KHL - Kharlamov Division - Ак Барс Kazan

Originally founded as Mashstroy Kazan in 1956, the name was later changed to SC Uritskogo Kazan when it entered the Soviet Class B league in 1958. It was promoted to Soviet Class A2, where it gained promotion to the top tier of Soviet hockey. Kazan's performance was respectable, starting the season by winning 6 out of 19 games against the best of the Soviet teams before falling away in the second half of the season and was demoted. From this point onward, SC Uritskogo Kazan established a reputation as a consistently strong team in the second tier leagues of the USSR. Renowned as a high scoring team, Kazan averaged over four goals a game throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Twice they won the USSR League (lower tiers), being named Champion of Russia in 1962 and 1976.
SC Uritskogo Kazan's most successful period occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The team was led by Russia's Sergei Stolbun; scoring ace Gennady Maslov (current coach of Ak Bars-2 Kazan), who enjoyed a short stint with the Soviet Wings and set a club record of 140 points in 76 games in 1982–83; and Ravil Shavaleev, who was regarded as one of the finest defenseman to ever come out of Tatarstan. During this period, Kazan was consistently among the top teams in the league but failed year after year to gain promotion to the top flight of Soviet hockey.

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Uritskogo Kazan became Itil Kazan in 1990 and participated in the IHL. Itil was only mildly successful, narrowly avoiding relegation to the Vysshaya Liga in 1991 and 1992. It was following the establishment of the Russian Superleague (RSL) in 1996 that the golden age of hockey in Tatarstan began. Renamed Ak Bars Kazan after the traditional symbol of the Tatars, the snow leopard. Benefiting from the resources boom in the Urals, Ak Bars began its history in fine form, finishing first in their respective divisions in 1997 and 1998 along with winning the RSL in 1998. During this period, Kazan lacked the high scoring of their predecessors but regardless continued to be a dominant team in Russian hockey, finishing runners-up in 2000 and 2002. During this period, Kazan developed players such as Denis Arkhipov and Danis Zaripov.
In the 2004–05 season, Kazan signed 11 NHL players, including Russian superstars Alexei Kovalev and Ilya Kovalchuk and Canadians Vincent Lecavalier and Dany Heatley, in an attempt to celebrate Kazan's 1000th anniversary with a championship. They did not succeed, however, as a lack of continuity and chemistry saw them finish in fourth place and were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Since then, Ak Bars Kazan dominated the RSL, winning the league in 2006 on the back of a brilliant performance from Aleksey Morozov. In 2007, Kazan paced the league with 35 wins and 214 goals in 54 games before falling at the final hurdle to Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Ak Bars has been led in recent years by the dominant "ZZM" line of Sergei Zinovjev, Danis Zaripov, and Aleksey Morozov, who have established themselves as one of the most dominant lines in recent history. Combined with veterans such as Vitaly Proshkin and Vladimir Vorobiev, and imports, such as Ray Giroux, Petr Čajánek, and Jukka Hentunen, Kazan has remained one of the top teams in the league. However, they have been at times criticized for lacking consistency and relying too heavily on star players such as Morozov.
Ak Bars Kazan are strong rivals with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and the neighboring team of Salavat Yulaev Ufa. However, Ak Bars was the strongest rival with Dynamo Moscow in 1990s. The team's name, Ak Bars, is derived from the official symbol of Tatarstan, translated as Snow Leopard, a traditional symbol which has its origins with the Barsil, one of the Tatar tribes.


Honours
Russia:
Champions (2) - 1998, 2006;
Runners-up (3) - 2000, 2002, 2007.
KHL:
2008-09 - 1st
2009-10 - 1st
2010-11 - 6th
2011-12 - 6th
2012-13 - 4th
2013-14 - 10th
2014-15 - 2nd
European Cup winners - 2007.
Continental Cup winners - 2008.


