Tournament winners and Scott Gordon’s first game

Pre-season is getting serious. Last week saw the first two summer tournaments decided – and there are four more to come this week. We also saw Scott Gordon’s first game as head coach of Traktor and heard from his newly-signed Norwegian goalie.

Admiral wins first tournament of the summer

Not many picked Admiral to win the Minsk Cup ahead of Metallurg or tournament host Dinamo Minsk. But the Sailors came out on top in the six-team tournament, seeing off Magnitka in Monday’s final. The team benefitted from starting its pre-season campaign early, playing three games before this tournament. Although it had to rely on two-way and try-out contracts for much of that, several of those players went on to feature strongly in the cup. Artyom Kudashov had two assists in a 3-1 win over Sibir, Mikhail Grass (2+0), Oskar Bulavchuk (1+1) and Yegor Korbit (0+2) masterminded a recovery to beat Sochi 5-3. Both Grass and Maxim Musorov, who weretraded away by Metallurg in the summer, returned to shoot down their former club with two points apiece in the final.

Tigers take title in Ufa

The Republic of Bashkortostan Cup went to Amur, with the Tigers impressing in Ufa. Alexander Andriyevsky’s men won all three games with a goal differential of 13-3. The team was lifted by productive debuts from summer signings Artyom Shvaryev and Ivan Klimovich. Storied defenseman Slava Voynov also made his debut, but there was disappointment for forward Ivan Chekhovich, who picked up an injury in the opening game against Lada. The Motormen took second place, coming out on top in a three-way tie with Salavat Yulaev and Barys.

Youngster make waves for Minsk

The first hat-trick of the summer came from an unexpected source. Dinamo Minsk’s 20-year-old forward Arseny Chukhrayev hasn’t had much attention outside of his own club – but that might be about to change this season. Sergei Brylin elevated the youngster to the top line for the Minsk Cup game against Sibir, and Chukhrayev made the most of it. Playing along the experienced Sam Anas and Chris Tierney, he plundered three goals to open a 4-1 lead.

Legare double can’t save Gordon’s Traktor

Traktor’s new head coach Scott Gordon took charge of his first game of the summer on Saturday, but fell to an overtime loss at Avtomobilist. Gordon’s roster is far from full strength due to a combination of injuries, a delay in getting Boris Kachouk to Russia and the expectation of further signings before the start of the season. Nonetheless, there were promising signs, not least the two goals from Nathan Legare that helped secure a 3-3 tie in regulation. Alexei Kudashov’s first home game as head coach of Avtomobilist still ended with his first win of the summer. In overtime, Daniel Sprong potted the decider to give the Motormen a 4-3 verdict.

Bison swoop for Wild forward

Nicolas Aube-Kubel is joining Dinamo Minsk on a one-year contract. The 30-year-old Canadian, who was part of Colorado’s Stanley Cup-winning roster in 2022, played most of last season with Iowa Wild in the AHL. He had 37 points in 62 games, as well as two assists in six appearances in the NHL with Minnesota. In total the winger has 310 regular season games through eight seasons in the NHL, but has never previously played outside of North America.

Haukeland settles in at Traktor

Traktor’s Norwegian goalie, Henrik Haukeland, spoke to KHL.ru about his move to Chelyabinsk this summer. After backstopping Norway to its first ever World Championship medal in May, he’s ready for a big new challenge. “I knew the KHL was a really strong league and I was interested to try here and find out just how high the level is,” he said in an interview last week. “There are a lot of classy players here, and Russian goalies are the best in the world right now. It’s an excellent opportunity for me to show my best hockey.”

Coming up …

It’s the last full week of pre-season games, and that means four tournaments to enjoy. Tomorrow sees the start of the Romazan Memorial in Magnitogorsk, with Metallurg, Salavat Yulaev, Amur and Traktor going for Russia’s oldest summer hockey trophy. On Wednesday, the Blinov Cup starts in Omsk. Avangard welcomes Lokomotiv, Severstal, Sibir and Neftekhimik in a five-team contest that runs through Aug. 31. Then Thursday sees the action get underway in Russia’s biggest cities. St. Petersburg hosts the Puchkov Tournament, featuring SKA, Barys, Admiral and VHLers SKA-VMF. And the Mayor of Moscow Cup debuts an expanded eight-team format involving CSKA, Dynamo Moscow, Spartak, Ak Bars,  Avtomobilist, Dinamo Minsk, Shanghai Dragons and Torpedo.