors ended up in eighth place after a run of five losses to end the campaign.
In the first round, Admiral came up against Traktor, the top seed in the East. Nonetheless, the Sailors did well, producing good – and unusually aggressive – hockey to lead the series 2-1. But there would be no sensation. Traktor tied the series then game five produced a spectacular turnaround. Admiral got up 4-0, but Chelyabinsk tied the game with four goals in 11 minutes and went on to win it in overtime. In game six, Benoit Groulx’s team settled the series. Overall, Admiral can be satisfied with its season, and the competitive series against a eventual cup finalist deserves additional respect.
Best players
Daniil Gutik
74 games, 57 (28+29) points
The 23-year-old forward emerged as a real star this season, leading his team for points and goals. In addition, he established his props as one of the main creative forces on the roster. This was a breakout campaign, with his best ever productivity, a second All-Star call-up and significant game time, including on the power play.
Nikita Soshnikov
62 games , 46 (25+21) games
In Vladivostok, Soshnikov enjoyed the confidence of the coaching staff and, as a result, got plenty of game time as well as the captaincy. All that had a positive impact on his play and production – for the first time in five years he had 40 points in a season. In the series against Traktor, Soshnikov was one of the headliners of the Admiral offense: 5 (3+2) points in five games and an incredible volume of useful contributions.
Yegor Petukhov
73 games, 44 (25+19) points
Previously regarded as a solid member of the supporting cast, Petukhov unexpectedly blossomed this system and really shone for Admiral. He set a personal scoring record, almost doubling his previous best. At the same time, he continued to fulfil his more accustomed role as an enforcer giving the Sailors an effective two-way forward capable of scoring, assisting, playing physical and blocking shots. Along with his scoring success, Petukhov also had the best plus/minus of the team’s forwards (+5).
Andrei Mishurov
52 games, 16 wins, 91.7% saves, GAA 2.76
On loan from Avangard, Mishurov managed to make himself Admiral’s #1. His excellent form was a big reason behind the Sailors’ ability to take the fight to Traktor in the first round of the playoffs. For Mishurov himself, this was a big season: previously he never had so much game time and was unable to demonstrate his ability to cope with a serious workload.
Coaching
This was a fourth season in charge for Leonids Tambijevs and, for the second time, he took the team to the playoffs. He explained that after last year’s struggled the club’s management and coaching staff undertook a detailed review of what went wrong. And that was reflected in Admiral’s play: in the past, Tambijevs often attracted unflattering comments for his team’s style, this season brought a greater emphasis on offense. That reached a peak in the playoffs against Traktor. In concrete terms, Admiral had 15 more points in the regular season, and scored 40 more goals “We changed practically everything at Admiral, we moved the coaching process and all the microcycles in the right direction. We paid a lot of attention to our play, tried to develop the guys’ hockey sense. We put more rest days in the pre-season so the players could train with total dedication – they kept their focus, passion and strength,” Tambijevs said in his end-of-season press conference.
Best game
In a season of many good games, the best – in terms of excitement, the result and its significance – was surely game three of the playoffs. By the 14th minute, two goals from Soshnikov put Admiral up 2-0 on Traktor. However, midway through the second that advantage evaporated in the space of a minute. Libor Sulak restored the lead, Traktor tied it up again. The winner came in overtime as Soshnikov got his third – a playoff hat-trick against his former club, no less!
Young players
The key freshmen for Admiral were Gutik and Mishurov, who we mentioned earlier. As for the rest, the coaching staff had to be cautious in using youngsters while battling for a playoff spot. This season, Nikita Susuyev, Raul Yakupov and Nikita Guslistov all got some games but none of them secured a regular spot on the team.
Summer activity
Admiral’s first task was to secure the core of the team, extending contracts with Petukhov, Sulak, and Arkady Shestakov. In addition, Dmitry Zavgorodny, Ivan Muranov and Pavel Shen signed new deals. So far, there is only one new signing – a two-way contract for Valentin Demchenko, one of the top players from the Belarusian championship.
As for departures, there are some significant ones. Following their loans, Mishurov and Susuyev return to Avangard and Spartak respectively. Soshnikov has joined Sibir, Vyacheslav Osnovin went to Lada and Jack Rodewald joins Salavat Yulaev.
