Season review: Ak Bars. A turbulent start, a playoff transformation and the first final in three years
KHL.ru continues its club-by-club review of the 2025-2026 season for the league’s teams. Ak Bars struggled at the start of the season, but later managed to stabilize its game, finished in the top three in the Eastern Conference, and unexpectedly reached the Gagarin Cup Finals.
From a performance standpoint, September was a disappointing month for Ak Bars. Even so, four wins in ten games was far from a disastrous start to the season. The defeats, however, were particularly painful: 3:6 losses to Metallurg and Avtomobilist, followed by a 1:6 home defeat against Avangard. The loss to Magnitka was especially tough for the Kazan fans, with their team trailing by five after the opening period. As a result, speculation quickly emerged in the media about the future of head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin, with several potential successors already being mentioned.
Gatiyatulin insisted the team simply needed time, particularly the newcomers who had arrived just before the start of the regular season. For example, Grigory Denisenko’s signing was only announced on Sept. 2. Some offseason additions ultimately failed to work out, most notably Wyatt Kalynuk, Brandon Biro, and goalie Mikhail Berdin, who struggled to settle in with Ak Bars. In an attempt to address those issues, the club completed a September trade with Salavat Yulaev, acquiring Alexander Chmelevski in exchange for Kalynuk and substantial financial compensation.
With Chmelevski in the lineup, Ak Bars enjoyed a remarkable October, going unbeaten throughout the month while setting a new club record with an 11-game winning streak. That stretch propelled the team back up the standings, and the rest of the regular season passed without any prolonged slumps as Ak Bars finished third in the Eastern Conference. The opening-round series against Traktor ended in a convincing 4:1 victory on paper, but the matchup was much closer than the score suggested, with three of the five games requiring overtime. Gatiyatulin’s team won all three extra-time contests, the most dramatic coming in Game Four.
Ak Bars further cemented its reputation as the KHL’s overtime kings in the quarterfinals against Dinamo Minsk, winning the pivotal second game in OT before completing a four-game sweep. That set up a semifinal showdown against the regular-season champion. After splitting the opening two games, Ak Bars reeled off three straight victories to clinch the series. The decisive win also came in overtime, as Alexander Barabanov scored the goal that sent his team to its first Gagarin Cup Final in three years.
The championship series against Lokomotiv resembled a tug of war, with Yaroslavl taking the lead twice and Ak Bars responding on both occasions to level the series. With the matchup tied at two, Kazan delivered a disappointing performance in Game Five, falling 1:4 on the road and finding itself one loss away from elimination. This time, Gatiyatulin’s team could not mount another comeback, losing Game Six by a 2:3 score to settle for silver medals after a 2-4 series defeat.
Top Players
87 games, 70 (23+47) points
The American defenseman put together an outstanding season. Like the team as a whole, however, his campaign got off to a rocky start, and Gatiyatulin even made Miller a healthy scratch on a few occasions. The wake-up call worked: the blueliner became more reliable defensively while continuing to showcase the offensive ability that has always been his biggest strength. He finished tied with Kirill Semyonov as the team’s leading scorer, led all Ak Bars players in playoff scoring, and became the first defenseman in KHL history to record a hat trick in the Gagarin Cup Final.
78 games, 53 (10+43) points
Lyamkin also enjoyed a breakout season alongside Miller, despite the two defensemen sharing similar styles and both frequently joining the attack. Together, they formed one of the league’s most effective pairings. It was Lyamkin’s highest-scoring KHL season, and he also came through with several key goals. In Game Six of the Gagarin Cup Final against Lokomotiv, both of Ak Bars’ goals came from his point shots, briefly giving the Kazan faithful hope of a comeback.
88 games, 70 (22+48) points
Semyonov once again established himself as one of the KHL’s premier two-way centers. He was one of only three Ak Bars players to appear in every game throughout the season. Along with tying Miller for the team lead in scoring, Semyonov posted the third-best differential among the club's forwards (plus-22) and dominated the faceoff circle, winning 59.6% of his 1,254 draws.
Alexander Barabanov
84 games, 67 (27+40) points
The skilled forward is a key part of the Ak Bars attack: he can both deliver unexpected passes and take the game into his own hands, while his line with Artyom Galimov and Ilya Safonov was one of the most productive units on Ak Bars. Barabanov, like Miller, finished as the team’s top goal scorer with 27 goals apiece. On top of that, he scored nine game-winning goals — the most on the team over the course of the season.
Coaching
It is clear that the past season was a highly valuable learning experience for Anvar Gatiyatulin. The difficult September undoubtedly helped him better handle pressure — in interviews, the coach himself noted that he received strong support from the club’s management during that stretch.
Later on, Gatiyatulin did not hesitate to make bold, “surgical” decisions when necessary — one only has to recall the mid-season decisions to remove Mitchell Miller, Grigory Denisenko, or Dmitrij Jaskin from the lineup.
Finally, reaching the first Gagarin Cup Final of his career marked an important milestone. While not everything went perfectly for both the coach and the team in the decisive series, the experience will certainly prove valuable in the future. As expected, Gatiyatulin was awarded the Coach of the Year title — the winner is determined by a vote among the clubs, and it is fair to say his progress was recognized by his colleagues. In the offseason, he extended his contract with Ak Bars and will once again attempt to bring the club its fourth Gagarin Cup in history.
Best game
The regular season for Ak Bars ended with an away game against Dynamo Moscow. And this match can be seen as a microcosm of their entire season.
The start was far from ideal — after the first period, the Muscovites held a comfortable 3:1 lead. Then came the turning point: two consecutive power-play goals in the second period allowed Ak Bars to tie the game. The third period was completely dominated by Kazan, who won it 4:2, with the main star being Nathan Todd, who recorded a hat trick.
7:5 — a comeback victory and a very vivid, characteristic performance of Gatiyatulin’s team.
Young players
During the 2025-2026 season, Ak Bars used ten young players in its roster. One of them, Dmitry Katelevsky, despite his age, has already been a regular member of the lineup for quite some time. Stepan Terekhov and Maxim Arefyev are close to reaching that same status: Terekhov completed his first full rookie season at a very solid level, while Arefyev was named the backup goalie alongside Timur Bilyalov in midseason following the departure of Mikhail Berdin.
The remaining youngsters saw more limited ice time. Only Radel Zamaltdinov and Igor Bardin played more than ten games, while the others appeared in just one to seven contests. Gatiyatulin used them mainly as depth options, giving them limited minutes.
Offseason work
So far, Ak Bars has been losing more than gaining on the transfer market: Nathan Todd moved to Metallurg, Ilya Karpukhin joined Avtomobilist, Konstantin Luchnikov signed with Admiral, and Ilya Safonov left for North America.
At the same time, the status of several key players remains uncertain. This includes Alexander Barabanov, Dmitrij Jaskin, and Belarusian Stepan Falkovsky, while there are still no contracts for next season for Grigory Denisenko, Artyom Galimov, and Timur Bilyalov.
In short, Ak Bars’ management faces a very busy offseason. The challenge will be to replace departing players without losing quality, in order to keep the team competitive and capable of fighting for major success next season.
