KHL - Bobrov Division Preview

A look at the Bobrov Division:
SpartakLast season: failed to make playoffs
Spartak struggled for consistency in its first season back in the KHL but will hope for better as the club celebrates its 70th anniversary. The arrival of the hugely experienced Dmitry Kalinin from SKA should add some valuable resilience on the blue line while Ryan Stoa – once something of a lynchpin at Metallurg Novokuznetsk – could add some valuable muscle on offense. There’s also a new-look goaltending brigade, with Sweden’s Markus Svensson coming from Skelleftea and Nikita Bespalov seeking to secure a #1 spot after being the understudy to Alexander Salak at Sibir.
JokeritLast season: lost in first round of playoffs
Jukka Jalonen replaces Erkka Westerlund at the helm in Helsinki – and as usual Jokerit is having to address the departure of some big players. Danish D-man Philip Larsen and Finnish forward Ere Sallinen are both crossing the Atlantic, veteran goalgetters Juhamatti Aaltonen and Niko Kapanen are moving to the Finnish Liiga and prolific Brandon Kozun will be at Lokomotiv next season. Incoming talent from the Finnish league will bear much of that burden, but the arrival of another Danish defenseman, Oliver Lauridsen, promises much. The 27-year-old former Flyers prospect enjoyed a successful campaign last time around, helping Frolunda to the Swedish title and Champions Hockey League gold before reaching a World Championship quarter final with Denmark. Olympic bronze medallist Sakari Salminen makes a KHL return with Jokerit having previously spent two seasons at Torpedo.
Jukka Jalonen is back in the KHL – and the Finnish coach may have a point to prove. The 53-year-old from Riihimaki takes over the reins at Jokerit hoping to maintain his record of claiming gold with every Finnish team he’s coached. That’s a record that goes back to 2006 when he led HPK to the SM Liiga title, and also includes World Championship triumphs with Finland’s senior team in 2011 and the juniors in January 2016. Jalonen once coached the Jokerit-owned Newcastle Jesters between 2000-01 in the old British Superleague.


A session with SKA
But the only time he failed to win the biggest available prize was his earlier stint in the KHL. Jalonen’s worked behind the bench at SKA St. Petersburg, where he arrived in December 2012 following the dismissal of Milos Riha. SKA topped the regular season table that year, but fell to Dynamo Moscow in the Western Conference final; Jalonen took charge for the whole of the following season, taking the team to second place in the Western Conference and losing out in the second round of the play-offs to Lokomotiv. Vyacheslav Bykov was hired in his place and SKA finally claimed its long-awaited championship.
Since then Jalonen has stayed out of club hockey, dividing his time between TV work and coaching Finland’s U20 roster. But the lure of Jokerit was too strong.
“It feels really good to be coming back to club hockey,” Jalonen told Finnish broadcaster Yle Urheilu. “I’ve followed Jokerit’s progress closely in the KHL and it’s played some really good hockey. We want to continue that and aim even higher.”


The Finnish style
Under Jalonen’s predecessor, Erkka Westerlund, Jokerit offered a masterclass in the traditional strengths of Finnish hockey. Disciplined, well-drilled, confident in its game and seeking to execute the same counter-attacking game plan against all opposition, the Helsinki team performed strongly in both its regular season campaigns in the KHL. But in the play-offs things did not go so smoothly: against Torpedo last season Westerlund’s team seemed to be bullied out of the game by a robust, physical opponent, crashing out in the first round.
While Jalonen is not proposing to tear up Westerlund’s playbook in the coming campaign, he is aware of a need to add more physicality to Jokerit’s roster. “KHL hockey forces teams to battle hard, especially in the play-offs,” he said. “We need players who can move well and we’ll be looking to add more physical strength and more power skaters to the team.
“Of course we still need skill, vision and scoring power, but if we can be stronger on the ice than we were last year that can only improve our team.”


