Exam for a Professor: what awaits Larionov in SKA

The new SKA leadership finally made a decision that many did not believe in until the last moment — Roman Rotenberg left the post of head coach of the army team. Even more unexpected was the name of his successor, Igor Larionov, who, after Torpedo's departure from the playoffs, was dismissed from the club where he had worked for three seasons. For more information about the sensational rearrangement, see the Izvestia article.

See the result

Everyone has managed to get used to Roman Rotenberg's resignation in recent days. The official announcement of SKA on Monday evening did not produce a stunning reaction. The news was received relatively calmly, as over the past few days many media outlets have already analyzed in detail the departure of the army team leader.

SKA is entering a new era, and the former St. Petersburg head coach can blame himself for what happened. He took on too much responsibility, which he couldn't handle (last season, SKA was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. It's a disaster for the club). Rotenberg was let down by his coaching ambitions. Having surrounded himself with the strongest assistants (the SKA headquarters on paper was the best in the league), he could not build a championship team.

Igor Larionov was appointed as Rotenberg's successor by the new leadership. The media scale of the figures is comparable — the timing of press conferences will not be affected, but their content will change. The professor did not miss work for long after leaving Torpedo.

Perhaps now he is even glad that the Nizhny Novgorod project was completed in the spring. Once on the market, Larionov responded to SKA's attractive offer in every sense. He got a top club, which, even if there are budget cuts, will go from being super-rich to just being rich. Off-scale ambitions will not go anywhere without Rotenberg.

— A coach is a profession where sooner or later you will be fired, — said two—time Olympic champion Vyacheslav Fetisov in a conversation with Izvestia. — Regardless of whether you are a successful coach or not. These are the costs of the profession. Let's look at the SKA game next season.

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The club coaching work of the Detroit legend began only in 2022. The professor picked up the ambitious Torpedo project with an abundance of talented young people. Together with Andrey Kozyrev and Mikhail Vasiliev, they built a cute team that charmed with attacking hockey and bribed with the development of juniors. Kovalenko, Konyushkov, Goncharuk, Atanasov, Letunov, Firstov are just a small list of hockey players who have significantly added and grown into the stars of Nizhny Novgorod and the entire KHL.

The split in Torpedo and the painful fall from heaven to earth happened after Kozyrev left the headquarters. The style has changed, the charm of the game has disappeared, and the locker room is mired in intrigue and scandals. Parting with Larionov after last season is the expected decision of the club.

Larionov will restart his career at SKA, and at a completely different level of responsibility. At Torpedo, everyone was satisfied with the minimum task of getting into the playoffs. The team has implemented it in each of the three seasons. Army men are used to living with big goals. Actually, Rotenberg lost his place after the departures in the second (2024) and first (2025) rounds of the playoffs. By investing a lot of money in the squad, SKA bosses want to see results.

Gazprom has heard a lot of empty talk. Attacking hockey or youth development is also unlikely to work. First of all, Larionov will be asked for the result.

Youth sector

It is still difficult to assess the coach's prospects. There are too many unknowns in the SKA sports block: there is no understanding who will take over the selection, how much the roster will change, which hockey players the club will target in the offseason (Rotenberg's resignation put negotiations on hold), and who will join the Professor's staff?

The last question is the most important one for assessing the future of SKA. The influence of assistants on the staff can be traced to the "Torpedo". With Kozyrev, the team played offensively, and without him, it gradually drifted back to passive hockey, which Larionov himself rejected all the time in Nizhny Novgorod.

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"In sports, everything determines the result, and SKA has been playing poorly for the last two seasons," said Dmitry Guberniev, a well—known commentator and adviser to the Minister of Sports. — Larionov's arrival is a strong move. It will be interesting to watch the new SKA with him. Rotenberg has made a huge contribution to the development of the adult team and the entire system, from youth to adult hockey. I think he's a good coach, and he's certainly still fulfilling himself. A man is in love with hockey, lives and burns with it. Therefore, we must say thank you to him, he will not be lost, we wish him every success. The fact that people go to hockey is his great merit. He's a media personality who attracts attention.

The advantage can clearly be attributed to the abundance of youth that SKA could not digest. With the arrival of Larionov, who knows how to work with undiscovered talents, graduates of the MHL and guys who stayed in the VHL should have more chances: Matvey Korotky, Amir Nugmanov, Matvey Polyakov, Semyon Demidov.

Larionov has a lot of work ahead of him. Its results will give an assessment of the Professor's coaching level. A person of this magnitude will definitely receive high trust in SKA — and if so, then there will be serious demand next spring.