Season review: Neftekhimik. Grishin’s attacking style, Belozyorov’s productivity, Iron Man Mityakin
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2025/2026 season. Under head coach Igor Grishin, Neftekhimik made it to the playoffs and gave Avangard a test when it got there.
Round-up
Neftekhimik didn’t make a great start to the season, losing 0-5 at home to Severstal in its opener then dropping a 3-4 verdict against Traktor. But things quickly improved, with the Wolves winning seven of their next eight games in September, including successes over Lokomotiv and Tatar rival Ak Bars. That lifted the team to second place in the East. It couldn’t maintain that lofty position and dropped back to fifth/sixth in the standings by the end of October. But the team was always interesting to watch.
This season’s Nefetkhimik played attractive hockey, in line with the philosophies of head coach Igor Grishin. Sometimes this didn’t work out as planned – there were losing streaks, and the team’s final position could have been higher. Even so, the overall impression of Neftekhimik this season was positive.
And the playoffs reinforced that feeling. Neftekhimik put up a good fight against Avangard, leading in three games and almost winning the fifth. The Wolves probably deserved better than a 1-4 loss in round one, but the experience will surely help the team in the coming campaign.
Best players
Neftekhimik’s leader is amazingly consistent. For the last three seasons he has scored 40+ points and 2025/2026 brought his best ever return in points and goals in the regular season. That helped Andrei set a new club goals record. He finished with 48 (27+21) in regular season and added 6 (4+2) in the playoffs.
Neftekhimik’s Iron Man, Mityakin missed just one game in 2025/2026 – and that was the last in the series against Avangard. Later, Grishin explained that he missed out due to an injury suffered in the opening game of post-season. That ended a run of 331 successive games for Neftekhimik, setting a new KHL record sequence for games with one team. And he was second in team scoring behind Belozyorov (18+20 plus 0+1 in the playoffs) and did a great job on the draw— 714/1269 or 56.3% in the regular season.
In 2023/2024 Dolganov was an unexpected success in his KHL rookie season. Just two years later, he has clearly established himself as an elite goalie. Dolganov was one of the busiest goalie of the season, clocking up 2,865 minutes on the ice in the regular season. He won 22 of 50 games, stopped 92.8% of shots faced and had a GAA of 2.53 with four shut-outs. In the playoffs, despite only collecting one win, he also had good numbers: 91% saves and 2.93 GAA.
Coaching
Igor Grishin’s first experience as a KHL head coach came with Spartak in 2022/2023. An interim figure there, he also led Khimik to the Petrov Cup that year and followed up with a VHL bronze medal at the helm of Dynamo St. Petersburg. Grishin is committed to lively, attractive hockey. In an interview with KHL.ru, he said: “Offense – it’s goals, it’s chances, it’s interesting. People won’t come to watch games if there are only five shots on goal in a period. I always tell my teams we have to score at least three goals.”
In his first full KHL season, Grishin won 35 of 73 games – that’s the sixth best result for the club in this league. And his win ratio of 47.9% is the best among Neftekhimik’s head coaches.
Best game
Absolutely wild – that’s the only way to describe Neftekhimik’s home game against Avangard on Nov. 25. Nikita Khoruzhev opened the scoring in the sixth minute, but Avangard tied it up 40 seconds later and led 3-1 midway through the first period.
German Tochilkin got a second for the home team, but Avangard padded its lead to 5-2 before a spectacular fightback. Ivan Nikolishin, Andrei Belozyorov and Khoruzhev’s second of the night made it 5-5.
Then, in the final second, Belozyorov scored an incredible goal thanks to a deflection off Konstantin Okulov’s stick, handing Neftekhimik an unforgettable win.
Young players
Three U23 forwards had more than 60 games each for Neftekhimik last season – Nikita Khoruzhev, Matvei Nadvorny and German Tochilkin.
It was Khoruzhev’s second full KHL season and although his 26-point tally was down on last year that fall can be explained by an injury at the start of the campaign. Overall, his game shows clear signs of progress. Tochilkin reached the 30-point mark (16+14) and KHL rookie Nadvorny potted 10 goals.
Apart from them, a further eight U23 players had some gametime: goalie Semyon Lyubalin (one game), defenseman Artyom Kudashov (24) and forwards Nikita Artamonov (42), Sevastyan Sokolov (23), Nikolai Krivolapov (14), Kondrat Reshetnikov (9), Raul Yakupov (3) and Zhoe Kristof Muissi (1).
Off-season work
Neftekhimik has retained its core but parted with several players – for example, Alexander Dergachyov went to Amur and Zhoe Kristof Muissu joined Spartak. Bulat Shafigullin’s move to Dynamo is also notable – he was traded to Moscow for promising young center Sergei Artemiev, who previously played under Grishin in the VHL.
Other additions include goalie Matvei Botov, defenseman Semyon Ruchkin and forward Artur Tyanulin. The capture of Sochi’s all-time scoring leader, who finished last season at Lada, could be a key signing for Neftekhimik.