A match-up to watch
Jalonen’s history with SKA – and with Oleg Znarok’s Dynamo Moscow team – add extra spice to this season’s games between Jokerit and the Petersburg team. It was Znarok’s Dynamo that ended Jalonen’s first play-off campaign, with the Moscow team going on to lift the Gagarin Cup. And some pundits in Finland believe that the disappointment of being sacked by SKA was one of the factors that kept Jalonen out of club hockey for two years before taking on the Jokerit job.
Now the teams will expect to battle it out for top spot in the Bobrov division. It promises to be a clash of cultures: SKA’s big money budget has funded the signing of Pavel Datsyuk and Viktor Tikhonov, adding to the NHL experience supplied by Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Voynov. Jokerit, as Westerlund often observed, runs on more modest financial resources and relies on unearthing gems from Finland’s domestic programs or the AHL. Perhaps the most successful of those players, Steve Moses, was a sensation in his debut season in the KHL, scoring a record 36 goals for Jokerit. Now he’s at SKA, adding another contribution to the rivalry that is growing across the Gulf of Finland.
SKALast season: lost in Conference final
By far the most headline-grabbing team in the close season, SKA has upped the ante for the coming campaign. Signing a clutch of players from the NHL, led by the great Pavel Datsyuk, sounded a warning to the rest of the league. Hiring Oleg Znarok to coach a stellar roster ensures that there should be no danger of big-name egos getting out of hand. The Petersburg team mounted a good-looking defense of the Gagarin Cup last season … right up until it was swept by CSKA in the Conference final. This time around, it’s serving as a serious contender for KHL hardware and a base club for the Russian national team – that double responsibility could be the only thing to inhibit such a powerful line-up. Barring a calamity when Znarok takes time out to lead Russia to the World Cup in the latter half of September, it’s hard to imagine SKA will fail to lead from the front in the West.
Dinamo MinskLast season: failed to make playoffs
One of the most passionate hockey cities in the KHL is still looking for the formula that can send Dinamo deep into the playoffs. This time Craig Woodcroft is the coach entrusted with finding the right blend. He knows his Belarusian hockey after two World Championship campaigns as assistant coach for the national team, and he’s recruited some big-name local talents in the form of D-man Kirill Gotovets and forward Sergei Kostitsyn. He’s also picked up two guys who have gone all the way to the grand final on an unfancied team - Marc-Andre Gragnari and David Ullstrom achieved it with Lev Prague in 2014. With a couple of new arrivals from North America in the shape of goalie Ben Scrivens and defenseman Rob Klinkhammer, there’s a lot of potential in Minsk – if the new roster can bed down in time.
Dinamo Minsk is rebuilding its roster after the disappointment of missing out on last season’s playoffs. But the team is bringing in plenty of players who are more than familiar with hockey in the Belarusian capital.
It starts with newly recruited head coach Craig Woodcroft, who arrives after serving as assistant coach for Team Belarus at the last two World Championships. That experience undoubtedly gave him an insight into the passion of the local fans, while his role in Belarus’ run to the quarter-finals in 2015 means he starts with the confidence of the Minsk public.
He’s also recruited one of Belarus’ most successful players – forward Sergei Kostitsyn has moved from Torpedo to play in his homeland, sealing the deal on August 1. The younger of the Kostitsyn brothers has almost 400 NHL appearances under his belt, tallying 187 points for Montreal and Nashville. He’s also played KHL hockey for Avangard and Ak Bars – and expects to continue playing at a high level in the coming season.

Sergei Kostitsyn

“I had a few options but, like any player, I want to be involved in the playoffs and not finish my season in February. So I chose Dinamo because we’re building a strong team here,” he told the club’s website. Kostitsyn has worked with Woodcroft in the Belarusian national team and added that they had met a few times over the summer while the head coach outlined his vision for the club.
Another experienced Belarus international, Kirill Gotovets, is also back in his homeland after four years of college hockey at Cornell and two seasons with the Rockford IceHogs. A solid defenseman and a familiar face in recent World Championships, Gotovets made his Dinamo debut in last week’s 3-1 win over Ugra. Coach Woodcroft commented: “With Kirill we knew exactly what we were going to get – and he lived up to those expectations.”
Canadian goalie Ben Scrivens has also played in Belarus – but never at Arena Minsk. He was Canada’s goalie during the 2014 World Championship, but a quarter final defeat against Finland meant that the Maple Leafs never got away from Chizhovka, the second venue for the tournament.

