Gatiyatulin, Nikitin, and Razin named finalists for Best Coach award

KHL.ru presents the finalists for the Best coach award – the trophy for the top head coach of the 2025-2026 Fonbet KHL season.

Anvar Gatiyatulin (Ak Bars)

86 games, 57 wins

Anvar Gatiyatulin is the only coach among the nominees still competing. At the end of the regular season, Ak Bars finished third in the Eastern Conference before reaching the Gagarin Cup Finals for the first time in three years, where the series is currently tied 2-2 against Lokomotiv. It is the first finals appearance of Gatiyatulin’s coaching career.

Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Yulaev)

78 games, 40 wins

Salavat Yulaev finished the regular season in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and then defeated Avtomobilist 4-2 in the opening round to advance to the second round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs. Viktor Kozlov has now been nominated for Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Andrei Razin (Metallurg)

83 games, 58 wins

Metallurg won the V.V. Tikhonov Continental Cup for the first time in franchise history. In the playoffs, the team confidently advanced to the semifinals, where it was eliminated by Ak Bars. This season, Metallurg also finished as the league’s highest-scoring team.

Oleg Znarok (four times), Igor Nikitin (three times), Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, Milos Riha, Mike Keenan, Vyacheslav Bykov, Dmitry Kvartalnov, Bob Hartley, Sergei Fedorov (twice), and Andrei Razin have won this award in the past.

The Closing Ceremony for the 2025-2026 season will be held on May 28, 2025.