The truth in the link: what to expect from the Moscow Mayor's Cup

The traditional pre-season tournament this year will be held from August 28 to 31. Torpedo, Shanghai Dragons, Dinamo Minsk and Moscow, CSKA and Spartak will participate in the Mayor's Cup. The group stage matches will take place on the first three days, and on the last day of the month there will be games for fifth, third and first places. The main intrigues of the tournament are described in the Izvestia article.

The first season after returning to CSKA

Igor Nikitin left CSKA in the summer of 2021 after losing in the final to Avangard and spent a long time building a championship team in Yaroslavl. It was difficult to believe that he would leave Lokomotiv immediately after the triumph, but rumors about his transfer began to appear the very next day after the decisive match with Traktor in the final series. Nikitin's motives can only be guessed at, but many of us have offers in our lives that simply cannot be refused for various reasons. So the coach did not refuse.

It is difficult to hope for an instant return of the trophy to Leningradka. Nikitin did not come to success at both CSKA and Lokomotiv right away — are the army club's offices ready for the first season to be "targeted"? Still, a lot of resources have been spent - both for the signing of Nikitin and his coaching staff, and for the signing of newcomers. Among the main transfers, it is worth highlighting goalkeeper Spencer Martin, who played in the NHL, and defender Jeremy Roy, who is well known in the KHL for playing for Vityaz. Even before the disbandment of Vityaz, the army managed to buy out two key players from the Moscow Region club — Roy and striker Dmitry Buchelnikov. The latter had a breakthrough season, scoring almost twice as many points as the year before at Admiral. Now he is playing with two more newcomers: Denis Zernov and Nikolai Kovalenko.

Another powerful signing for the attack was Canadian striker Daniel Sprong, for whom CSKA won the fight against Ak Bars. Sprong's salary will be 75 million rubles a year, but the forward's contract contains very substantial bonuses: he can receive 50 million rubles each for getting into the top 3 of the KHL's best scorers during the regular season, the top 3 of the best snipers and for 80 points scored in the regular season.

It will be interesting to follow CSKA — Nikitin's first season after returning to the club is almost the main intrigue of the upcoming championship. But the results of the summer tournaments should still be treated more calmly, since the teams at this stage have completely different goals for themselves. At the Moscow Mayor's Cup, we will see the general outlines of the renovated CSKA. The current composition does not allow Nikitin to build a familiar system — he will have to become more flexible.

Shanghai Dragons debut in pre-season tournaments

This summer, Kunlun ended its existence in its former form. The Chinese club was renamed Shanghai Dragons and moved to SKA Arena, where it will now play its home matches. The head coach of the Dragons is renowned specialist Gerard Galland, who has extensive experience working with NHL teams. The main advantage of the Canadian is that he knows how to interact with clubs of different levels. You won't surprise him with Shanghai's rather weak squad.

The Dragons were heavily delayed with transfers due to various legal issues. The management had to make do with those players who remained in the market. There is not a single hockey player in the squad with a claim to at least local stardom, except for the Fu brothers, with a certain stretch. Their duet rather serves as a reminder of the Chinese roots of the team. Attempts to get Nikolai Goldobin, Joshua Livo and Alexander Khmelevsky were unsuccessful. No matter how ambitious a project is at the start, you need not only money, but also a time-tested reputation and the ability to solve tasks. For example, Alex Limoges, a good striker who performed well at the AHL level in Hershey, preferred Dinamo Minsk.

On paper, Shanghai looks more like a team fighting for a place in the top eight than one of the favorites of the championship, although the ambitions of the club's leadership are now higher than ever. Shanghai starts its pre-season training quite late. In this regard, the teamwork of the "dragons" will be minimal. Gallan will have to work hard to bring the team to the start of the regular season in optimal shape.

Spartak without Nikolai Goldobin

Spartak got rid of Nikolai Goldobin this offseason — the red and white put the star forward on waivers, from where SKA took him as a result. It will probably take a decent amount of time to understand what the capital's team is capable of without its leader. Nathan Todd, who recently joined Spartak from Salavat Yulaev, is hardly an equivalent replacement for Goldobin. The Canadian looks like a slightly lower-level player. It is unknown how hard Todd will take the loss of his star partner in the person of Joshua Livo, with whom they shared a link in Salavat.

The Moscow club has slightly renewed itself this summer and even weakened a little. In this regard, fans can only hope for untapped potential. At the Moscow Mayor's Cup, Alexey Zhamnov's team should perform in an approximately optimal composition. This is a good reason to look at the attempts of the coaching staff to compensate for the loss of Goldobin. It will probably have to be replenished with internal reserves.