Marc-Andre Gragnani

The goalie, who made 144 appearances for Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal since making his NHL debut in 2011, had mixed feelings about his tournament – but gave Minsk the thumbs up. “It was a great event but I wish I could have played better,” he told Belarusian sports paper Pressboll. “They gave me a chance to represent my country, but it wasn’t easy to get used to the big ice so quickly. Even so, I really enjoyed the city.”
Scrivens holds an NHL record for the most saves in a shut-out after stopping 59 shots to blank San Jose in January 2014. Now he’s looking forward to a new challenge on his first assignment for a European club. “Russians are renowned for their skills,” he said. “Technique, possession of the puck, powerful shooting. I’m expecting to see a lot of highly skilled individuals on the ice, which is not something we see a lot in North America.
Scrivens is joined by Rob Klinkhammer, a former team-mate in Edmonton. The 29-year-old defenseman is another player preparing for his first season in Europe after several seasons in the North American game.

David Ullstrom

Two further Dinamo signings come with plenty of KHL experience, though. Marc-Andre Gragnani and David Ullstrom were both part of the Lev Prague team that stormed to the 2014 Gagarin Cup final. Swedish forward Ullstrom has been in the KHL ever since, playing for Severstal and Sibir. D-man Gragnani, from Quebec, moved to Berne after Lev folded and spent last season with the Devils organization, playing four NHL games for New Jersey and scoring 31 AHL points with Albany.
Dinamo RigaLast season: failed to make playoffs
Another arena where support outstrips success, the Latvian capital is hoping for an improvement on last season’s disappointment. Unusually, Dinamo has opted to make GM Normunds Sejejs the head coach for the coming season. Sejejs has been instrumental in the modern-day history of Latvia’s biggest sports club, perhaps doing more than most to resurrect the famous name in time to join the KHL. But even he admits he’s taking a huge risk by combining the demanding roles of GM and head coach. The transfer activity came in a rush – 24 contracts were concluded in a single day last week. Among the new arrivals were Georgijs Pujacs, a vastly experienced D-man who played at the Olympics for Latvia and helped Avangard to the Gagarin Cup final in 2012, and forward Colton Gillies, who has 154 NHL appearances on his CV. The pair arrive from Slovakia, where they were playing for Banska Bystrica.
SlovanLast season: lost in first round of playoffs
Milos Riha showed that he still had the old magic as he conjured a playoff spot for Slovan last season, pushing CSKA rather harder than the 0-4 scoreline suggested back in March. But the club has been ruthless in the summer and it’s a new-look roster that will aim to start winning post-season games this time around. Kyle Chipchura is the big new arrival, coming from Arizona with almost 500 career NHL games. The 30-year-old Canadian center will be expected to lead Slovan’s production at the head of a revamped offense. Radek Smolenak, Medvescak’s top scorer last time, is one new signing while Jonathan Cheechoo continues his KHL tour after stints in Zagreb and Minsk. Defensively the loss of Cam Barker (Barys) and the retirement of Lubo Vishnovsky will leave gaps in front of Justin Pogge, the Canadian goalie who arrives from Farjestad, Sweden.
MedvescakLast season: failed to make playoffs
At first sight it looks like another summer of frenetic activity in Zagreb. On closer inspection, though, Medvescak’s preparations have been rather more calm. Head coach Gordie Dwyer remains in place and while there has been extensive transfer action, many of the players coming in are returning to the club after short spells elsewhere in Europe. Dwyer has spoken at length of the need for Croatia’s KHL representative to quickly forge a strong team identity on the ice – and he hopes that this, combined with the typically intimidating atmosphere at Dom Sportova, can push the team back into playoff contention. Francis Pare, a Gagarin Cup winner at Metallurg, is a familiar figure in this league, while fellow forward Yann Sauve could be one to watch after impressing in pre-season.