Review of the Season. Avangard: rebuild and renewal during the season
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of подводит итоги сезона 2024/2025 season. Avangard went through a major rebuild during the campaign before making the second round of the playoffs under Guy Boucher.
Avangard began the season with Sergei Zvyagin as head coach. He took over from Mikhail Kravets during last year’s playoffs. He inherited several problems: key players departed, Vladimir Tkachyov suffered an injury as he prepared for pre-season then Reid Boucher was hurt in a warm-up game in August. Three early wins looked promising, but that form was unsustainable. A seven-game losing streak followed and through the fall Avangard struggled for consistency. By the end of November, the Hawks were not always able to maintain a top-eight position.
Not surprisingly, the club’s management took action. On Nov. 27, the club announced Canada’s Guy Boucher would take over as head coach. There was another major recruitment campaign: Nail Yakupov and Ilya Kablukov returned to Omsk, Nikita Serebryakov, Konstantin Okulov and Giovanni Fiore arrived, and Mike McLeod quickly headed to Siberia after leaving Barys. It added up to a full rebuild in the course of the season.
And it worked! In the latter half of the regular season, Avangard made great progress and in March many experts rated them among the most effective teams in the league. In March, Avangard won seven games from nine. That run saw Tkachyov return from injury to score the winner at home to Torpedo on March 11.
In the end, the Hawks finished sixth in the East, just three points back from its first-round opponent Metallurg. Avangard won that series in six games, and began its second round against Lokomotiv with victory in Yaroslavl. After that, Loko hit back to win three in a row, but could not finish the series quickly. Avangard got it back to 3-3 and then rallied from 0-2 to force game seven into overtime. It took a second period of extras to decide the series, with the Railwaymen moving ahead on their way to lifting the Cup.
Best players
Boucher had a tough time with injuries this season. He was hurt in the summer, and again in late January when he fractured a facial bone. Despite all that, Reid lead the team in goals and points with 57 (33+24) in 65 games. Along the way, he said a new club record for KHL goals, overtaking Alexander Perezhogin.
Damir Sharipzyanov and Semyon Chistyakov
Sharipzyanov and Chistyakov saw more action than any other Avangard players in 2024/2025, featuring in 81 games each. And both had some hefty game time: almost 24 minutes for Sharipzyanov, 21 for Chistyakov. Sharipzyanov led his team in scoring from defensemen with 53 (15+38) points; Chistyakov was six points back, but finished second in goals (22). Chistyakov had the better plus/minus (+37 vs +25), while Sharipzyanov blocked more shots.
After a bright start to the season at Kunlun Red Star, Nail Yakupov returned to Avangard – and continued in the same productive manner. In 56 games for the Hawks he had 45 (21+24) points and clocked a +13 rating.
Coaching
Guy Boucher’s appointment as head coach was announced at the end of November, but his first game in charge had to wait until Dec. 29. That debut was memorable – a 7-6 victory over Lada. Overall, Boucher led Avangard to 31 wins in 44 games.
Best game
The first game of the playoff series with Lokomotiv was fantastic. Boucher’s team outplayed the opposition at equal strength, and converted its power plays. It’s notable that both the old-timers and the mid-season recruits made an impact. For example, Vladimir Tkachyov and Konstantin Okulov both had two assists, while Nikita Serebryakov made 32 saves.
Young players
Mikhail Gulyayev was the stand-out U23 player for Avangard. The 20-year-old defenseman played 79 games with an average of 15 minutes on the ice. He scored eight goals and gave 10 assists to finish third in scoring among defensemen. At the other end there were intermittent contributions from 21-year-old Ilya Reingardt (41 games, 6+9 points), 23-year-old Nikita Kholodilin (37, 4+3) and 21-year-old Alexander Filatyev (35, 3+2). Pavel Leuka, 22, made his KHL debut. The forward played 14 games and scored his first goal on Ak Bars.
Summer activity
Despite a strong finish to the season, Avangard is again rebuilding its roster. Reid Boucher moved to Avtomobilist and the aforementioned youngsters Ilya Reingardt and Nikita Kholodilin were traded away. However, the new recruits have much to recommend them. Alexander Volkov was one of the top forwards at Dinamo Minsk, Vasily Ponomaryov returns to the KHL from North America. There are experienced new arrivals on defense as well: Jesse Blacker joins from Avtomobilist, Artyom Blazhievsky from Traktor. We’re still in June, and there are already plenty of changes in Omsk.
