"This season we have learned who is stronger in hockey — the West or the East"

The season that ended was a triumph for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. The main team won the Gagarin Cup for the second year in a row, and the Loko youth team won the Kharlamov Cup. For the first time in the history of Russian hockey, one club system simultaneously took the main trophies of the adult and youth championships of the country. In an interview with Izvestia, KHL Vice President for Youth hockey Development Alexander Guskov explained the success of the Railwaymen and their long-term president Yuri Yakovlev, summed up the season in the Youth Hockey League and talked about upcoming changes in the regulations.

— How would you rate the last season of the MHL?

— In general, I would say that we had a very competitive playoff. The best statistically. 68 matches were played, 21 of them did not end in regular time — only in overtime or shootouts. That says a lot.

We have updated some attendance records again. In February, 11,000 spectators gathered in Novosibirsk for the 1,000th match of the Siberian Snipers, the most attended match in the history of the regular MHL championships. In the same February, the record attendance in the history of the Challenge Cup was broken at the UMMC Arena in Yekaterinburg - 10.4 thousand. And in the same place Yekaterinburg "Avto" held its most attended match — 8,5 thousand spectators. As for the results of the season, I think that the two strongest teams played in the final. Congratulations to Yaroslavl on the championship — the double championship of the main and youth teams. You can see how the Locomotive works, how its school works.

— You mentioned the attendance of the MHL playoffs at the UMMC Arena, where the Avto youth team got the opportunity to play after Avtomobilist was eliminated from the KHL playoffs. At the same time, Spartak, even after the departure of the main team from the Gagarin Cup, the youth team played Kharlamov Cup matches at the five thousandth stadium in Sokolniki, and not the 12 thousandth Megasport. Is there an opportunity to influence the situation so that, if possible, matches are played in KHL arenas?

- yes. Last season, we had a recommendation for clubs to move to larger arenas. Starting next season, it becomes mandatory. In the event of the departure of the main teams from the KHL playoffs, the matches of their youth teams in the MHL playoffs will be moved to large arenas - this will already be an obligation.

— You played for Lokomotiv in the early and late 2000s, when its current president, Yuri Yakovlev, was already in charge of the club. Can you explain the phenomenon of the system he has built, when the youth team often wins the Kharlamov Cup, and the main team, which has many local students, takes two Gagarin Cups in a row?

— This is a man who has put his heart and soul into the club. He has been there for years and even decades. He knows everything from the inside out — he has experienced it all himself, he created it all himself. The competition at Lokomotiv is very serious. Those guys who fight even between their schools in Yaroslavl end up in the KHL. We can see how many of the club's students are playing at a high level. There is no dominance of foreigners — their own people win first of all. Of course, we should not forget about Alexander Radulov, who is the leader of the team and helps the local youth grow up. Nevertheless, we can see the continuity of generations and the growth of the Lokomotiv school. I think they should serve as an example of how to build a system.

— Bob Hartley recently said that he was not going to return from retirement, he refused Yakovlev three times when he called him, but the fourth time he persuaded him to head the Locomotive. As someone who knows the president of the club, can you imagine how he convinced a man who had announced three years earlier that he was quitting coaching to return to hockey?

— I can't answer that question. All I know is that Yuri Nikolaevich has a rich vocabulary and he knows how to convince people. But I think it's between him and Hartley in this case. The main thing is that it worked. There is a lot of talk that this was achieved on the luggage of Igor Nikitin, who led Lokomotiv to its first victory in the Gagarin Cup a year ago. And on the one hand, yes, the composition has remained almost the same, but here the great art of the coach is not to destroy what worked well before you, and to bring those of his own achievements that will strengthen the team. Bob did a great job with that.

— In recent years, there have often been discussions about whether the current division of the MHL championship into Western and Eastern Conferences is appropriate. Are there any possible changes in the coming years?

— Before last season, we slightly changed the competition schedule, adding matches between the West and the East. In principle, it has borne fruit. We saw that there is competition. We had 98 matches [between teams from different conferences]. Of these, 55 were won by Western teams, 43 by Eastern teams. I've been asked a lot of questions about who is stronger, the West or the East. Basically, we got an answer this season. Yes, the West has an advantage, but not so much. Let's see what happens next. Maybe we'll add more such matches. But in general, the format remains the same.