A little more than a month remains before the start of the new season of the Continental Hockey League, but already now many people call Ak Bars the main contender for the Gagarin Cup.
In the summer, Ak Bars held an impressive re-entry campaign and strengthened the roster with several strongest performers at once, and also invited the titled Oleg Znark to the position of head coach.
As a result, Kazan is already expected to at least reach the finals of the Eastern Conference, and the current team is compared with the dream team of the 2004/05 championship.
Recent years have not been very successful for the most titled KHL team in history.
In 2018, Kazan won the Gagarin Cup for the third time, after which they overcame the barrier of the first round of the playoffs only twice.
In 2020, they defeated Neftekhimik at the start of the tournament, but the pandemic prevented them from continuing the fight for the trophy, and the next they reached the conference finals.
But there the future victor, Avangard, crossed their path.
The series ended in seven meetings and was remembered for the fact that none of the rivals won a single victory in the home arena.
In total, over the past four seasons, Kazan has been beaten by Omsk three times, and in two cases this happened at the beginning of the playoffs.
Apparently, it was the regular defeats in the confrontation with the principal rival and unsuccessful attempts to overcome the same barrier that made the management think about serious personnel changes.
So, already a month after the departure from the Gagarin Cup, the entire coaching staff of Ak Bars, headed by Dmitry Kvartalnov, was fired, after which the search for a replacement began.
Oleg Znarok, who recently held the position of coach-consultant in the Russian national team, was immediately named among the main candidates.
And although later the general manager of the club, Marat Valiullin, admitted that other specialists were on the shortlist, the 2018 Olympic champion in Pyeongchang received the position.
“We considered Vyacheslav Bykov, other free candidates and those coaches who were on the contract.
There were superficial conversations with Ilya Vorobyov, as he was busy in the playoffs.
It was incorrect to communicate with him or his representatives... We listened to Oleg Znark, saw his interest and came to a certain compromise on the contract issue.
Many people ask why the contract is for a year, and not for two or three, but we must, firstly, take a closer look at each other, understand the requirements.
During the season, we can re-sign the contract if all parties are satisfied, ”Valiullin told RIA Novosti.
The leadership of Ak Bars did not stop there and returned one of the most titled coaches in the history of Russian hockey to the club.
Zinetula Bilyaletdinov took the post of advisor to the executive director for the hockey vertical.
It is noted that he will work both with the adult team and with the VHL and MHL teams.
However, it was not the appointment of a new head coach and the return of Bilyaletdinov that attracted the most attention, but the invitation of a whole scattering of stars.
Of course, the most notorious was the signing of Alexander Radulov.
In the summer, his current agreement with Dallas expired, and he did not enter into a new one.
And this despite the fact that the media reported on his desire to remain in the overseas league.
But either in North America they were not interested in the 36-year-old striker, or he himself was not satisfied with the proposals.
In the last regular season, the veteran scored only 22 (4 + 18) points in 71 matches and set a personal anti-record for the number of points on average per game (0.31).
At the same time, in terms of utility, he did become one of the three worst Stars hockey players (-20): only Tyler Seguin (-21) and Jon Klingberg (-28) performed worse.
Taking into account that
However, Ak Bars did not stop there and lured away three leading Dynamo players at once, who started a solid restructuring.
In the summer, another winner of the 2018 Games Vadim Shipachev, Stanley Cup winner Vyacheslav Voinov, and Stanislav Galiev went from Moscow to Kazan.
Moreover, if the former joined the team in the status of free agents, then the latter, as part of the exchange, proceeded in the opposite direction to Jordan Wheel.
Last season, the Canadian became the second scorer of the "leopards" with 30 (12 + 18) points, which is significantly inferior to the figure of the Russian.
Galiev also became the second in the blue and white, but broke out with 25 goals and 17 assists.
Moreover, the 30-year-old striker himself insisted on returning to the club, for which he played in 2018-2021.
“If a player does not want to be on the team, then there is no point in holding on to him.
Galiev told me, head coach Alexei Kudashov, that he wanted to leave... Yes, we could go on principle, but we didn't consider it necessary to do so.
Why… a player who won't give 1000 per cent?
He is a highly paid hockey player, such guys should not serve a number, ”said Dynamo general manager Alexei Sopin.
Among other things, Ak Bars returned the young goalkeeper Amir Miftakhov, who played last year in the Tampa farm club, stole striker Kirill Semyonov from Avangard, and also acquired experienced defenders Dinar Khafizullin and Vasily Tokranov.
Among other things, another one-year agreement was signed by the legendary Danis Zaripov, which increased the competition to the limit in the attacking line, where high-quality performers sharpened for creation are recruited for three full-fledged links.
And this is provided that the 41-year-old veteran will not be able to play all the regular season matches.
Over the past two championships, he played only 59 out of 108 meetings.
An excess of attacking players showed up already in preparation for the championship.
So, the first three were formed by Shipachev, Radulov and the top scorer of Kazan last season Dmitry Kagarlitsky.
In conjunction with Zaripov were Artyom Galimov and Daniil Tarasov, Galiev was placed with two Kirills - Semyonov and Petrov.
And this despite the fact that the fourth combination also looks extremely powerful.
Against the general background, the silver medalist of the Beijing Olympics Dmitry Voronkov stands out, and the former player of the youth team Ilya Safonov and the local pupil Timofey Zhulin help him to put pressure on his rivals.
It is not yet known whether excessive focus on attack will become a problem for Ak Bars and how Znarok will solve it, but on paper the roster looks impressive.
Especially against the background of competitors who suffered significant losses.
The same CSKA was left without Ivan Fedotov, John Gilmour, Klas Dalbek and Sergey Andronov, and invited not the most stellar players to replace it, SKA said goodbye to half of the squad, including Andrey Kuzmenko, Kirill Marchenko and Yaroslav Askarov, who went to conquer the NHL.
"Dynamo" started a revolution, "Tractor" lost most of the strong legionnaires, and the selection of performers of "Salavat Yulaev" does not seem so powerful.
Against the general background, only Metallurg, which was limited to minimal changes, and the same Avangard stand out.
Even if the Omsk people could not keep Shimon Grubets, Alexei Emelin and Nikolai Prokhorkin, they found a worthy replacement for them.
Defender Christian Yarosh and forward Vladimir Tkachev arrived from the NHL, the disgraced Reed Boucher returned, and Alex Broadhurst, who scored 34 (11 + 23) points in 41 matches, arrived from HIFK.
But even taking this into account, Ak Bars looks more bright.
However, the stellar line-up has never been a guarantee of success, and the Kazan people themselves know this firsthand.
In 2005, due to the lockout, many masters from the NHL came to Russia, the lion's share of whom chose to go to the capital of Tatarstan.
As a result, Bilyaletdinov got at his disposal Alexei Kovalev, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vyacheslav Kozlov, Alexei Morozov, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Dani Heatley, Nikolai Antropov, William Nylander, Alexei Zhitnik, Darius Kasparaitis and Ruslan Salei, and the legendary Nikolay Khabibulin.
According to rumors, the team's salary budget was about $50-55 million, but this did not help them become national champions.
In the first round, the dream team was beaten by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.