Ak Bars extends contract with head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin until 2028

Kazan HC Ak Bars has extended the contract with head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin. This was announced on June 11 by the club's press service in the Telegram channel.

"Anvar Gatiyatulin remains at Ak Bars! The new contract with the head coach is for two years," the statement said.

Gatiyatulin became the head of Ak Bars in May 2024. Under his leadership, the team reached the Gagarin Cup finals in the 2025/26 season, where they lost to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl with a score of 2-4 in the series. At the end of the season, the mentor was recognized as the best coach in the KHL.

Prior to that, the 50-year-old specialist worked as the head coach of Traktor Chelyabinsk, which he headed in 2015-2018 and 2020-2024. In the 2017/18 season, the team under his leadership reached the finals of the Eastern Conference.

Gatiyatulin was also a member of the coaching staff of St. Petersburg SKA and the Russian national team. Following the results of the 2025/26 regular season, Ak Bars took third place in the KHL Eastern Conference.

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Yaroslavl Hockey Club (HC) Lokomotiv announced on June 1 the appointment of Dmitry Kvartalnov as the head coach of the team. The contract with the specialist was signed on June 1, he will lead the main team of the club in the next KHL season. The club noted that Dmitry Kvartalnov is already well known to Yaroslavl fans — he previously worked with Lokomotiv from 2017 to 2019.