Army castling: Vorobyov will replace Fedorov as head coach of CSKA

While Dynamo is thinking about changing the head coach, and Ak Bars is looking for a successor to Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, large-scale changes are already taking place in CSKA. And after such a disastrous season, this is not surprising. The Red-Blues began to storm from the very start of the regular season, following which they took only sixth place in the Western Conference table, and in the first round of the playoffs the team was unable to oppose Lokomotiv, winning only one meeting out of five. After this, it became clear: the army team could not avoid perestroika, but who could have imagined that Sergei Fedorov would be the first to leave his post. After all, it was under his leadership that they won two Gagarin Cups in a row.

Of course, against the backdrop of the fiasco this season, certain questions could not help but arise for Fedorov. It is obvious that the team, which has the most powerful selection of players in the league (based on the amount of salaries), did not demonstrate anything close to its maximum, and the coach was never able to motivate his players again. As a result, compared to the previous season, almost all CSKA stars looked worse, but if Konstantin Okulov, Mikhail Grigorenko and Nikita Nesterov only slightly lowered the bar, then Sergei Plotnikov performed noticeably below his capabilities and scored only 26 (13 + 13) points in 66 matches . Although a year ago I shot twice as much (23 + 24) - in 65 games. In addition, goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov, who returned from the army, did not return to his usual performance.

Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of experts criticized not Fedorov, but his players, who were obviously fed up with victories and no longer eager to fight for trophies at any cost. So, after the defeat from Lokomotiv, the hockey community called on the CSKA management to update the roster, but not to touch a specialist who had previously proven his professional suitability. But for unknown reasons, the army bosses took a different route and decided to part with the three-time Stanley Cup winner and appoint Ilya Vorobyov in his place.

“On Wednesday, a meeting of the supervisory board of PHC CSKA LLC was held, at which the results of the team’s performance in the 2023/24 season were summed up. As a result of the meeting, it was decided not to renew the three-year contract with the current CSKA head coach Sergei Fedorov, which expires on April 30, 2024. Starting from the 2024/25 season, CSKA will be headed by Ilya Vorobyov,” says an official statement on the club’s website.

As noted in the press service of the army team, Vorobyov has extensive coaching experience, as evidenced by his successful work both in the national and Olympic teams of Russia, and in KHL teams.

“In addition, he is well acquainted with the CSKA team, since he played twice in the final series of the Gagarin Cup against the army club. In one of these finals, he won and won gold medals... Ilya Vorobyov’s invaluable experience will allow CSKA to continue the glorious winning traditions of the army club,” the red-blue management added.

In turn, two-time Olympic medalist and now member of the army supervisory board Pavel Bure thanked Fedorov for his work and told why the decision was made not to renew the agreement with him.

“The results of this season were considered unsatisfactory by the club’s supervisory board. It’s time to move forward,” Match TV quotes Bure.

If we consider Vorobyov’s candidacy in a vacuum, then it would be extremely difficult to find a more worthy candidate for the position of CSKA helmsman. In 2015, he took charge of Metallurg and immediately led it to victory in the KHL playoffs, and a year later again reached the final, where the club lost only to star-studded SKA. In 2022, he repeated this achievement and only by chance was left without a trophy, losing to another army team led by Fedorov. In the interval between two “races” with Magnitogorsk, he tried his hand at the Russian national team and together with them took bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Slovakia. Although, led by Nikita Kucherov, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin and Andrei Vasilevsky, the team could count on more.

The question is how logical it was to put Vorobyov instead of Fedorov, without even giving him the opportunity to rehabilitate himself. Yes, we can assume that the arrival of a new coach will revive the hockey players and give them motivation (at least for a while), but what else? In terms of authority, few can compare with the three-time Stanley Cup winner, and Sergei has already demonstrated his ability to achieve results. And, unlike his replacement, he never lost in the decisive rounds of the playoffs. And this can speak both of his abilities as a motivator and of his ability to choose the right tactics.

Nevertheless, the hockey community greeted the news of the castling to CSKA quite calmly. This move was positively assessed by both two-time Olympic champion Boris Mikhailov and Valery Kamensky, who won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche.

“Vorobiev is an experienced coach, he has won trophies. The management of CSKA decided so, and experienced guys work there. Vorobyov loves attacking hockey, which is probably why the choice fell on him. But I don’t think that Sergei Viktorovich will leave the CSKA organization, he will help. A person with such vast experience and such coaching baggage cannot be let go,” Sport-Express quotes Kamensky as saying.

In turn, former Russian national team coach Vyacheslav Bykov expressed regret over Fedorov’s departure, and the forward’s ex-partner at Detroit, Vyacheslav Fetisov, looked at the situation from a philosophical point of view.

“First of all, I would like to thank Sergei Fedorov for his work: winning the Gagarin Cup two times in a row is not an easy task... But in professional sports there is an expression: a coach is appointed only to be fired sooner or later. I experienced this myself too. Only time will tell to what extent the right decision was made to change the specialist. Decision is made. What is there to discuss here? - Fetisov said.

In this regard, two more questions seem logical: will the restructuring at CSKA be limited solely to a change of helmsman and what awaits Fedorov? According to Sport-Express, he does not yet plan to work as a head coach next season, but does this mean that he will remain in the Muscovites’ structure? Yes, he had previously held the position of both general manager and selection specialist, but the former was subsequently abolished, and he left the latter in 2017.

According to Match TV, CSKA can indeed offer Fedorov a new position in the team structure. It is noted that this could happen within a week, but no final decision has been made yet.