Season review: Sibir. Kosolapov’s breakout, Beck’s record, and 12 shootout wins
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2025-2026 season. Sibir endured a difficult first half of the season but managed to turn things around and clinch a playoff spot in the closing stages of the campaign.
Last summer, Sibir lost thirteen players, including its starting goalie, its top defenseman — who was not only the highest-scoring blueliner on the team, but in the entire league — and two of its leading forwards. Those were significant departures, but the newcomers looked capable of offsetting them. On paper, the balance arguably tilted slightly in Sibir’s favor. The bigger issue was numbers: only ten players arrived to replace the thirteen who left, and roster depth had already been viewed as one of the team’s main weaknesses.
A lack of depth usually takes its toll over the course of a long season, but Sibir’s problems began immediately. The team’s first regulation victory came in its fifth game, a hard-fought 1:0 win in Khabarovsk. The second didn’t arrive until more than two months and 24 games later, a narrow 2:1 victory in Sochi. Sibir had to wait until December — its 32nd game of the season — for its first win by more than two goals, defeating Barys 4:1.
By then, Sibir was already on its third head coach of the season, and the roster had undergone major changes as well. Vladimir Tkachyov and Nikita Soshnikov, brought in during the summer to replace Taylor Beck and Andy Andreoff after the latter two departed for Europe, had already moved on to other teams. Both trades initially appeared unfavorable, but the players acquired from Torpedo and Admiral — Mikhail Abramov and Semyon Koshelev — proved useful additions, while Anton Kosolapov made an enormous impact. The third marquee offseason signing, Scott Wilson, was also traded before the deadline. In between those moves, Beck and Andreoff made their unexpected returns.
It would be an exaggeration to say that the coaching changes and roster reshuffling transformed Sibir’s style of play, but the results improved considerably. After a nightmare 13-game losing streak — the longest in club history — the team never lost more than two games in a row, with the exception of a four-game stretch in late February. Even then, Sibir collected three points from overtime and shootout losses, with its only regulation defeat during that span coming by a 0:1 score.
That stretch followed one of the most memorable games of the season, a stunning 10:1 victory over Sochi. Beck was the star of the night, scoring twice and adding five assists to set a new KHL record for points in a single game. The result was also Sibir’s largest-ever victory in the league and the most lopsided win recorded by any team during the 2025-2026 season. Paradoxically, the same team was shut out nine times in the regular season and once more in the playoffs — tied with Sochi for the worst mark in the league.
Continuing the record-breaking theme, Sibir also set a new KHL mark with 12 shootout victories, something no team had previously accomplished. However, there was another side to that achievement: the team managed just 15 regulation wins all season. Even Sochi, which finished 25 points behind Sibir in the standings, recorded more regulation victories, let alone the rest of the league.
Nevertheless, the Novosibirsk side climbed from the bottom of the Eastern Conference and secured a playoff berth. Since the gap to the postseason positions was never overwhelming, it would be an exaggeration to call the task impossible. Yet considering the team’s near-disastrous play and overall morale during the first half of the season, there was undoubtedly something heroic about the turnaround.
In the first round, Sibir drew Metallurg, the runaway winner of the regular season. Realistically, there was little reason to expect a competitive series. If Sibir had any advantage, it was psychological: for months the team had been fighting for every point, while Metallurg, with first place already secured and no serious challengers in sight, appeared to be simply playing out the schedule. Some optimists suggested that the favorites might struggle to match the urgency of an underdog that had been battling for survival.
That theory remained just that. In practice, skill proved more important than psychology. Sibir had enough quality to score one goal in each of the first four games of the series — and in one of them, that was enough to earn a victory. In Game 5, however, the team failed to solve Metallurg’s defense at all. Although Sibir allowed just one goal, it could not find the net itself, and its season came to an end.
Best Players
Anton Kosolapov
17+21 in 37 games
When Kosolapov arrived in Novosibirsk, he was known mainly to Dynamo Moscow and Torpedo fans. His KHL résumé consisted of just four games and no points, making him one of the league’s least heralded additions. What followed was one of the season’s biggest surprises. Kosolapov immediately emerged as a key offensive contributor and, despite joining the team midway through the campaign, finished as Sibir’s leading scorer. His rapid rise from an unproven player to a first-line producer made him not only the team’s biggest revelation, but arguably one of the breakout stars of the entire KHL season.
Yegor Alanov
4+31 in 60 games
Following Trevor Murphy’s departure, Chase Priskie was expected to assume the role of Sibir’s primary weapon on the blue line. However, injuries and inconsistency opened the door for Alanov, who seized the opportunity and never looked back. He became the team’s highest-scoring blueliner while continuing to excel defensively. Alanov was a regular on both the power play and penalty kill, set new career highs in scoring and blocked shots, with 106— the second-highest total on the team. Just as importantly, he remained on the positive side of the plus-minus ledger while handling major minutes in all situations.
