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Season preview: Metallurg. Bronze medalist with ambitions of bringing the Gagarin Cup back
KHL.ru continues to look at the state of the League’s clubs as they prepare for the start of the new season. Metallurg had a productive offseason on the transfer market and is ready to begin the season as one of the Eastern Conference’s leading contenders.
Last season
A year ago, Metallurg pulled off a top signing, bringing in one of the League’s best playmakers, Vladimir Tkachyov. Head coach Andrei Razin put him on a line with Roman Kantserov and Dmitry Silantyev, and the trio really caught fire. Magnitogorsk went through the regular season with remarkable consistency, avoiding any extended losing streaks. As early as September, Metallurg moved into first place in the East and remained at the top of the conference throughout the entire regular season. As an added bonus, Magnitogorsk set a new League record for goals scored in a single regular season (252) and won the Continental Cup for the first time in club history. The one sour note was Silantyev’s serious injury, which broke up the team’s top line – Razin was unable to find an adequate replacement for the leading forward from within the club’s own ranks.
In the playoffs, Metallurg faced Sibir in the first round and won comfortably, taking the series 4-1. Magnitogorsk got past Torpedo by the same score in the second round: both opponents put up a fight, but no more than that. In the semifinals, Razin’s team faced a powerful and confident Ak Bars side, but this time they could not find a way through – losing the series 4-1 and being eliminated from the Gagarin Cup.
Recruitment
Arrivals:
Goalie: Yegor Zavragin (SKA, trade). Defensemen: Yegor Ganabin (Lada), Yegor Zelenov (SKA, trade), Vladislav Provolnev (CSKA). Forwards: Valentin Demchenko (tryout; CSK VVS, VHL), Stepan Starkov (Admiral, trade), Nathan Todd (Ak Bars).
Departures:
Goalies: Dzhelal-Ad-Din Amirbekov (Admiral, trade), Ilya Nabokov (Colorado, NHL), Albert Utkin. Defensemen: Kirill Zhukov (Admiral, trade), Alexei Maklyukov (SKA, trade), Robin Press (Kolner Haie, Germany). Forwards: Derek Barach (CSKA), Mikhail Grass (Admiral, trade), Roman Kantserov (Chicago, NHL), Arseny Kovgorenya, Alexander Petunin (Neftekhimik), Innokenty Rybin, Pavel Tyutnev (Sibir).
Top 3 signings
Metallurg snapped up one of the most attractive players on this year’s free-agent market – last season, Todd reached the Gagarin Cup Final with Ak Bars. In fact, in the series against Magnitogorsk, Nathan scored in both Game One and Game Four. A skilled forward with a good shot and the ability to deliver creative passes, he should feel right at home in the style of hockey played in Magnitogorsk and be able to make the most of his abilities. Metallurg is the Canadian’s fourth KHL club after Salavat Yulaev, Spartak and Ak Bars, and he made his presence felt at each of the previous three.
In the offseason, Metallurg lost two of its leading defensemen, namely Robin Press and Alexei Maklyukov. Provolnev is more of a replacement for the latter: a big defenseman who excels in physical battles, can kill penalties and get in the way of dangerous shots. Vladislav is not quite as offensively gifted as Press, but while playing for Severstal under Razin, Provolnev was a regular on the power play. Could Metallurg’s head coach once again bring out the defenseman’s creative talent?
By the age of 21, this goalie had already played 59 KHL games and won 26 of them. At SKA, Zavragin was more of an option among several, but at Metallurg he will certainly have a chance to compete for the starting job. With Ilya Nabokov heading overseas, Magnitogorsk was left with just Alexander Smolin, so strengthening the goaltending position was a key priority for the club’s management. The team knows how to work with young netminders (and players in general), and the examples of Nabokov and Smolin are proof of that.
Coaching
The upcoming season will be Andrei Razin’s fourth at the helm of Metallurg. In two of his previous three seasons, he led the team to medals: gold in 2023-2024 and bronze in 2025-2026. Under Razin, the team plays an entertaining, attack-minded brand of hockey, and last season’s scoring record speaks for itself. Razin has also overseen the rapid development of a number of young players: Danila Yurov, Nikita Grebyonkin, Ilya Nabokov, Roman Kantserov and others reached a new level under his guide. So far, the Razin-Metallurg partnership can be considered a clear success, in terms of results, quality of play, and the development of young players.
Goalies
The club is set for a partial rebuild of its goaltending corps: Zavragin has arrived to replace Nabokov. He is still very young, but already has solid KHL experience. The two will battle for the starting job, or perhaps split the workload fairly evenly. The third goaltender will most likely come from within the club’s system.
Defense
No major overhaul is expected here: Press and Maklyukov have been replaced numerically by Provolnev and Yegor Zelenov. The question is simply how the roles within the defensive corps will be redistributed: who will play on the penalty kill and who will be used on the power play. In Press, Metallurg lost a quality point man on the power play. Yegor Yakovlev remains an excellent option in that role, and last season Yakovlev and Press handled almost all of the team’s power-play duties. The club may look outside the organization for a replacement for Press, although there are also players who could try to take on his role, Provolnev or Valery Orekhov, for example.
Forwards
Metallurg’s biggest loss up front is Roman Kantserov, the team’s first center last season. One option is for Todd to take his place, as he has experience playing in the middle. As for the other additions up front, Stepan Starkov looks like an ideal fit for the team’s style of play on paper – he is fast, has good hands and possesses a good shot. Alexander Petunin and Derek Barach have also left the team; both were regulars in the lineup, so it will be interesting to see who steps up to take on their roles.
Youngsters
The club’s system has turned the “production” of first-team players into a well-oiled process. Magnitogorsk has plenty of promising youngsters, as well as players who have already made a name for themselves at the KHL level. The first category includes goaltender Yegor Kramzin, defensemen Yaroslav Mukhranov and Alexander Siryatsky, and forwards Igor Nechayev and Boris Osipovich. All of them have already made their KHL debuts, but have not played many games. The second category includes Andrei Kozlov and Mikhail Fyodorov. The latter stands out in particular: at just 19, he is already a regular in Metallurg’s lineup.
Expectations
Compared with last season, Metallurg has certainly not become weaker, so they enter the new campaign as one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference. Based on their roster, Magnitogorsk are clearly a top-three team in the conference alongside Avangard and Avtomobilist. And in the regular season, it would be surprising to see Razin’s team finish lower than third. In the playoffs, however, much will depend on their form at the time, the availability of injured players and tactical flexibility – it seems that in the series against Ak Bars, Metallurg lacked a Plan B in particular.
