KHL - Chernyshev Division - Amur Khabarovsk Амур

Amur Khabarovsk were founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk; they only adopted its current name in 1996, a name that comes from the nearby river Amur. By their location in the Russian Far East, the team is pretty isolated from every other team in the KHL, making rivalries difficult; the nearest KHL team is Admiral Vladivostok. Still, the team is very popular among Khabarovsk citizens, and despite its usual poor results, the team keeps being highly successful at the gates. For a long time a lower division dweller, Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989, earning promotion to the upper level. In 1996, Khabarovsk were promoted to the Russian Superleague. A relegation to the Vysshaya Liga occurred in 2004 when the mining company that funds the club had financial difficulties. The Tigers bounced back to the top level in 2006. That same financial crisis forced the team's reserve squad, the Golden Amur Khabarovsk, to withdraw from the Asia League where it played for the 2004-05 season. The team finished the season and took part in the playoffs, however; they finished third in the regular season standings and failed to reach the playoffs finals. In 2008, Khabarovsk were one of the 24 founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League. The team played the league's inaugural game on September 2 against Dinamo Riga at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,100 people. Unfortunately for the fans, they lost 4-2 to the Latvian side. Riga and the Tigers were playing back-to-back games in Khabarovsk, however, and in the second match, Amur won 7-6 in a tied game that went to a shootout. The 2008-09 season didn't prove to be very successful for the Tigers. The team was plagued with injuries - in October only, 11 players were side-lined, including imports Kyle Wanvig and Bryce Lampman. The Tigers needed to strengthen their squad, and therefore offered a contract to Carolina Hurricanes's Matt Murley, which resulted in a controversy sometimes compared to Alexander Radulov's, even though there are many differences. Murley's signing didn't prove beneficial for Amur though, as he only contributed 8 points to a fairly impotent offence that scored only 111 goals. Veterans Oleg Belkin and Peter Nylander were Amur's top goal scorers with 11 goals each; Belkin was top scorer with a meager 24 points in 50 games. Amur's defence was better, with regular defencemen Vasily Turkovsky and Viktor Kostyuchenok even managing to finish the season with a +3 and +2 record, respectively. But overall, the season was disappointing for the Tigers, with a 20th place, 15 wins and 60 points.
Things barely improved in 2009-10. Amur finished 21st, out of playoffs again, this time again with 60 points and only 12 wins in regular time (plus three in overtime and six in the shootouts). Former Montreal Canadiens' and Columbus Blue Jackets' David Ling did the best in offense with 32 points, while Alexei Kopeikin and Ruslan Khasanshin were the best goal scorers with respectively 16 and 14 goals. All in all, it's only 129 goals that the team scored, 18 better than the previous season, but still fourth worst in the league. Oleg Belkin had to miss the whole season, while Peter Nylander left the team after ten game to go back in Sweden, joining Timrå IK of the Elitserien. The defence was not as solid as the previous season, with Turkovsky having retired and Kostyuchenok traded to HC Spartak Moscow after just 14 games. The result was 187 goals against, 29 more than the previous season. Former NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Nolan Pratt ended up being the fourth defenceman on the team in icetime and finished the season with 11 points and a -14 +/- rating. Fortunately, despite playing a disappointing season, Khabarovsk could still count on the 4th highest average attendance in the league, with an average of 7,100 fans per game.


KHL Record 
2008-09 - 20th
2009-10 - 21st
2010-11 - 22nd
2011-12 - 12th
2012-13 - 25th
2013-14 - 28th
2014-15 - 28th

Roster

12	forward	Akhmetov Rafael	31.01.1989	Russia	30.04.2017
74	defense	Alexeyev Sergei	01.06.1994	Russia	30.04.2017
52	goaltender	Alikin Evgeny	18.10.1994	Russia	30.04.2017
13	forward	Bashkirov Ruslan	07.03.1989	Russia	30.04.2016
28	forward	Byvaltsev Alexei	20.02.1994	Russia	30.04.2017
10	forward	Goroshansky Alexander	28.03.1986	Russia	30.04.2016
87	forward	Grachyov Evgeny	21.02.1990	Russia	30.04.2017
8	defense	Kurbatov Evgeny	18.05.1988	Russia	30.04.2017
51	forward	Litovchenko Vyacheslav	07.01.1990	Russia	30.04.2016
19	forward	Miklik Michel	31.07.1982	Slovakia	30.04.2016
34	goaltender	Pechursky Alexander	04.06.1990	Russia	30.04.2017
5	defense	Shulakov Vitaly	09.05.1983	Russia	30.04.2016
33	forward	Sokolov Konstantin	12.05.1991	Russia	30.04.2017
14	forward	Tarasov Dmitry	13.02.1979	Russia	30.04.2016
71	forward	Ushenin Vladislav	12.05.1992	Russia	30.04.2017
79	forward	Ushenin Vyacheslav	12.05.1992	Russia	30.04.2017
58	defense	Veryovkin Maxim	12.01.1990	Russia	30.04.2017
98	forward	Zheleznov Mikhail	15.02.1991	Russia	30.04.2016

Platinum Arena
Dikopoltseva st. 12, Khabarovsk, Russia, 680013