Millennium man

For the first time in history, a coach has reached 1,000 games in the KHL – and in the process, he lifted his team to the top of the Western Conference. Not a bad way to end 2025!

Kvartalnov’s 1,000th game

Dinamo Minsk head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov became the first man to coach 1,000 games in the KHL on Sunday. His landmark was a successful one, with a 5-3 victory over Dynamo Moscow putting the Belarusians on top of the Western Conference. Kvartalnov’s coaching career began in 2009/2010 at Severstal, where he worked for three seasons. After that, the 59-year-old had spells with Sibir, CSKA, Lokomotiv and Ak Bars before arriving in Minsk in the 2023/2024 season. He has also been head coach of Team Belarus since 2022, his first international coaching role.

Kvartalnov has coached 869 regular season games and a further 131 in the playoffs. He has 613 wins in total.

As a player, the Voskresensk native started with his hometown club, Khimik. He was part of the last Soviet team to win the World Championship in 1989 and moved to North America in 1991 where he topped scored in the IHL with 118 points for the San Diego Gulls. That got him an NHL contract with Boston, where he had 91 points in 112 games. Later he played in several European leagues before returning to Russia and playing four seasons with Ak Bars.

And a word from Mom

Amid the pre-game celebrations for Kvartalnov, Dinamo arranged for a message from the coach’s mother to be broadcast on the cube. And it was an emotional and surprising moment. “I have a tradition where I phone my mom right before every game,” he said. “She didn’t mention anything today, so it was a really lovely surprise to see [her video]. It was a bit awkward, when I saw her I almost lost it.”

600 games for Da Costa

Avtomobilist forward Stephane da Costa was another man to reach a landmark this week. He played his 600th KHL game in a 4-1 road win at Barys. The French center is the ninth import to reach 600 games. Da Costa still has some way to go to overhaul Geoff Platt’s 715 appearances, but he is closing on Nigel Dawes’ scoring record. The 36-year-old has 521 (212+309) points, against 500 for Dawes.

Tkachyov reaches 400 points

With a goal on CSKA in Torpedo’s OT loss during the week, Vladimir Tkachyov moved to 400 (170+230) points in his KHL career. That snipe, which helped erase a two-goal deficit in Moscow, also extended his productive streak to five games. However, neither he nor his team-mates could add to it at the weekend as the team crashed to a 0-5 loss at Neftekhimik.

Metallurg extends Razin

Andrei Razin agreed a contract extension with Metallurg that will keep him in Magnitogorsk until 2028. The head coach, who led the Steelmen to the Gagarin Cup in his debut season in 2024, agreed an updated two-year deal. In his KHL career, Razin has 319 wins from 599 games.

Coming up …

The KHL goes on a short New Year break from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2. But don’t despair, there’s no shortage of hockey to enjoy next week. Tuesday has a busy program of eight games, including two derby match-ups – the classic CSKA vs Dynamo Moscow clash, and the new Battle of St. Petersburg between Shanghai Dragons and SKA. And early in 2026, there’s the latest instalment of the on-going rivalry between Igor Nikitin’s CSKA and the Lokomotiv team he led to Gagarin Cup glory last season.