Review of the Season. Avtomobilist: one step forward in regulation, two steps back in the playoffs
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season at Avtomobilist. The Motormen finished fourth in the Eastern Conference, but Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team could not match its 2024 playoff progress and fell in the first round.
Ahead of the 2024/2025 campaign Avtomobilist kept the bulk of the team that reached the semi-finals. Although Sergei Shirokov and Alexei Makeyev, two important forwards, moved on, this wasn’t a big problem. The Motormen had a solid regular season, making a small but visible step forward. Throughout the campaign, Yekaterinburg was in the hunt for first place and in the end 41 wins were just four back from Traktor. That was enough for fourth place in the section.
As in 2024, Avtomobilist was up against Ak Bars at the start of the playoffs. However, this time there was no repeat of last year’s success. Avto lost the home opener (1-4) but bounced back to edge two tight verdicts (4-3, 3-2 OT). With the series on a knife-edge, Ak Bars hit back with an emphatic 7-2 victory in Kazan to tie it up before the teams traded home wins. It all came down to game seven in Yekaterinburg and Ak Bars prevailed on a power play goal in the second period of overtime.
Best players
73 games, 61 (15+46) points
For the third season in a row, da Costa had 50+ points in the regular season and cleared 60 in total. The French center led his team in scoring in 2024/2025 with 61 (15+46) points. He was also third in the KHL for assists, behind Maxim Shabanov (54) and Trevor Murphy (49).
75 games, 51 (27+24) points
While da Costa led in points, Macek led in goals with 26 in the regular season and one more in the playoffs. The German international was the main weapon on Avto’s power play, potting 13 of his goals when his team had a numerical advantage. Macek shared third place for power play goals with Sheldon Rempal, Nikita Gusev and Andy Andreoff, with only Josh Leivo (15) and Dmitrij Jaskin (14) scoring more.
75 games, 17 (5+12) points
Zborovsky was second only to Jesse Blacker in scoring among defenseman for Avtomobilist this season, and there was just one point in it. However, Sergei finished with the team’s top coefficient (+25) and he finished with a positive ranking in both regular season and playoff action. In post season, the defenseman also had an extra two minutes of ice time on average, clocking in at 20:29.
Coaching
Nikolai Zavarukhin has been in post since the 2021/2022 season and this was his third full season in charge. 2024/2025 was his most successful in terms of regular-season wins (41) and PPG percentage (65.4%). It’s also notable that Zavarukhin now has more KHL games (246) and wins (136) than any other head coach at Avtomobilist.
“There were good things in the regular season. I like the progress of our young guys, such as Artyom Kashtanov. We came up short in game seven of the series against Ak Bars, and there are many questions about that game. We saw how the fans drove us forward, all over the country. I won’t hide from my responsibilities – the head coach answers for the results,” Zavarukhin said at the end-of-season press conference.
Best Game
The Ural Derby rivalry between Avtomobilist and Traktor was among the highlights of the regular season, and the meeting in Chelyabinsk on Oct. 28 was explosive. Traktor arrived on a five-game winning streak to lead the Eastern Conference, with Avtomobilist one place – and eight points – back in the standings.
At the first intermission, Avtomobilist was up 3-2. Midway through the second period, Traktor got in front but Stephane da Costa’s goal tied it up. In the third, the visitor got ahead once more, but then Avto had to defend heroically. Traktor had two power plays, outshot the opponent 15-2 in the period but could not score. That wasn’t just down to great play from goalie Evgeny Alikin; he was supported by his team-mates, who blocked 13 shots.
Young players
As Zavarukhin mentioned in his press conference, Artyom Kashtanov was the biggest rising star of the season for Avtomobilist. The forward, who turned 20 during the campaign, has the frame to make a big impact (he stands 195cm) and he also has the game to back it up. He played almost every game in the regular season (57 appearances), spending just over nine minutes on the ice and collected 14 (6+8) points. Artyom also featured in every playoff engagement, with his game time climbing to 12 minutes. And he responded with two assists in the series against Ak Bars.
On defense, 22-year-old Evgeny Kashnikov caught the eye. At Avtomobilist he maybe didn’t have as prominent a role as he enjoyed at Neftekhimik a year earlier. However, he played 43 games for 6 assists with a -4 ranking. He averaged 12 minutes in the regular season, and 15-and-a-half in the playoffs.
Nikita Ishimnikov, 20, also featured on defense. He made he Avtomobilist debut back in 2023/2024, and this term he had 17 more outings and got his first point with an assist.
Summer activity
Avtomobilist looks to be following last season’s recruitment strategy: the key players are signing up again, and changes are clearly targeted.
The big new arrival, of course, is Reid Boucher, Avangard’s leading goalscorer in the KHL era. The Motormen also added 22-year-old Yegor Chernikov from Lada and called up a couple of players from AKM in the VHL.
The departures are mostly from the defense: Jesse Blacker joins Avangard, Darren Dietz goes to Dinamo Minsk, while Nick Ebert and Maxim Osipov are now out of contract. Andrei Obidin is the only forward to leave so far.
Avtomobilist has also refreshed its coaching staff. Vladimir Vorobyov and Alexei Krivchenkov left the club to be replaced by Alexei Zavarukhin and Alexander Golts.
