KHL season preview

[Jouko-Pouko]

The KHL season starts tomorrow (yes, they start very early), so I figured I'd wrote a few words for those of you who don't follow it regularly. The KHL has four teams that have a realistic chance of winning the Gagarin Cup, and the reigning champion SKA is the biggest favorite of them all. The KHL doesn't even know what parity means, it's all about who has the most money.

SKA St. Petersburg faced some big losses this summer when Shipachyov and Dadonov decided to make the jump to the NHL but they still have names like Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, Nikita Gusev, Sergei Shirokov, Alexander Barabanov, Sergei Kalinin, Sergei Plotnikov, Nikolai Prokhorkin and Viktor Tikhonov at forward. On 'D', they have names like Vyacheslav Voynov, Anton Belov, David Rundblad, Maxim Chudinov, Patrik Hersley, Vladislav Gavrikov, Yegor Rykov and Artyom Zub. They also have Mikko Koskinen and Igor Shestyorkin in goal which is a great veteran-youngster pair for them. This might be the season when Shestyorkin takes over as the starting goalie for the team. This team is so stacked it's not even fair for the other teams.

Igor Eronko‏ @IgorEronko

Sergei Kalinin says SKA would beat both #Marlies and #NJDevils #KHL

SKA's biggest challenge in the Western Conference is CSKA Moskva. They are a very interesting young team as they have names like Kirill Kaprizov, Valeri Nichushkin, Mikhail Grigorenko, Maxim Shalunov, Sergei Shumakov, Kirill Petrov, Andrei Svetlakov, Ivan Telegin and Roman Lyubimov. But their 'D' isn't nearly as strong since their best players are likely going to be Alexei Marchenko and Nikita Nesterov. In goal, they have Ilya Sorokin as their starter and Lars Johansson as the backup. Johansson had some hype after a great SHL season but he didn't do well in the AHL, so I'm not expecting much from him. CSKA added a lot of scoring depth this summer (Kaprizov, Grigorenko, Shalunov, Shumakov) and they already had the best regular season record last season, so expectations are very high right now. Kaprizov is ready to explode offensively this season when he gets to play on a real contender.

On the Eastern Conference side, the biggest favorite has to be Metallurg Magnitogorsk. They made it to the Gagarin Cup final last season and have a good chance of repeating that. Their offense is lead by Sergei Mozyakin (who might just be the best player in the KHL) and Jan Kovar. Oskar Osala provides good secondary scoring but all in the the lack of depth is their biggest issue. Their best D-man is likely going to be the 35-year-old veteran Denis Denisov but their biggest strength is in goaltending where they have Vasili Kosheckin and Ilya Samsonov (another great veteran-youngster pair). Samsonov might be ready to take over the starting goalie position but Koscheckin is a really good goalie who won't give up his spot easily.

The 4th and final team to watch this season is Ak Bars Kazan. They have names like Vladimir Tkachyov, Stanislav Galiev, Jiri Sekac and Anton Lander at forward but their biggest star by far is Andrei Markov who instantly turns this team into a contender. In goal they have Emil Garipov who has been a solid goalie for a few years now. The Eastern Conference isn't as good as the Western Conference, so there's room for a surprise team like this to make it to the Gagarin Cup final if they play well together. Their chances of actually winning the Cup are pretty low, though.

So there you have it - the four teams to watch for the upcoming KHL season. And if you're too lazy to follow four teams, then just follow the two Western Conference powerhouses, SKA and CSKA. If we just look at the names on paper, we could hand the Gagarin Cup to SKA already now. But luckily hockey is a team sport where the best players don't always equal to being the best team, so let's wait and see how things unfold. Tomorrow will be a great start because the season starts with a game between SKA and CSKA, so the two biggest favorites face each other in the first game of the season. That's how you start a season!

[Magicstew]

Nice info Jouko, that may be a bit of a downfall for KHL if teams with most money win all the time. Always try to find the next Russian coming to the NHL.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Nice info Jouko, that may be a bit of a downfall for KHL if teams with most money win all the time. Always try to find the next Russian coming to the NHL.

From the names I mentioned, keep an eye on Barabanov, Prokhorkin, Gavrikov, Rykov, Zub and Svetlakov. I think those guys could have a future in the NHL if they decide to go for it, and they're still young enough to give it a try. And obviously some of the better known guys like Gusev and Kaprizov as well but everyone knows those names already.

They have a so called "soft" salary cap in the KHL, meaning you have to pay some fees if you go over the cap. Rich teams don't care, they're happy to pay whatever is needed to win. But that's also a good thing for the league because other teams have very little money, so they're getting some of that money from the rich teams which allows them to actually have a team in the KHL. But yeah, the league is definitely doomed the way they're spending money and not making any. If the big sponsors decide to stop wasting money, then the whole league will be bankrupt. The KHL is not running with fan money, it's purely a sponsor based operation.

