Review of the Season. Torpedo: defeated by the champion as Larionov’s era ends
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season at Torpedo. This year’s performance in the regular season was slightly weaker than last, and after falling to Lokomotiv in the first round of the playoffs the club ended Igor Larionov’s time as head coach.
Torpedo made a strong start to the season and had good results through the fall. A stand-out six-game winning streak brought 34 goals scored against just 12 allowed. But it wasn’t long before the team was alternating wins and losses and all too often there were disappointing results against opposition sitting lower in the standings: Vityaz (1-2, 5-6 SO), Kunlun Red Star (3-4 ОТ) and Sochi (3-5). When facing direct competitors Severstal and Dinamo Minsk, results also went against Torpedo.
In the end, Nizhny Novgorod got to the playoffs in eighth place in the West and faced Continental Cup winner and champion-elect Lokomotiv in the first round. It wasn’t all that competitive a series – Torpedo suffered a 0-4 sweep and the season was over.
Top players
Nikita Artamonov
67 games, 39 (22+17) points
The 19-year-old forward ended the season as his team’s leading goalscorer and tied with Maxim Letunov as Torpedo’s points leader (despite playing fewer games). For the second year running, Artamonov made impressive progress, even if he had slightly less game time than last term. Five of his goals turned out to be game-winners, tying with Vasily Atanasov.
Bogdan Konyushkov
71 games, 18 (4+14) points
Konyushov was less productive than last season in terms of points, but in terms of his influence on the game he emerged as a key figure for Torpedo. He averaged almost 23 minutes a game, was the first-choice defenseman on the power play and contributed to the PK. Despite that workload through 71 games, he took just eight minutes of penalties – an excellent result for a leading D-man. After bringing Konyushkov through the system a couple of years ago, Torpedo now has a defensive leader for many seasons to come.
Maxim Letunov
72 games, 39 (13+26) points
Letunov’s importance to Torpedo is amply demonstrated by the fact that he was the only player to feature in every game. He had decent scoring, including four game-winning goals, and led the forwards for game time (17:50) and blocked shots (74).
Coaching
This was Igor Larionov’s third season behind the bench. His best result came in his first year, taking Torpedo to the second round of the playoffs for only the third time. Larionov created a team that played in attacking combinations, and that was especially apparent at the start of his reign. In years two and three, results suffered as opponents got to grips with his pacey young team. After crashing out in the first round in 2024/2025, Larionov left Torpedo and later took over at SKA. His place in Nizhny Novgorod goes to Alexei Isakov, who led Torpedo-Gorky to the Petrov Cup in the VHL.
Best game
There were several entertaining encounters for Torpedo in 2024/2025. A 10-1 win over Barys was the biggest of the season in the KHL, and there was a 7-1 thrashing of Sochi and a 5-4 OT barn-burner against Neftekhimik. But the stand-out was surely the 6-0 road win at Spartak. In a battle of two offense-minded teams, Torpedo not only managed to score – a lot! – but also played superbly on defense to blank the Red-and-White forwards. Torpedo opened the scoring in the fourth minute, then added three goals in four second-period minutes before wrapping things up with a couple more in the third.
Young players
Larionov’s time in Nizhny Novgorod will also be remembered for the emergence of several prospects. In 2024/2025, 18 players aged 23 or under played on the team – and several of them formed part of the core – Konyushkov, Artamonov, Vladislav Firstov, Vasily Atanasov, Anton Silayev, Yegor Vinogradov and Nikita Shavin. Last season also saw promising progress from Dmitry Breus, Kirill Steklov, Kirill Kirsanov, Arseny Varlakov, Artyom Misnikov, Ilya Chefanov and Andrei Krutov. The last two made the KHL debuts this season and already have their first points: 1+4 in 16 games for Chefanov and 4+9 in 12 for Krutov.
Summer work
As well as a new head coach, Torpedo already has some interesting new acquisition. Alexei Kruchinin and Anton Sizov are back with the club, goalie Denis Kostin has arrived from Sibir and there are new faces on defense – import Robert Nardello, plus Sergei Boykov and Alexander Shchemerov. Dmitry Shevchenko is another new forward. In addition, the club has signed new contracts with several leading players and rising stars from last season.
In the departure lounge, goalie Ivan Bocharov has left the team, along with defensemen Daniil Bokun, Kirill Kirsanov, Slava Voynov, Mikhail Orlov, Keaton Thompson and Markus Phillips. Forwards Dmitry Kagarlitsky, Evgeny Svechnikov and Igor Larionov Jr. are also moving on.
