Review of the Season. Dynamo Moscow: Comtois’s creativity, Gusev’s achievements and a long-awaited bronze
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season. For Dynamo Moscow, finishing second in the Western Conference set up a tough path through the playoffs. Nonetheless, the Blue-and-Whites made it through two rounds before falling to Traktor for the second season in a row. This time, though, it was a first semi-final since 2013.
The regular season was tough at the start. Dynamo lost five of its first seven games, all of them in regulation. However, as expected, this struggle was only temporary. Later, there was only one notable slump at the end of December and the team bounced back strongly in the New Year. There was a tough schedule at the end of the regular season, but Dynamo still secured second place in the West behind Lokomotiv. And the playoff ticket was punched early, with a victory over Yaroslavl.
However, Dynamo's playoff bracket felt more like a test for a team finishing sixth or seventh, rather than second. SKA, Ak Bars, Traktor – no other semi-finalist had such a tough run. The Muscovites overcame SKA and Ak Bars in six games (despite beginning the second series with two losses on home ice), but fell to Chelyabinsk in five. There were extra problems with an injury to leading playoff scorer Max Comtois and a relapse for goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky after his return to partial fitness. The second came during game five when Dynamo looked capable of getting back to 2-3 in the series, only to lose 1-4.
Last season, Traktor dumped Dynamo out of the playoffs a round earlier, and without dropping a game. This year, the Blue-and-Whites earned a bronze medal, but it seems that Chelyabinsk is becoming a bogey team.
Best players
Max Comtois
77 games, 63 (28+35) points
It’s hard to separate cause and effect here, but Comtois – like his Dynamo team-mates – suffered a slow start to the season before hitting form in October. In September, Dynamo was seriously considering trading the Canadian away for next to nothing. Had that happened, it’s hard to imagine the Muscovites would have made it to second in the West, nor a semi-final. Although Max didn’t play on the first line and was by no means the first choice for the power play, it was his trio with Cedric Paquette and Dmitry Rashevsky (and sometimes Comtois with other colleagues) that changed the course of several games – including playoff encounters. Sometimes, Comtois’s impulsiveness let the team down but he often put things right himself - sometimes right after serving his penalty.
Nikita Gusev
85 games, 80 (34+46) points
Comtois was Dynamo’s playoff scoring leader, while Gusev led the way in regulation. he was also second in KHL scoring behind Josh Leivo. From a historical point-of-view, Nikita moved to fourth for all-time KHL points, overtaking Danis Zaripov. He also joined the elite club of forwards with at least 250 career goals.
Vladislav Podyapolsky
25 games, 13 wins, 93.6% saves, 2.12 GAA
Not for the first time, Dynamo struggled to find a starting goalie. This time, though, there was a solution. Podyapolsky arrived from Lada on deadline day and later spent six weeks nursing an injury, which limited his opportunities in Blue and White. But he performed strongly, despite being in far from perfect condition in the spring. Indeed, it was a recurrence of his injury that changed the course of game five against Traktor, and ultimately brought Dynamo’s playoff run to an end. Had Podyapolsky (and also Comtois) stayed healthy, the series would surely have continued and, possibly, produced a different outcome. It also impossible to overlook that Vladislav made the KHL’s team of the season, despite changing clubs partway through.
Coaching
This summer, Alexei Kudashov addressed many of the problems from last season. Last term, Dynamo finished top of the regular season. However, if the team's leaders were off their game, there wasn't much of a Plan B and that was damaging in the playoffs. On the new-look Dynamo, all four lines played a big part. That led to less productive campaigns from Gusev, Jordan Weal, Paquette and Rashevsky. At the same time, the team was far better balanced and created more headaches for the opposition.
This was Kudashov’s fourth season at the club and each time he has had the Blue-and-Whites among the contenders, if not a clear favorite. There was a first-round exit, two second-round losses (both 0-4) and now a semifinal run, showing on-going progress. Meanwhile, each time Kudashov himself can highlight personal successes: there was always sense that he can bring further improvement to his team. The last two campaigns in particular saw Dynamo produce extended spells of impressive hockey, reaching a high level that lasted more than just a couple of games at a time.
Best games
Dynamo and SKA met six times in the regular season. The Muscovites won five of them, dropping the other in overtime. And Dynamo showed great character to continually come from behind: SKA led by one of the first game, by two in the second and then blew a 3-0 lead in the third.
Young players
Compared with last season, Dynamo had an older roster with just four genuine youngsters: Nikita Buruyanov, Artyom Kudashov, Maxim Motorygin and Yegor Rimashevsky. Motorygin had to take on great responsibilities – and more than once. Early in the season he stepped in when Hunter Miska failed to live up to expectation. Then, at the end, he replaced the injured Podyapolsky. Overall, Maxim dealt with it admirably although he stumbled at the very end when thrust into game five of the series against Traktor. He could hardly be blamed for the first two goals, but the third is one he’d love to have back.
Rimashevsky enhanced his claim to the first-team role he won last season. In Dynamo’s stellar offense he doesn’t get all that much game time at the moment, but that didn’t prevent him catching the eye throughout the year. And it’s clear that he is some way from reaching his ceiling.
Summer activity
Dynamo extended both goalies and the Podyapolsky-Motorygin tandem has the potential to be even stronger next season. The team also kept Daniil Pylenkov and Maxim Dzhioshvili, which looked unlikely back in May. The situation around Gusev is what we’ve seen in previous years: he’s in no rush to make a decision, but if he remains in Russia it’s likely to be with Dynamo. The same is true of Comtois, albeit with a greater likelihood of a departure. It seems unlikely that Rashevsky will remain. As a restricted free agent he accepted an offer from Avangard; Dynamo matched that proposal and now we’re waiting for a final decision. There’s also talk of Brennan Menell being traded away.
Pavel Kudryavtsev has gone to Sochi, Anton Sizov returned to Torpedo and Anton Slepyshev remains out of contract.
There are incomings, though. Three young defenseman and one forward are back from loans, while Fredrik Claesson and Devin Brosseau arrive from CSKA and Amur respectively. That suggests the goaltending and defense is more or less set, while it’s likely we’ll see at least three new forwards signing up. Obviously, the final roster will depend greatly on Gusev and Comtois’s future plans.
