Season preview. Sibir: No Murphy or Beck, but with Priskie, Wilson, Tkachyov and Soshnikov

KHL.ru continues its club-by-club preview of the upcoming season. The next stop is Sibir, where the club’s management has been busy this summer compensating for some high-profile departures.

Last season

In Novosibirsk, the 2024/2025 campaign was all about the power play. In the regular season, it ran at a blistering 26.9%. Moreover, no other team spent less time with a man advantage than Sibir (less than four minutes a game on average). But no matter how good the special teams are, over the course of a long season it takes more than one effective component to deliver success. And Sibir had difficulty scoring at equal strength and killing penalties.

Nonetheless, in the entire KHL era only one other team finished lower than third in its conference after producing the best power play stats. Sibir was the second team to do this – and might even have managed the unlikely “achievement” of missing the playoffs altogether despite its deadly PP. The Siberians were the last team to secure a post-season spot, clinching it with two games to play thanks to a battling win over lowly Barys.
In Round One, Sibir went to Ufa. The first two games against Salavat Yulaev were ugly: two losses and an aggregate score of 2-15. But Vadim Yepanchintsev and his team didn’t give up and responded with two home wins to tie the series. In the end, this went all the way to game seven, with neither team managing a win on the road. Salavat progressed thanks to a tight 2-1 verdict.

Recruitment

Sibir’s roster sustained some significant losses, but also welcomes big arrivals. And the overall balance seems to be in the team’s favor.

Departures:

Goalie: Denis Kostin (Torpedo). Defensemen: Yegor Martynov, Trevor Murphy (SKA), Ilya Morozov, Roman Rukavishnikov. Forwards: Andy Andreoff (Zurich, SUI), Taylor Beck (Geneva-Servette, SUI), Georgy Belousov, Anton Berlyov, Maxim Karpov, Nikita Korotkov(Metallurg), Brendan Leipsic, Maxim Sushko(Neftekhimik)

Arrivals:

Goalie: Louis Domingue (Hartford, AHL). Defensemen: Roman Kalinichenko (CSKA), Chase Priskie (Hershey, AHL), David Farrance (KooKoo, FIN), Andrei Churkin (Severstal). Forwards: Oskar Bulavchuk (Dynamo Altai, VHL), Arkhip Nekolenko(Lada), Nikita Soshnikov (Admiral), Vladimir Tkachyov (Traktor), Scott Wilson (Salavat Yulaev)

Top 3 signings

The most painful departure, clearly, is Trevor Murphy. Last season’s KHL leading scorer from defense also outproduced every Sibir forward. However, the most eye-catching arrival is Murphy’s direct replacement, Chase Priskie. The season before last he won the Calder Cup and was the leading defensemen in the playoffs for points and assists. Although his team did not get so deep into last season’s playoffs, in the regular season Priskie enjoyed his best individual return for goals (12) and points (35) in the AHL.

The other notable departures saw forwards Taylor Beck and Andy Andreoff leave for Switzerland. But that’s unlikely to be a problem following the arrivals of Scott Wilson, Vladimir Tkachyov and Nikita Soshnikov – effectively creating a new first line for equal strength and power play situations. Oddly enough, the same Wilson played a big part in kicking Sibir out of last season’s playoff with 6 (3+3) points in game two of the series, three assists in game five and the winning goal in game seven. As well as their hockey skills, Tkachyov and Soshnikov, who captained Traktor and Admiral respectively, should also bring leadership qualities to the locker room.

Coaching

In his career, Vadim Yepanchintsev has coached 222 games in the KHL, winning 99 of them. Last season was his first with Sibir and his third full KHL campaign. On the whole, his team lived up to expectations, and perhaps even exceeded them slightly. Ahead of the season, there were fears of a lack of depth and also an expectation that both Amur and Barys would provide more significant competition. However, nobody anticipated such a strong power play – and that is clearly to the coach’s credit.

Another obvious coaching success can be seen in the team’s psychology. Not every coach would be able to rally his players after two heavy losses of the sort endured at the start of the series against Salavat Yulaev (0-7, 2-8). Yepanchintsev inspired his team not only to level the series but to take it all the way to game seven.

Goaltending

At the start of last season it seemed that Anton Krasotkin was established as first-choice goalie, but Denis Kostin overtook him during the campaign. Now Kostin has moved to Torpedo and Krasotkin will compete with Louis Domingue. Unlike Priskie, Domingue’s last couple of AHL campaigns weren’t so successful: he was a solid back-up for Hartford and had just one shut-out in 56 games. On the other hand, he was twice called up to the Rangers in the NHL and did himself no harm on either occasion. In total, he has 151 NHL appearances and remains a solid-looking netminder.

Defense

Priskie isn’t the only Trans-Atlantic acquisition on defense. Sibir also signed David Farrance, who arrives via Germany and Finland. In the north, he also showed consistent productivity, finishing as KooKoo’s top scoring defenseman just two points behind the overall scoring leader. He also led his team in assists. Other arrivals include Andrei Churkin from Severstal and Roman Kalinichenko from CSKA. The four newcomers seem capable of replacing the departed Murphy, Ilya Morozov, Yegor Martynov and Roman Rukavishnikov.

Forwards

On offense, apart from the afore-mentioned trio, Arkhip Nekolenko arrives from Lada. In numbers alone, Sibir has lost twice as many forwards as it has gained, but of the eight departures only Andreoff, Beck and Brendan Leipsic averaged more than 15 minutes of game time, so the overall balance is not catastrophic. Just as important, each of the four newcomers is capable of boosting the overall scoring after a campaign in which the only teams that scored less than Sibir failed to make the playoffs.

Prospects

Last year’s roster was one of the oldest in the league, with only Kunlun’s clocking up more years. Of the 10 youngsters used last season, Artyom Zhukov was the only one to feature in more than half the team’s games. He enjoyed decent ice time as well, averaging just over 15 minutes but has already turned 23. Vladimir Mikhalyov was unable to build on a promising start last season, playing just five games in the KHL and failing to set the VHL alight. Yegor Klimovich featured even less often and his older brother Ivan’s only goals came in a single playoff game. Looking at the reduced attacking resources, it’s fair to suggest that Mikhalyov, the Klimovich brothers and also Alexander Pershakov will see more chances in the coming campaign. On defense, unless injuries interfere, there will be far fewer vacancies. Yaroslav Belyakov and Alexander Lukin would be first in line for any opportunities that arise.

What to expect

While the departures of Murphy and Beck are painful, Sibir’s management has managed to find quality replacements. It’s likely that the power play will be quieter (of 46 PP goals last season, Beck was involved in 30) but it’s the equal strength game that needs to improve – and it looks like it can. Moreover, without Murphy, always prone to an emotional outburst, there might be less time on the PK. It’s hard to see a big step forward compared with last season, but it’s also difficult to imagine Sibir dropping out of the top eight.