And they're expanding like crazy. They have teams in Finland, Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus and China. They have two teams on the Eastern edge of Russia; Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are actually closer to Vancouver than they are to Finland. For the smaller budget teams, those 10-12 hour flights are way too expensive. I know the travel distances are pretty bad in the NHL as well but at least they have their finances in order.

It's just not a league that's built to last but they're hoping to get fans excited before they run out of sponsorship money and then maybe they can get the league running on its own. But they're probably at least 10 years away from that if it ever happens.

[Mr. Guru]

From the names I mentioned, keep an eye on Barabanov, Prokhorkin, Gavrikov, Rykov, Zub and Svetlakov. I think those guys could have a future in the NHL if they decide to go for it, and they're still young enough to give it a try. And obviously some of the better known guys like Gusev and Kaprizov as well but everyone knows those names already.

They have a so called "soft" salary cap in the KHL, meaning you have to pay some fees if you go over the cap. Rich teams don't care, they're happy to pay whatever is needed to win. But that's also a good thing for the league because other teams have very little money, so they're getting some of that money from the rich teams which allows them to actually have a team in the KHL. But yeah, the league is definitely doomed the way they're spending money and not making any. If the big sponsors decide to stop wasting money, then the whole league will be bankrupt. The KHL is not running with fan money, it's purely a sponsor based operation.

And they're expanding like crazy. They have teams in Finland, Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus and China. They have two teams on the Eastern edge of Russia; Vladivostok and Khabarovsk are actually closer to Vancouver than they are to Finland. For the smaller budget teams, those 10-12 hour flights are way too expensive. I know the travel distances are pretty bad in the NHL as well but at least they have their finances in order.

It's just not a league that's built to last but they're hoping to get fans excited before they run out of sponsorship money and then maybe they can get the league running on its own. But they're probably at least 10 years away from that if it ever happens.

Its nuts how fast their expanding. I didn't know that it was running on sponsorship money though.

And soft salary cap is the way to go. Baseball does it too. Someone correct me if Im wrong but is it a 100% tax in baseball? If you go 1M over you owe 1M in fees?

How good would this be for the NHL? Make it a 200% tax or something even more! Make it something that all owners would agree too. You're just taking from the rich and spreading the wealth. Why would a small market owner say no to that?

[Polecon]

Thanks for the post J-P

[Axeman33]

Good read. I don't follow the KHL at all but still interesting to see some of the names over that way.

Thanks!

[Rylant]

I often wonder if normal people in Russia in KHL Fantasy Hockey Leagues think of some of their players as "Potential NHL Flight Risks"...

Rylant

[Jouko-Pouko]

A few notes from the first game between SKA and CSKA (SKA won 4-2). I know you guys are bored since there's no NHL hockey available right now, so why not?

1) If SKA lines stay something like this, I'd expect disappointing offensive totals from Nikita Gusev and good numbers from Sergei Plotnikov. Last season, Gusev was playing on the top line and top PP unit with Shipachyov and Dadonov but in this game he was demoted to 3rd line and 2nd PP unit whereas Plotnikov was playing on the top line and top PP unit with Datsyuk and Kovalchuk. If this continues, don't get fooled by their numbers - they're still the same players they were last year. But it was difficult to even notice Gusev in this game.

2) In case you didn't know already, Kirill Kaprizov is amazing. He joined a new team this summer (CSKA) and he looked like the most dangerous offensive player from either side in this match-up between the top two teams in the league. CSKA only scored two goals but Kaprizov had primary assists to both of them. And just to show that size isn't an issue, he threw a couple of hits as well. It's easier to compare him against former NHL players like Nichushkin and Grigorenko when they all play on the same team - and Kaprizov looked much better than either of those guys. Let's not forget that he's only 20 years old.

3) I now know why the Jackets worked so hard to get Vladislav Gavrikov signed this summer (but failed because of the Olympics). He joined the best team in the league (SKA) and already looks like one of their best D-men at the age of 21 (turns 22 soon). He looks like an NHL player already.

4) 20-year-old D-man Yegor Rykov getting regular minutes on the best team in the league is a promising sign, especially considering the big salary players they have sitting in the press box.

5) Valeri Nichushkin didn't do anything special offensively but he did make a couple of good defensive plays, so that's good.

6) Some of the players getting healthy scratched by these two teams could easily play 2nd line minutes for other KHL teams. I don't understand why they need to have so much depth that it makes the entire league worse when these players don't get to play.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I just watched Eeli Tolvanen's first KHL game, and maybe his situation isn't as bad as many of us thought (me included). He was playing on the 2nd line and 2nd PP unit, and he took advantage of that - 3 goals and 1 assist in his first game.

