Review of the season. SKA: Kuznetov’s return, Demidov’s breakout, and Rotenberg’s firing
KHL.ru keeps on giving out the results of the 2024-2025 season. SKA surprised everyone with high-profile signings, had a very inconsistent regular season, and was eliminated in the first round for the first time in 16 years — triggering a wave of changes.
During the previous offseason, the St. Petersburg team was one of the main newsmakers in the transfer market — they brought Evgeny Kuznetsov back to the KHL, signed Nikita Zaitsev and Anthony DeAngelo, and added championship experience by acquiring Sergei Plotnikov, Mikhail Grigorenko, and Sergei Andronov. Spoiler: of all six, only Grigorenko and Plotnikov can consider the season a success. DeAngelo ended up playing only half the regular season before leaving the club, Kuznetsov was either injured or left out of the lineup, and Zaitsev and Andronov did not live up to expectations.
In terms of team performance, SKA was very up and down. Just consider this — in October, the team went on a seven-game winning streak, only to follow it up with five straight losses. Due to this lack of consistency, SKA was unable to firmly establish itself among the top teams in the Western Conference. They even lost games to teams clearly inferior in class and roster depth. As a result, they finished the regular season in seventh place in the West.
In the first round, the team faced Dynamo Moscow, and the series turned out to be a fiery one. Dynamo took the first two games at home, and SKA responded with a win in their own building. The fourth game was especially thrilling and extended into double OT — where the Muscovites ultimately scored the game-winner. With the series at 1–3, SKA managed to narrow the gap — but no more than that. A 4–2 victory for Dynamo: SKA exited the Gagarin Cup in the first round for only the second time in KHL history.
Best Players
Ivan Demidov
71 games, 54 (22+32) points
The 2024-2025 season was Ivan Demidov’s first full campaign at the KHL level: in the previous two seasons combined, he had played only six games. He made an immediate impact, becoming SKA’s top scorer — a significant achievement on a team always stacked with stars. In the end, Demidov was the only player on the team to score more than 50 points over the season. He also made his debut at the KHL Fonbet All-Star Game, was named Rookie of the Week seven times, Rookie of the Month three times, and received the title of Best Rookie of the First Round of the Playoffs. At the end of the season, Demidov was awarded the Alexei Cherepanov Trophy as the league’s best rookie — a solid haul at such a young age.
Alexander Nikishin
65 games, 49 (19+30) points
The leader and captain of SKA had a huge influence on the team’s play. He averaged nearly 25 minutes on the ice per game, was on the top power play unit, and finished second on the team in plus-minus with a +19 rating. In addition to his offensive and playmaking skills, Nikishin put in a massive amount of physical work — he led SKA by a wide margin in both hits (139) and blocked shots (137).
Sergei Plotnikov
55 games, 45 (22+23) points
A versatile two-way forward who can score, set up plays, win physical battles, and block shots. In terms of productivity, Plotnikov returned to his best form from his days with CSKA and Metallurg, scoring over 40 points in a season for the third time in his 15-year KHL career. His importance to SKA’s system is highlighted by his average ice time — more than 20 minutes per game.
Coaching
The 2024-2025 season was Roman Rotenberg’s third as head coach of SKA. However, the team failed to achieve its goals — for the first time in sixteen years, the club was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round. This disappointment became a catalyst for major changes within the organization: the entire SKA board of directors, including Rotenberg, stepped down, and a few days later the head coach was dismissed. He was replaced by Igor Larionov.
Best Game
Interestingly, one of the best games of the season for Rotenberg’s team came against none other than Larionov’s Torpedo. On December 19, SKA hosted the opponent at home and trailed 0:3 with less than a minute left in the first period. A breath of fresh air came with a power play goal by Grigorenko just seven seconds before the intermission. By the 24th minute, the home team had tied the game. Three minutes later, Torpedo regained the lead, but SKA responded again — this time through Mikhail Vorobyov. In the third period, Ivan Demidov scored what turned out to be the game-winner, and Vasily Glotov sealed the result with an empty-net goal.
Youngsters
In the 2024-2025 season, 17 players aged 23 or younger appeared for SKA. Nikishin and Demidov are excluded here, as they’ve already been covered above, and Arseny Koromyslov was traded to Traktor during the season. Notably, SKA’s goaltending trio consisted entirely of young players — Yegor Zavragin, Artemy Pleshkov, and Pavel Moisevich all performed decently for their age. Among the skaters, defenseman Ivan Vydrenkov and forwards Grigory Kuzmin and Matvei Korotky stood out for their development — Korotky not only played in the Fonbet KHL All-Star Game but also earned a regular spot in the SKA lineup in the second half of the season.
Summer work
So far, SKA hasn’t been active on the transfer market — most likely due to the changes in club leadership and on the coaching staff. But even now, it’s clear that management will need to find replacements for Demidov, Nikishin, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Zakhar Bardakov, who have all departed for North America and were key players for the team. Additionally, the club has terminated Evgeny Kuznetsov’s contract. No incoming transfers have been announced yet — the only moves involve the return of Sergei Ivanov and Andrei Chivilyov from loan spells at HC Sochi and Vityaz, respectively.
