Season preview. Salavat Yulaev: Parting with stars and lowered ambitions

KHL.ru continues its club-by-club preview of the upcoming 2025-2026 season.  Salavat Yulaev will face the new season with a reduced budget and fewer stars.

Last Season

Before the start of the championship, Salavat Yulaev strengthened its roster with excellent imports in the form of Sheldon Rempal and Nathan Todd, and later during the season also landed Scott Wilson. Together with Joshua Leivo and Alexander Khmelevsky, they became the key figures in Ufa’s offense. Under Viktor Kozlov, the team played decent, attack-oriented hockey that delivered results – during the regular season Salavat Yulaev battled with Traktor for the top spot in the East. That battle was eventually lost, but they caused quite a stir in the playoffs.

It all began with a tough first round against Sibir. After the first two games it seemed Salavat Yulaev would have no problems, but the series ended up all the way to the seventh match, with Ufa taking the win. Next came Spartak, and again it went seven games – Kozlov’s team was trailing 1–3 in the series but managed to pull through. In the semifinals against Lokomotiv, Ufa started off with a sensational win in game one, but failed to put up much resistance against the future champion afterward. The result – their first semifinal appearance since 2019 and bronze medals.

Recruitment

Arrivals
Defenseman: Stuart Dean (Vityaz, trade). Forwards: Ilya Fedotov (HC Sochi, trade), Prokhor Korbit (Spartak, trade), Nikolai Khvorov (Avangard, trade), Maxim Kuznetsov (Ryazan-VDV, VHL, trade), Jack Rodewald (Admiral), Alexander Suvorov (SKA-VMF, VHL).

Departures
Defensemen: Dinar Khafizullin (Neftekhimik), Mikhail Naumenkov (Torpedo). Forwards: Matvei Babenko (HC Sochi, trade), Danil Kochurov (Spartak, trade), Joshua Leivo (Traktor), Sheldon Rempal (Washington, NHL), Nathan Todd (Spartak), Maxim Velikov (Avtomobilist, trade), Scott Wilson (Sibir). 

Top 3 Signings

Jack Rodewald

A center in his prime – in Rodewald, Ufa acquired a player who can score, make plays, and win physical battles. With his previous teams he played on both the power play and the penalty kill. Add to that a faceoff win rate around 50% and that’s a very good addition to Salavat Yulaev’s lineup.

Alexander Suvorov

The young Belarusian forward played his best hockey with Severstal, when in the 2022-23 season he collected 28 (14+14) points in 53 games. His development was derailed by injuries, which forced him to miss a full season, and last year he managed only two games with Sochi. Potentially, he is a very interesting and strong player, and today’s Salavat Yulaev is not a bad club to try to revive his career.

Prokhor Korbit

Another promising forward who has yet to fully realize his potential. In fact, he played just one full regular season with Admiral (the 2022-23 season doesn’t really count, with only 23 games). Ironically, Korbit scored his first ever KHL goal in the playoffs against Salavat Yulaev, that goal coming in game one’s OT.

After being traded to Spartak, Corbit settled with Khimik and became the top scorer of the VHL playoffs, yet he never received a proper chance with the main team – five games in last year’s regular season can hardly be considered such. If he gets sufficient ice time in Salavat Yulaev, he will surely be of great benefit to the team.

Coaching

For Viktor Kozlov, the upcoming season will be his fourth as head coach of Salavat Yulaev. The specialist has been progressing together with the team – if in the first two years flashy regular seasons were followed by playoff failures (two first-round exits), then last season’s result turned out to be more than respectable. Now Kozlov faces a tougher task: to mold a competitive unit out of solid, though not star-studded, players. Given the circumstances in the club, his stated goal is to reach the playoffs, but the KHL has seen cases where true “coaches’ teams” fought for the highest places.

Goaltending

Salavat Yulaev’s goalie group has remained completely intact. It will be interesting to see who claims the starting role – yes, there’s the more experienced Alexander Samonov, the default favorite in this battle, but the progress of Semyon Vyazovoi last season surely did not go unnoticed by the coaching staff: the homegrown goalie proved in the series against Spartak that he is capable of handling serious challenges.

Defense

All of Ufa’s defensive leaders remain, with the exception of Mikhail Naumenkov and Dinar Khafizullin. To replace them, Dean Stewart was acquired from Vityaz. In his debut KHL season he recorded 15 (5+10) points in 52 games. As a whole, Salavat Yulaev’s blue line is unlikely to weaken, given that its key figures are under contract with the club – for instance, captain Grigory Panin has signed a new deal with Ufa.

Forwards

The forward group has suffered the most from the club’s changes, as nearly all of its star (and therefore expensive) players had to be let go. Leivo, Rempal, Todd, and Wilson – who set the tone offensively last season – have departed. Most likely, the leadership burden will fall on Chmelevsky, who has remained, along with support from homegrown players for whom the current situation is a good chance to step into leading roles.

Prospects

Regardless of the circumstances in the club, Salavat Yulaev has always been quite active in bringing young players closer to the first team. Last season, three of them became full members of the main roster – defenseman Yaroslav Tsulygin and forwards Artyom Gorshkov and Artyom Nabiev.
Among those not yet well known to the general public, one can single out Alexander Zharovsky – the 18-year-old forward started last season with Salavat Yulaev’s 3x3 squad, did not play a single game for the main team in the regular season, but appeared in seven playoff matches. In the upcoming season, he will surely have more chances to make a name for himself and secure a place in the KHL.

What to expect

It is clear that with the changes in the club, the results will most likely be more modest than last season. At the preseason press conference, Salavat Yulaev’s general director Rinat Bashirov set the main objective for the season: reaching the playoffs.

Whether this goal will be achieved is an open question, given that the competition in the League is growing year by year. However, even if the team manages to find its chemistry during the season, hits its stride, and builds the perfect locker room atmosphere, the second round still looks like the ceiling for Ufa in the upcoming campaign.