Clutch Fyodorov, consistent Polyakov, or prolific Zharovsky: who will be Rookie of the Year?
KHL TV commentator Anton Vasyatin takes an in-depth look at the nominees for the Alexei Cherepanov Award, presented annually to the league’s top rookie. Following the 2025-2026 season, the award contenders are Alexander Zharovsky, Matvei Polyakov, and Mikhail Fyodorov. For the first time in four seasons, the list of nominees consists exclusively of forwards.
Alexander Zharovsky (Salavat Yulaev, 2007)
Regular season: 59 games, 42 (16+26) points, plus-7, 5 game-winning goals
Playoffs: 10 games, 2 (0+2) points, minus-6
Players from Salavat Yulaev Ufa rarely find themselves among the nominees for the Alexei Cherepanov Award, and the club’s only previous winner remains goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky in 2014. This season, however, things were different. In fact, it was Alexander Zharovsky who became the highest-scoring player among all the nominees. Considering the forward’s talent and the way he performed during the 2024-2025 playoffs, that outcome could already have been predicted before the season even began.
An injury suffered during preseason raised some concerns about what kind of campaign the young forward would have. Instead, he exceeded expectations. The previous scoring record among 18-year-old players belonged to Eeli Tolvanen, who recorded 43 points for Jokerit in the 2017-2018 season. That mark now belongs to Zharovsky, who surpassed the Finnish sniper by one point.
Zharovsky’s return to the lineup was memorable in itself. He was forced to miss nearly a month at the start of the season, but that did not stop him from setting up both goals against Avangard in his very first game back in late September. At that point, Ufa was still going through a difficult stretch, but by the end of October the team had begun to turn things around — and the young talent played an important role in that improvement.
Zharovsky often looked to create for his teammates, which explains why he finished the full season with significantly more assists than goals (16+26). At the same time, it is telling that even though he was not Salavat Yulaev’s top goal scorer, he still finished among the team leaders in game-winning goals with five — matching the total of Sheldon Rempal.
It is also worth noting that during the first half of the season, while Ufa was still searching for consistency, head coach Viktor Kozlov experimented with different line combinations in search of the optimal setup. In one of those combinations, Zharovsky was deployed at center — not his most natural position — yet he still looked comfortable in the role, forming what for a time became Ufa’s most reliable line alongside Artyom Gorshkov and Yegor Suchkov.
Matvei Polyakov (SKA, 2004)
Regular season: 63 games, 29 (16+13) points, plus-15, 4 game-winning goals
Playoffs: 5 games, 0 points, minus-4
Polyakov’s time in the JHL coincided with some of the best seasons in the history of SKA-1946, as the forward won bronze, silver, and gold medals over the span of just a few years. Naturally, Matvei himself played a major role in those achievements. That was one of the reasons why he was given an opportunity with SKA during preseason, despite having almost no prior experience at the professional level.
And the 21-year-old made the most of that opportunity. In fact, he held onto his spot so firmly that he spent almost the entire season with SKA. Early in the year he was occasionally assigned to the VHL, but from November 6 until the end of the championship he did not miss a single KHL game for his team. Across 68 games including the playoffs, the young forward collected 29 points. Yes, that total is well below Zharovsky’s numbers, but in terms of goals they were virtually even — both players scored 16 times.
It is important to note, however, that Polyakov’s ice time was far more limited. He initially averaged just eight or nine minutes per game, which is very little even for a fourth-line player. Naturally, there was no talk of power-play usage during the first part of the season either. But thanks to his work ethic, impressive speed, and outstanding efficiency in a limited role, the forward gradually earned more trust from the coaching staff. By the end of the regular season, he was even appearing on the first line and seeing time on the power play.
Polyakov’s progress during the 2025-2026 campaign is an excellent example for young players. Last summer brought major roster changes to SKA, which logically opened the door for some of the club’s younger forwards. At the same time, the St. Petersburg organization has no shortage of talented prospects, and the competition for a place on the main roster remained fierce. Polyakov was one of the players who managed to come out on top in that battle.
Last year, the Alexei Cherepanov Award was won by Ivan Demidov, who became the first player in SKA history to receive the honor.
Mikhail Fyodorov (Metallurg, 2006)
Regular season: 52 games, 13 (7+6) points, minus-5
Playoffs: 14 games, 3 (2+1) points, minus-2
Fyodorov became the third representative of Metallurg in the last three seasons to be nominated for the league’s Rookie of the Year award. In 2024, the honor went to goalie Ilya Nabokov, while forward Roman Kantserov was also among the finalists.
Compared to Zharovsky and Polyakov, Fyodorov arguably had the toughest path to establishing himself in the KHL this past season. Magnitka did not undergo a major rebuild during the offseason, and the team’s offense was already packed with experienced veterans. However, the club is coached by Andrei Razin, who has built a reputation for knowing how to integrate young players into the lineup.
The 19-year-old began the season in the JHL and VHL before making his first appearance on Metallurg’s KHL roster in mid-September against Ak Bars. Just a couple of days later, he scored his first career goal against Severstal. Over the course of the regular season, the forward collected 13 points, including seven goals. Those numbers are noticeably lower than the totals posted by his competitors in the Rookie of the Year race, but Fyodorov has an argument of his own.
He was the only one among the three nominees to score in the playoffs — and he did it twice, finding the net in each of the opening two games of Metallurg’s series against Sibir. Throughout the season, he was often dressed as the team’s 13th forward, but that did not stop him from bringing creativity to the attack — and, of course, from scoring — despite sometimes receiving only a handful of shifts per game. On occasion, the coaching staff even trusted the young forward with power-play time, and Fyodorov delivered: four of his seven regular-season goals came with the man advantage. He is another player with a very bright future ahead.
Players from Metallurg have won the Alexei Cherepanov Award more often than any other club. Goalie Ilya Proskuryakov became the inaugural winner in 2009, forward Pavel Zdunov followed in 2011, and thirteen years later the trophy was claimed by Nabokov.
