Review of the season. CSKA: Vorobyov’s failed stint and first-round exit

KHL.ru keeps on reviewing the season's outcome for the league’s clubs – CSKA underwent significant changes but couldn’t avoid repeating last year’s disappointment: the team had an inconsistent regular season and was eliminated in the first round of the elimination stage.

During the last offseason, CSKA strengthened its roster returning several players from North America: goalie Ivan Prosvetov, defensemen Dmitri Samorukov and Nikita Okhotyuk, and forwards Ruslan Iskhakov, Yegor Afanasyev, and Denis Guryanov. Another notable move was a trade that brought Belarusian forward Ivan Drozdov to the club. But the most important change was the appointment of a new head coach: Ilya Vorobyov, who had taken a year off after leaving Metallurg, took charge of the team.

In the end, the season didn’t go well for either Vorobyov or the newcomers – CSKA was inconsistent throughout the regular season. The team’s best stretch came in December, when they won 11 games in a row. However, they dropped significant points in matches against teams with clearly inferior rosters: they suffered three losses each to Severstal (2:4, 3:4, 4:5 SO) and HC Sochi (3:4 SO, 0:2, 1:4), and one each to Admiral (2:3 OT) and Kunlun Red Star (0:3). CSKA finished the regular season in fifth place in the Western Conference and faced Dinamo Minsk in the first round.

The start of the series couldn’t have gone worse for CSKA – two losses with a combined score of 5:10. The team managed to bounce back by winning both home games (4:1, 2:1), but a full comeback never materialized. In fact, the third and fourth games were outright disasters – a 0:7 loss in Belarus and a 2:6 defeat on home ice. For the second year in a row, CSKA’s Gagarin Cup run ended in the first round.

Best players

Maxim Sorkin
74 games, 59 points (25 goals + 34 assists)

The 25-year-old forward had the best season of his career – previously, he had never scored more than 40 points in a single campaign. Sorkin led the team in points, goals, and assists. He was also CSKA’s top performer in power-play goals (8), game-winning goals (6), and shooting percentage (17.7%). He performed well in the faceoff circle and was often trusted by the coaching staff to take key draws. In addition, Sorkin was used on both the power play and the penalty kill, showed solid physical play, and blocked 60 shots – the second-highest total among the team’s forwards.

Prokhor Poltapov
74 games, 43 points (18 goals + 25 assists)

At just 22 years old, Poltapov became a vital part of the CSKA lineup. He and Sorkin were the only players on the roster to play in every single game of the season. For a long stretch, they were part of the same line, forming a strong offensive trio with Vitaly Abramov until the latter was sidelined by injury. This was also Poltapov’s most productive season to date – he nearly tripled his previous career high of 15 points. He also finished with the best rating on the team in the 2024-2025 season, tied with Nikita Sedov at plus-12.

Nikita Nesterov
68 games, 37 points (8 goals + 29 assists)

The backbone of CSKA’s defense and the team captain repeatedly proved his leadership throughout the season. Nesterov logged the most ice time on the team, averaging 22:32 per game, and played a central role on the first power-play unit. For comparison, he averaged 2 minutes and 55 seconds per game with the man advantage – significantly more than any other CSKA defenseman, with his closest rival in this stat, Christian Jaros, averaging just over a minute.

Coaching

After last year’s first-round playoff exit, Sergei Fedorov stepped down as CSKA’s head coach, and the club’s management chose Ilya Vorobyov as his replacement. While unemployed, Vorobyov had spent time interning with the Vancouver Canucks. His résumé included two Gagarin Cups (one as an assistant coach), two more finals appearances, Olympic gold, and two World Championship bronzes as part of the Russian national team’s coaching staff.

However, he was unable to showcase his coaching prowess with the Muscovites. Building a cohesive unit and implementing a solid game system in just one season is no easy task—but CSKA is a club with high ambitions and expectations. As a result, the first-round playoff exit was not forgiven. On Apr 29, 2025, CSKA announced the dismissal of Vorobyov and his entire coaching staff.

Best Game

The second battle with SKA in this year’s regular season, played on Dec 25, turned out to be a spectacular match—on both sides. CSKA scored twice within the first minute thanks to Pavel Karnaukhov and Denis Guryanov. By the end of the first period, the Moscow team had put five pucks past SKA’s goalie—Karnaukhov notched a second goal before the intermission, with Vitaly Abramov and Maxim Sorkin also scoring earlier.

SKA responded with two goals of their own, but Kirill Dolzhenkov extended CSKA’s lead to a more comfortable margin. Still, SKA came dangerously close late in the game, closing the gap with just over four minutes left on the clock. In the end, CSKA held strong defensively and secured victory in this wild and thrilling encounter.

Youngsters

In the 2024-2025 season, 11 players under the age of 23 played for CSKA. Prokhor Poltapov was mentioned earlier, but other notable young contributors included goaltender Dmitry Gamzin, who showed progress with 24 appearances and seven wins; Kirill Dolzhenkov, who recorded eight goals and three assists in 44 games; and Alexei Churkin, who notched one goal and two assists in 15 games. Two players — Churkin and Ivan Patrikhayev — made their KHL debuts this season. On the flip side, some young players saw reduced ice time compared to previous seasons, including Takhir Mingachyov, Artyom Barabosha, and Nikolai Makarov.

Summer work

After hiring Lokomotiv Igor’s Nikitin as the head coach after he already led CSKA from 2017 throught 2021, the club has already begun shaping its roster for the upcoming season. The Muscovites acquired Dmitry Buchelnikov from Vityaz and extended a contract offer to defenseman Jeremy Roy, also of Vityaz, which the Moscow Region club declined to match — these are arguably the club’s most notable moves so far. In another trade, defenseman Alexander Gubanov joined CSKA’s lineup.

As for departures, goaltenders Ivan Prosvetov and Pavel Khomchenko, defensemen Fredrik Claesson and Christian Jaros, and forwards Stanislav Galiyev and Rourke Chartier have all left the team.