Review of the Season. Traktor: Groulx’s great start, Shabanov’s dominance and some crazy comebacks
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2024/2025 season. Traktor reached its second Gagarin Cup final, showing some fantastic team spirit along the way.
Despite a terrific run to the 2023/2024 semi-finals, Traktor’s management decided to bring in a new head coach. Last summer that seemed, if not downright harsh, an unusual call. But under the guidance of Benoit Groulx the team made a decent start to the season and won 11 out of 13 games in October to lead the Eastern Conference. December brought a few stumbles and Traktor dropped from the top four a couple of times. However, the New Year brought a return to the summit and there was no looking back.
December’s troubles prompted several trades, which is also unusual for a team among the leaders. And in the playoffs, things got even crazier – to the point where the campaign began to feel like it had been scripted in Hollywood. At the start of the second period of the opening game, red-hot favorite Traktor was down 0-3 to unfancied Admiral. The home team rallied hard and almost saved the game before falling 4-5. And in each of the next four games, Traktor had to come from behind – successfully on three occasions. Midway through the third period in game five, the gap was 0-4 yet things turned around fast: with little over a minute left on the clock, Traktor pulled level and went on to win it in the second minute of overtime. It wasn’t until game six that Traktor managed to open the scoring and complete the job relatively calmly. Throughout the whole six-game series, Traktor was ahead for less than an hour, and trailed for more than 150 minutes. Nonetheless, the team still battled through.
Next came Dinamo Minsk. In game one it was scoreless until early in the third, then Alexander Kadeikin’s opener was cancelled by two in 59 seconds from the Belarusians. It stayed that way until the last minute, before three goals in 22 seconds gave Traktor the verdict. In game two, Traktor again recovered from 0-3, only to suffer a thumping 0-8 loss as the action moved to Minsk. Strangely, that seemed to have a beneficial effect: Traktor won games four and five without quite so much drama to take the series.
The semi-final was against Dynamo Moscow, and began with a successful comeback from 0-2. In 16 playoff games, Traktor allowed the first goal 11 times – and recovered to win eight of them. On eight occasions, Traktor trailed by two, yet won four of those including fightbacks from 0-3 and 0-4.
All of these miracles encouraged many observers to feel that destiny was guiding Traktor to an explosive title ahead of Lokomotiv’s steady and consistent progress. But the reality was rather different. Traktor won the first game of the Gagarin Cup final, which seemed to reinforce public opinion. But after that they could find no further answers in the face of the Yaroslavl machine.
Best players
Maxim Shabanov
87 (33+54) points in 86 games
On most times it’s not easy to pick out a single dominant player. But not at Traktor: Shabanov was one of the strongest players in the entire league, and not just on his own team. Maxim only went cold in the last four games of the season – and that was a major reason why Chelyabinsk could not prolong the final series. Prior to that he was an absolute monster. It wasn’t just his individual scoring, but also his mind-blowing overall effectiveness, In 17 games against Admiral, Dinamo Minsk and Dynamo Moscow, plus the opening game of the final against Lokomotiv, Traktor scored 54 goals and allowed 47. When Shabanov was on the ice, the scoring was 28-5 (including 10 of his goals and a further 10 on which he assisted). When he was on the bench, it was 26-42. It’s difficult to recall such a dominant player on any team, in any era. Even Bobby Orr in the early 70s was never quite so far ahead of his team-mates.
Grigory Dronov
43 (19+24) points in 80 games
Defenseman Dronov caught the eye back in his Metallurg days and earned an international call-up, but at Traktor his game has elevated to an even higher level – especially as an attacking player. Previously, his most productive season brought 19 points in the regular season and 25 for the whole campaign; this time he had 13 and 43 respectively.
Grigory was injured in the second round, missing one game, and after that he played as the seventh D-man. Even so, he was second in scoring for Traktor in the playoffs, and the most productive blue liner on the team.
Zach Fucale
70 game, 40 saves, 92 % shots saved, GAA 2.27
Fucale took much of the blame for the tough start to the series against Admiral and the first half of the series against Dinamo Minsk. Nonetheless, both ended well for Traktor – with Fucale still in the #1 role. Zach’s contribution to the rise to the top of the Eastern Conference was even more substantial: he had nine shut-outs in the regular season, more than any other goalie.
Coaching
The appointment of Groulx last summer was greeted with general skepticism. That was partly because he replaced Alexei Zavarukhin, who exceeded expectations in taking the team to the semifinals. It was also partly down to Groulx’s own modest track record: previously he had only won in junior hockey (a World Championship with Canada and twice in the QMJHL) and that was almost a decade ago. Choosing the almost unknown Rafael Richer as his assistant only fuelled the doubts.
The new-look Traktor was the most successful team in pre-season, but that didn’t generate much excitement. The skeptical camp was muted somewhat after a powerful run in October, only to pipe up again in December when those low expectations seemed to be coming true. In the end, though, they disappeared once again in the New Year save for a brief resurgence during the series against Admiral and Dinamo Minsk.
But the bottom line is that Groulx had a great debut in the KHL, despite losing in the final. An already strong team from last year was galvanized in a short space of time – and arguably even twice. In December, Groulx quickly and effectively integrated a clutch of newcomers into his team. He relentlessly shuffled his lines and that brought results. And those impressive comebacks, game after game ... that’s another story.
Best game
In a season full of memorable games, the fifth in the series with Admiral stands out. In the entire history of KHL playoff action, only two games have seen a team rally to win from 0-4 – in 2012 and 2019. This one stands out even in that exalted company: when Traktor began its fightback, there were just 12 minutes left to play.
Young players
The overwhelming majority of Traktor’s players are in their prime: there are just two older than 33, and only three younger than 23 (plus seven more who played just 36 times between them). From those three youngsters, 19-year-old Alexander Rykov had 34 appearances, averaging about nine minutes on the ice, while 220-year-old Mikhail Goryunov-Rolgizer played 37 games and averaged 11 minutes. Only Arseny Koromyslov, 21, really established himself on the team after arriving in December. He began the season on loan at Lada, did well after he was recalled to SKA, then moved to Chelyabinsk before the deadline. Uniquely for a defenseman, he scored a goal for three different teams in one season – including two for Traktor.
Summer activity
It looks like Traktor will once again face a major rebuild this summer. Shabanov, currently a restricted free agent, is waiting on an offer from Philadelphia. In addition, Zach Fucale has gone to Dinamo Minsk, Artyom Blazhievsky to Avangard, Nikita Korostelyov to Spartak and Vladimir Tkachyov to Sibir. Steven Kampfer is retiring, and Charles Robinson was not offered a new contract.
The club quickly solved the goaltending problem, with new signing Chris Dreidger looking like a more than adequate replacement for Fucale. Half the defensive gaps are filled, with Jordan Gross coming from Minsk to cover for Kampfer’s departure. But things are tougher on offense. Yegor Korshkov was signed from Ak Bars, and Andrei Nikonov is coming from Sochi, but even when the number of new signings matches the departures, it will be very hard to find a full replacement for Shabanov.