Mikhail Berdin
93.6% save percentage, 2.02 GAA in 20 games
Berdin joined Sibir during the season after losing out in a crowded goaltending battle at Ak Bars. By that point, he had already appeared in more than 100 KHL games and had long been regarded as a talented netminder, yet he had never recorded a shutout in the league. His arrival proved instrumental in Sibir’s climb up the standings. In half of his regular-season appearances, Berdin faced and stopped at least 30 shots, providing the consistency the team desperately needed during its playoff push. He later achieved another milestone in the postseason, recording the first shutout of his KHL career.
Sergei Shirokov
6+12 in 20 games
As team captain and the most experienced player on the roster, Shirokov inevitably shared some responsibility for Sibir’s struggles during the first half of the season. By the same token, he also played an important role in helping the team recover and ultimately reach the elimination stage. Given the scale of that turnaround, his contribution to the revival outweighs any blame attached to the difficult opening months.
By the numbers, the season was far from the most productive of Shirokov’s long career. However, his influence extended well beyond points and goals. His leadership and experience proved invaluable as Sibir fought its way out of a deep slump and back into postseason contention.
At the club's end-of-season ceremony, Shirokov was presented with the Loyalty to Hockey award before announcing his retirement from professional hockey. It was a fitting tribute to one of the most respected players of his generation and brought an end to a distinguished career. The league will undoubtedly miss him.
Coaching
Vadim Yepanchintsev was dismissed after ten games, having won four of them, three via shootouts. A 4-6 record did not look disastrous on paper, but two consecutive defeats in Astana and Magnitogorsk proved especially costly. In both games, Sibir held two-goal leads but failed to earn a single point. His replacement, Vyacheslav Butsayev, was unable to turn things around. Whether he never found common ground with the players or lost the dressing room quickly, the results were poor: three wins in fifteen games, all of them coming in shootouts.
The job then passed to Yaroslav Lyuzenkov, a coach whose career began in Sibir’s youth system and with Sibirskie Snaipery. From 2020 onward, he worked with MHC Dynamo Moscow and guided the club to the JHL Kharlamov Cup in 2024. Notably, Anton Kosolapov was the team’s leading goal scorer and second-highest scorer during that championship run, making his breakout KHL season far less surprising. Lyuzenkov’s first attempt to transition from junior hockey to the professional ranks, with Dynamo St. Petersburg in the VHL, didn’t go according to plan. His second opportunity, however, was a resounding success.
Importantly, Lyuzenkov did not overhaul the team’s style or tactical approach. His first priority was restoring confidence and rebuilding relationships within the locker room. That alone was enough to spark a dramatic turnaround. It came as little surprise when Sibir rewarded him with a new three-year contract at the end of the season.
Best Game
The 10:1 victory over Sochi was undoubtedly spectacular, but Sibir’s best game of the season was arguably Game 4 of its first-round playoff series against Metallurg.
The regular-season champions had won the previous three games by scores of 4:1, 5:1, and 3:1. Possessing the league’s most potent offense, Metallurg could afford to concede a goal as long as it scored several more. In Game Four, however, Mikhail Berdin shut the door completely. Metallurg failed to beat him in regulation, the first overtime, or the second overtime.
Then, with just one second remaining in the second extra period, Anton Kosolapov scored Sibir’s trademark lone goal of the series, securing a dramatic 1:0 victory and Berdin’s first career KHL shutout.
Young players
Compared to last season, when Sibir was one of the oldest teams in the league (with only Kunlun Red Star fielding an older roster), the team’s average age has slightly decreased. However, the contribution from young players remains limited. The most productive among them was Ivan Klimovich, who posted 4+5 in 57 games. Once again carrying the label of a promising talent, Klimovich has yet to make a significant step forward in his development. It increasingly appears that Sibir’s management has grown impatient, and he was recently traded to Amur alongside his younger brother Yegor (0+1 in eight games).
Offseason work
The outlines of the new-look Sibir remain somewhat unclear. The club has retained its goaltending tandem, with Mikhail Berdin and Anton Krasotkin both signing contract extensions, while significantly reinforcing the defense with experienced additions in Darren Dietz, Ivan Mishchenko, and Maxim Osipov. However, all three newcomers are over 30, and from the outside it appears that an already veteran-heavy roster is becoming even more experienced — a direction that does not fully align with head coach Yaroslav Lyuzenkov’s preference for fast-paced hockey.
In contrast, the offensive additions fit much more closely with Lyuzenkov’s philosophy — players with clear potential that has yet to be fully realized. Ivan Vorobyov, acquired from Amur in exchange for the Klimovich brothers, previously showed flashes of high-level play in Vityaz, but his progress stalled after moves to Spartak and later Amur. Sergei Popov spent two seasons in Sochi demonstrating, at times, a level above his teammates. Alexander Mirzabalayev became the top scorer (25 goals) and leading point producer (41 points) for Metallurg in the VHL this season, while Daniil Lazutin was the second-highest scorer (50 points) for SKA-VMF last year. Pavel Tyutnev’s numbers are more modest, but he is already familiar to Lyuzenkov from their time together at Lokomotiv, and he also forms a well-established duo with Mirzabalayev, with whom he played both in Metallurg’s system and in their youth days at Vityaz under Gennady Kurdin.
