Season preview: Avangard. Will Guy Boucher make the final at his third attempt?

KHL.ru continues its club-by-club preview of the 2026/2027 season. Once again, Avangard has made good acquisitions and should be among the contenders for major honors this season.

Last season

The Hawks had a strong regular season and finished second in the Eastern Conference, six points behind overall champion Metallurg. Avangard went into the playoffs as one of the main contenders for the Gagarin Cup and moved smoothly into the semi-finals with 4-1 series wins over Igor Grishin’s Neftekhimik and Igor Nikitin’s CSKA. In the last four, Avangard faced Lokomotiv once again. In the two previous seasons, the teams went to seven games and it happened again this year after Avangard blew a 3-1 lead. In the decider, Omsk lost out after blowing a two-goal lead in just 33 seconds to bring its season to an abrupt end.

Recruitment

Arrivals:
Goalie: Ilya Prosvetov (Calgary, NHL). Defensemen: Kirill Adamchuk (Dynamo Moscow), Yegor Popov (Rubin, VHL). Forwards: Yegor Afanasyev (San Jose, NHL), Artyom Ilyenko (Dynamo Moscow), Josh Leivo (Traktor), Cedric Paquette (Dynamo Moscow).

Departures:
Goalies: Andrei Mishurov (Lada), Evgeny Yaroslavlev. Defensemen: Artyom Blazhievsky (Dynamo Moscow), Slava Voynov (Amur), Artyom Chmykhov. Forwards: Dmitry Zlodeyev (Norilsk, VHL), Ivan Igumnov, Mikhail Kotlyarevsky (Dragons), Igor Martynov (Dynamo Moscow), Kirill Pilipenko (Amur), Kirill Tankov (Severstal), Giovanni Fiore (Lokomotiv).

Top 3 signings

Josh Leivo

The leading marksman in 2024/2025, who set a record for goals in a single regular season, will spend the coming season with Avangard. There’s no doubt over Leivo’s scoring abilities, but the big question is how the stellar acquisition will work with his new head coach.

Yegor Afanasyev

Afanasyev is both big and quick. Based on pre-season, Boucher is planning to use this forward on the penalty kill. Afanasyev’s offensive credentials are strong enough to pick up points even when playing shorthanded.

Kirill Adamchuk

Avangard added the experienced Adamchuk to its defense as a solid replacement for the departing Blazhievsky and Voynov. In the season before last, Adamchuk was one of the most consistent defensemen in the league, recording a positive plus/minus in more games than any other.

Coaching

This will be Guy Boucher’s third full season behind the Avangard bench. In his two previous campaigns, he took the Hawks to the quarter-finals, then a semi-final, but lost out to Lokomotiv each time. This time, he starts with an injury epidemic that has ruled out five players – including influential defenseman and club captain Damir Sharipzyanov.

Goaltending

Avangard goes into the new season with Nikita Serebryakov and Ivan Prosvetov. It looks like one of the strongest pairings in the league. Serebryakov should have the number role at the start of the season, given his high performance levels during the playoffs. But Prosvetov would be capable of playing the lead on any other team in the KHL and it will be interesting to see how he adapts to a back-up role. The last line of defense looks pretty secure in Omsk.

Defense

There are only two new signings on defense – Kirill Adamchuk, who will surely play in the first or second pair, and also Yegor Popov, who looks more like a reinforcement for the farm club. Even without the injured Sharipzyanov, there’s enough talent on the blue line: Max Lajoie, Joseph Ceccone, Semyon Chistyakov, Mikhail Gulyayev and Marsel Ibragimov, plus the young defensemen who Boucher tested in pre-season.

Offense

The Hawks have little cause for concern up front either. Josh Leivo goes straight into the top six, and the team has added power in the sizeable form of Afanasyev, Paquette and Ilyenko. It’s likely that Avangard will have four lines capable of making an impact.

Youngsters

Last season Mikhail Gulyayev secured the confidence of Guy Boucher and spent the whole campaign with the first team. There’s no reason to assume the 21-year-old defenseman won’t continue to progress this term. Kirill Dolzhenkov, who extended his contract in the summer, is in a similar situation. During pre-season we saw 19-year-old forward Gleb Burlaka and 17-year-old defenseman Pavel Denisov in action – it’s entirely possible we’ll see them in the KHL in the months ahead.

Expectations

Throughout Boucher’s time as head coach at Avangard, his team has been one of the leading contenders to win the cup. The Hawks look like favorites again this season, but will the Canadian make the next step forward and get to the final?