All the goals were scored from a distance with his quick and accurate wrist shot. A small goalie like Jonas Enroth in this case just can't cover the top corners well enough against Tolvanen's shot. And the one assist was a rebound goal after Tolvanen's one-timer, so he really showed his biggest strength which is his shot in this game.

Tolvanen's first goal was a game deciding goal (they went up 3-1 in the 3rd period), so the opposing team didn't do a great job defending after that anymore which made Tolvanen's hat trick a bit easier. But regardless of that, that's a great start to a season for an 18-year-old kid in the KHL.

[Moses]

SKA could make the playoffs in the NHL!!! - Stacked

[Jouko-Pouko]

A bit of an update after a few rounds - all teams have played about 5 or 6 games so far.

CSKA Moscow

The line that has Kirill Kaprizov, Maxim Shalunov and Sergei Shumakov might just be the best line in the entire KHL. Previously that honor has gone to the Shipachyov-Dadonov-Gusev line or the Mozyakin-Kovar-Zaripov line but since those lines don't exist anymore, there's room at the top. Kovalchuk and Datsyuk have enough talent to be in this discussion as well but more on them later.

The Shalunov-Shumakov-Kaprizov (SSK) line is actually CSKA's 3rd line on paper but obviously they are the most dangerous line offensively for that team. Their first and second lines have guys like Valeri Nischushkin, Mikhail Grigorenko and Kirill Petrov but those guys haven't looked very dangerous offensively when compared to the SSK line. I have been more than impressed with Kaprizov's all-around game. He's always creating something offensively but he also forechecks, he backchecks, and he wins a surprising amount of board battles for a small guy. Shalunov and Shumakov played together already in Sibir before coming to CSKA so they had some pre-existing chemistry but Kaprizov has really made that line so much more dangerous.

It might be time to lower expectations with Valeri Nichushkin. He's doing a lot of good things defensively (he's even used on the PK regularly) but he doesn't do much offensively and he looks pretty slow with everything he does. Of course one problem for him is that he doesn't have a proper playmaker on his line but that's exactly the issue - he can't create his own offense.

There was some hype around Igor Ozhiganov since the Leafs are apparently interested but unfortunately he's had some injury troubles to start the season, so I'll comment more after I have the opportunity to see him more often.

So far, Ilya Sorokin has played 4 games while Lars Johansson has played 2, so the goaltending situation seems to be as expected. Sorokin's .933 SV% looks average by his standards but that's mostly because of the first game of the season against SKA - after that game, he's given up a total of 2 goals in 3 games for .971 SV%. I've said it before but Sorokin is my front-runner to be Team Russia's starting goalie at the Olympics.

As a team, CSKA is second in the league with 13 points after 6 games. They've scored 18 goals and 8 goals have been scored against them which gives them +10 goal differential.

SKA St. Petersburg

Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk have yet to find a proper 3rd wheel to play with them. Sergei Plotnikov got the first chance to play with them but today it was time for Alexander Barabanov to get his chance. I hope this line sticks because I'm a fan of Barabanov and I think he has enough talent to play with those two guys. If you play on that line, you're expected to produce points. Barabanov did give a nice assist to one of Kovalchuk's goals today, so we'll see. If he does manage to stick on this line, he should have plenty of NHL offers waiting for him when his current KHL contract is over (summer of 2019).

I'd like to see Andrei Altybarmakyan get his chance on the top line as well at some point. Chicago drafted him in the 3rd round this summer after a strong season in the MHL which is the Russian junior league. But he's only 19 years old, so he needs to work really hard to get that chance at some point - young players get nothing for free in the KHL. Right now he's playing just some of the games and even then getting mostly 4th line minutes.

Mikko Koskinen played his 4th game today while Igor Shestyorkin has played 2 games. Shestyorkin has one shutout and one game with .900 SV% which brings his average to .947 SV%. This is a fluid situation but right now Koskinen looks to be their primary option.

As a team, SKA is leading the league with 16 points after 6 games. They've scored 26 goals and only 9 goals have been scored against them which gives them a nice +17 goal differential. Again - they've only played 6 games so far. +17 goals. That's pretty nice.

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Besides CSKA, SKA and Jokerit, I haven't seen other teams play more than once or twice, so I think it's too early to comment on players from those teams. We all know about Eeli Tolvanen's 4 point game and he also had another game with 2 points but he's been held pointless in the other two games they've played, so let's see how things unfold when Jokerit continue playing on Wednesday after their week long break. Don't ask me why they needed a break after just 4 games - that's just the KHL being what it is.