Line-up changes: who strengthened the KHL clubs before the deadline

The last day in Russian hockey when clubs could strengthen their squads was January 25. Loktionov's expulsion from SKA and his exchange to Sibir amid the total crisis of the St. Petersburg club (0-6 from Torpedo and four defeats in a row) and purges in Igor Larionov's headquarters, the unexpected exchange of Nathan Todd, the departure of Klim Kostin from Avangard to CSKA, the acquisition of the former leader of Severstal by Avangard." Kirill Pilipenko and other landmark deals at the end of the KHL transfer window. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Nathan Todd

(from Spartak to Ak Bars in exchange for Artemy Knyazev and Brandon Biro)

In the last hour before the deadline, a bomb exploded in the KHL. Ak Bars traded one of its two top scorers, Nathan Todd, to Spartak. In any deal, the team that gets the strongest player wins. There can be no two opinions. Todd was playing with the fluctuations. But neither Brandon Biro nor Artemy Knyazev ever came close to his level. The question remains in which combination Anvar Gatiyatulin sees the newcomer. It will be interesting to see this. I would also add that Todd could have been in Kazan during the offseason. Then Ak Bars thought too long, and the striker went to Spartak.

The position of the Moscow club can be partially understood, bearing in mind the policy pursued by its leadership for several years. If it is not possible to keep the player on their terms, then they part with him. Most often — for good compensation. It was not possible to agree on a contract extension with Todd. As far as I know, there were no questions about him for gaming reasons.

Knyazev is not a lost defender who can follow the example of Daniil Zhuravlev, who performed well at Torpedo after transferring from Ak Bars. Some higher-profile clubs couldn't get a good defensive player on deadline. Perhaps Biro will open up in a new team. He was also chased by Dynamo Moscow for more than a month. However, at the moment, the red and white clearly lost more than they gained.

"My injury is a combination of circumstances"

Severstal hockey player Kirill Tankov — about the severe injury during the game in St. Petersburg and the club's leadership in the Western Conference of the KHL

Kirill Pilipenko

(from Severstal to Avangard, through termination of contract)

According to many experts, Kirill Pilipenko, signed to a minimum contract (1.3 million rubles) until the end of this season by Avangard, is one of the three strikers in the league who are least suitable for Guy Boucher's system. Even Dmitry Rashevsky, who played for several years under the guidance of Alexei Kudashov in Dynamo Moscow in rather strict schemes, still has obvious problems in Omsk. I really like Pilipenko, but he is a more moody person with a subtle mental organization. It needs a special approach. The fact that this season he has fallen out of the confidence of probably his best coach in his career, Andrei Kozyrev, also says something.

Immediately after the announcement of the deal, it could be assumed that a decent amount of money would also be sent from Omsk to Cherepovets. For example, in exchange for some young player from Almaz. And so it turned out. Nobody knew anything about defender Zakhar Dokichev before. But now it has become very expensive — 50 million rubles were given to Cherepovets for the rights to it.

It is clear that Severstal will not work to its own detriment. This is a common practice. Many people do not like the KHL's complete disregard of the loophole that SKA was the first to use a few years ago in the situation with the acquisition of Nikita Serebryakov from Admiral. Then the Far Eastern club terminated the agreement with him and this amount went under the ceiling, and the goalkeeper received only 2 million rubles in St. Petersburg until the end of the season. This is a clear mockery of the very idea of a salary cap. It is strange that the league's leadership has not yet taken care of solving this problem.

Klim Kostin

(from Avangard to CSKA, in exchange for Kirill Dolzhenkov and the rights to Egor Afanasyev)

The story of Klim Kostin and Avangard turned out to be fleeting and sad. Omsk believes that the player is more to blame for what happened. I tend to agree with her, so the compensation received for the striker from CSKA seems excessive to me. Perhaps in a month and a half we will see another Kostin — hungry, angry and physically ready. In the meantime, the exchange looks in favor of Avangard. Kirill Dolzhenkov is having a great season and can be effective against Guy Boucher as a pillar in the fourth tier. Egor Afanasyev's return to the KHL is quite realistic for next season. It's pointless for him to continue staying at the San Jose Farm Club in the AHL.

Dmitry Nikolaev

(from Spartak to Traktor, in exchange for money)

Dmitry Nikolaevich was once predicted to have a very good future, but by the age of 26 he had failed to justify most of the advances. He is moving to Traktor as the goalkeeper of Khimik and he has a lot to prove. This is potentially a good first number in almost any KHL club. In reality, everything is completely different. Chelyabinsk clarifies that the acquisition of a goalkeeper will cost 10 million rubles. This is not bad considering the general state of the market.

Andrey Loktionov

(from SKA to Siberia, in exchange for Scott Wilson)

The exchange between Sibir and SKA is quite serious by the standards of the current deadline. But first the wonderful wisdom comes to mind from the magnificent book and cartoon about Uncle Fyodor, the dog and the cat: "To sell something unnecessary, you must first buy something unnecessary." For various reasons, Andrey Loktionov and Scott Wilson became unnecessary in their previous teams. Perhaps a change of scenery will cheer each of them up. Siberia also saves money in the moment by taking on a less expensive player.