Roster

48	defense	Adamchuk Kirill	24.05.1994	Russia
91	forward	Arkhipov Dmitry	02.02.1993	Russia	30.04.2016
51	forward	Azevedo Justin	01.04.1988	Canada
-	forward	Boiko Vladislav	15.12.1995	Russia
69	forward	Burmistrov Alexander	21.10.1991	Russia	Moved to NHL
-	defense	Daloga Marek	10.03.1989	Slovakia
4	defense	Denisov Vladimir	29.06.1984	Russia
77	goaltender	Garipov Emil	15.08.1991	Russia	30.04.2018
12	forward	Glukhov Mikhail	13.05.1988	Russia	30.04.2016
28	forward	Golubev Denis	11.07.1991	Russia
-	goaltender	Kaukinen Jerry	04.06.1994	Finland
22	defense	Korneyev Konstantin	05.06.1984	Russia	30.04.2016
-	defense	Kostalek Jan	17.02.1995	Czech Republic
89	forward	Lukoyanov Artyom	31.01.1989	Russia	30.04.2016
98	forward	Malykhin Fyodor	13.11.1990	Russia	30.04.2017
10	forward	Mirnov Igor	19.09.1984	Russia	30.04.2017
45	forward	Moller Oscar	22.01.1989	Sweden	30.04.2016
31	goaltender	Nilsson Anders	19.03.1990	Sweden
34	forward	Obukhov Dmitry	09.07.1983	Russia	30.04.2017
59	goaltender	Perevozchikov Denis	02.02.1993	Russia
36	defense	Rylov Yakov	15.01.1985	Russia	30.04.2017
-	goaltender	Rynnas Jussi	22.05.1987	Finland
-	forward	Shakhvorostov Viktor	30.04.1995	Russia
-	defense	Shestopalov Alexei	30.09.1993	Russia
65	goaltender	Sidorov Maxim	03.04.1996	Russia
-	defense	Sidorov Mikhail	25.06.1997	Russia
-	forward	Sjogren Mattias	27.11.1987	Sweden
15	forward	Svitov Alexander	03.11.1982	Russia	30.04.2016
55	forward	Tkachyov Vladimir	05.10.1993	Russia
24	defense	Tokranov Vasily	02.08.1989	Russia
18	forward	Varnakov Mikhail	01.03.1985	Russia	30.04.2018
33	defense	Yarullin Albert	03.05.1993	Russia
7	defense	Zakharchuk Stepan	30.11.1986	Russia

Arena
Tatneft Arena - Carl Marx st. 71, Kazan, Russia, 420115. The capacity of the arena is 10,000 and was opened in 2005. The Arena was chosen recently to host the annual Türkvizyon Song Contest 2014.


It’s feeling like the end of an era in Kazan. The summer departure of veteran defensemen Evgeny Medvedev and Ilya Nikulin (left) ends a long-established blue line combination that has worked under head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov with Ak Bars and the Russian national team.

Nikulin in particular has been a hugely influential figure, not just for his defensive play but also for his habit of popping up with crucial goals. Fans throughout the KHL will surely recall him as a player to be feared on the power play; the later in the game and the more desperate the situation, the more potent his threat seemed to become. 

In Kazan, fans are following Nikulin’s bid for an NHL deal with interest: many are still hoping that he might come back ‘home’ to Tatarstan if things don’t work out across the Atlantic, but Bilyaletdinov himself is looking to the future.

“I can understand why players like Medvedev and Nikulin want to try and play in the NHL,” he told Sovietsky Sport during the current pre-season tournament in Nizhny Novgorod. “It’s a good league, and it’s an honor to play there. I’m sure Ilya [Nikulin] will make the right choice and will get his contract over there.” 

That future will also be without Alexander Burmistrov and Kirill Petrov, two young forwards heading to the NHL next season. But it will involve plenty more of Bilyaletdinov’s trademark work on special teams: a rigorous, systematic approach to extracting maximum value from the power play was still apparent in Nizhny as Ak Bars downed Salavat Yulaev 5-4 thanks to four power play goals and one short-handed effort. 

New faces have arrived: Mattias Sjogren, part of the Swedish squad at the last two World Championships, arrives from Linkopings to beef up the offense. NHL-bound goalie Anders Nilsson is set to be replaced by incoming Finn Jussi Rynnas, back in Europe after failing to establish himself at the Dallas Stars. There’s also a new generation of Kazan defensemen emerging. 

Eduard Nasybullin is back after a season in the QMJHL with the Oceanics. The 19-year-old is hotly tipped as a star of the future and has the chance to show why now that slots have opened up on the blue line at the Tatneft Arena. Albert Yarullin (right), late of Atlant, is another player returning to his hockey ‘birthplace’ with hopes of establishing himself as a regular. 

But the big challenges are likely to revolve around the familiar faces on the roster. Will Konstantin Korneyev and Vladimir Denisov, two experienced internationals, step up to fill the roles vacated by Medvedev and Nikulin? Can Oscar Moller continue the hot scoring streak that saw him potting GWGs aplenty during the play-offs? Will Justin Azevedo finally fire this time, and can Igor Mirnov and captain Alexander Svitov shoulder the scoring burden in the absence of Burmistrov and Petrov? 

Ak Bars’ prospects of improving on last year’s Gagarin Cup final defeat will hinge on how well Bilyaletdinov and his men can find answers to those questions.