For a hundred to us this: hockey in Uzbekistan and big transfer deals

The last month of the year was rich in events in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The best goalie of the current season Vladislav Podyapolsky replaced the troubled Lada with Dinamo, young talents seem to be preparing to leave for the United States, and the injured Vladimir Tkachev extended his contract with Avangard. A bright and notable event was the revival of the KHL World Games project in Uzbekistan. Read more in Izvestia.

Hockey Uzbekistan

The revitalized project KHL World Games returned to life on a positive wave. This is an important and unambiguous result of the match in Tashkent. "Dynamo and Spartak traveled to the capital of Uzbekistan by different and not always comfortable ways, but they played a nice game to the delight of almost nine and a half thousand spectators.

Needless to say, not everything in Tashkent turned out perfectly because of lighting problems. This is an old problem at the Humo Arena, which only emphasizes the high standard of broadcasts that the league itself once set. Other than that, however, it's hardly worth engaging in criticism. Everything came out the way it was supposed to - both in big ways and in the details. Young hockey players from Uzbekistan attacked Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Yakushev - each of them got their share of attention and joint photos, as well as a lot of autographs for the kids.

The KHL was conceived as an instrument of soft power, with the help of which Russia would be able to promote not only its sporting, but also political and economic interests in neighboring countries. It is debatable how successfully this idea has been realized. It is designed to work in the long term and depends on many external factors. For obvious reasons, this project has been frozen in recent years. The current thaw does not cause rejection.

A major swap at Dynamo

One of the major transfer sagas of this season has come to an end - Vladislav Podjapolskiy was traded from Lada after all. The best goalkeeper of this season was taken from Dynamo Moscow: the amount of compensation in different sources ranges from 40 to 120 million rubles. This transfer has already provoked the termination of the contract with the American goalkeeper of the Bilo-Syni Blues Hunter Miska, and Podyapolskiy is preparing for his debut for a new club.

Podyapolskiy's contract expires at the end of this season, but there's a good chance that the goalkeeper will sign a new deal with Dynamo before then. It's unlikely that the Muscovites spent so much to get a goalkeeper for only half a season. Negotiations on signing a new agreement have already started, as Podjapolski himself confirmed. So Dynamo's goalkeeper line will be formed at least for a couple of years - Vladislav will be replaced by progressing Maxim Motorygin.

There's no doubt about Podyapolskiy's level, but it's embarrassing that he hasn't won a single playoff series in his entire KHL career. With Ak Bars, Severstal and Lada, the goalie was eliminated in the first round, and in SKA-2022/23 he almost never played in the Gagarin Cup. Dynamo Moscow is balanced almost perfectly and gaining momentum, but the impression of Alexei Kudashov's team's readiness to fight for the Cup arises almost every year. And every time something gets in the way.

Are our talents leaving for the NHL?

The arrival of Montreal representatives - general manager Kent Hughes and special advisor Vincent Lecavalier - to St. Petersburg for SKA games made a lot of noise. They watched the game of the club's top prospect Ivan Demidov, whose contract with the Army Men expires at the end of this season. There is no agreement on Demidov's imminent departure to the ocean next summer, but this option is certainly the most realistic.

Along the way, Montreal representatives could watch another of their prospects - Torpedo defenseman Bogdan Konyushkov. The player has already matured to play in the NHL, but his contract with Nizhny Novgorod is valid for one more season. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be a surprise if the Canadiens try to get Konyushkov this coming summer. The rebuilding of the team is well underway, and with two Russian talents, it should be less painful.

Another KHL loss in the upcoming offseason will be SKA defenseman Alexander Nikishin. "Carolina" has long wanted him in their ranks, but the player is honestly working off his contract with the Army Men. It's hard to name a more consistent player in the league, but Nikishin has been making a lot of unforced errors lately. It's not a matter of thinking about the NHL, but even at the beginning of the season, SKA's captain played more reliably and brighter.

Tkachev at Avangard until 2030

Vladimir Tkachev's severe injury (ruptured Achilles) before the start of this season was one of the main reasons for Avangard's poor start. For a long time, the Omsk club was not in the top eight, and changes in the team's roster occurred almost every day. The Omsk roster has changed by almost half, Sergei Zvyagin has been replaced by Guy Boucher as head coach, and Tkachev still doesn't appear on the ice. And it's unclear when that will happen.

During this time, there were even rumors that the Omsk club wanted to part ways with the league's highest-paid hockey player (120 million rubles per year), but I didn't believe it. There aren't many players of Tkachev's level in the league, so they certainly wouldn't be throwing them away. As a result, Avangard reduced Tkachev's salary this season to 80 million rubles per year, while adding another year to his contract. Now Tkachev's agreement runs through the end of the 2029/30 season, and for each subsequent season he will earn 120 million rubles, not including bonuses.

Avangard's logic is understandable - the club needs to meet the salary cap, as the payroll has swelled to obscene proportions after signing McLeod, Serebryakov and other rookies. Tkachev, on the other hand, has not yet been declared for the season at all.