Salavat Yulaev made several exchanges

Aimurzin – Samonov

For the rights to goalkeeper Alexander Samonov, Severstal requested not only monetary compensation. Also the most progressive player in the Ufa system is Danila Aimurzin. After much deliberation in Ufa agreed.

For Danil himself, this exchange is a plus. The Cherepovites promised him to give him the opportunity to gain a foothold in the first line of the team, and ambitious hockey players do not refuse such offers. I don’t know what link Viktor Kozlov saw Aimurzin in next season, but in the team from the Vologda region he will clearly have more opportunities. The 21-year-old pupil of the Ufa school spent the first relatively full season in the KHL last season, playing 22 matches for the main team of the republic and chalked up 9 (4 + 5) points.

“I was offered a good option to continue my career,” said the young striker. – I do not hide the fact that I want to play in the KHL. I figured that it was there, in Cherepovets, that I would play more than in Ufa. Weighed all the pros and cons and made this decision. To be honest, I didn’t expect it to turn out like this. But as it happened, it happened. In any case, I am very pleased with the transition to Severstal.

27-year-old Muscovite Alexander Samonov made his way through the system of the Vityaz near Moscow, for which he made his debut in the KHL. Having shown a phenomenal game in the 2019/2020 season, he attracted the attention of SKA St. Petersburg, where he was immediately taken from the Moscow region. In the same season he made his debut in the Russian national team. As usual, in the Northern capital they like to grab everything shiny, but they don’t know how to dispose of hasty acquisitions properly. St. Petersburg continued to bet on legionary goalkeepers Magnus Hellberg and Lars Johansson, and Samonov received less and less match practice.

Last season, Alexander played 14 matches for the club from the banks of the Neva and was exchanged to Cherepovets. In total, for two clubs in the regular season 22/23, the goalkeeper played 33 matches, 19 of which he won, two of them “dry”. Reflected an average of 91.4 percent of shots on goal with a safety factor of 2.39. In the playoffs, he played six games, one to zero, reflected 92 percent of the shots.

– The decision to exchange was not easy, – admitted the sports director of “Salavat Yulaev” Vasily Chizhov. – We understood that we needed a strong Russian goalkeeper. Samonov was a key hockey player among all the available goalkeepers on the transfer market. We were not the only ones who wanted to see Alexander in our team. It is not easy for us to let go of Danil Aimurzin. This is our student. When the option of an exchange came up, we talked with Danil and realized that an exchange with Severstal was in his interests.

Severstal has three good goalkeepers and would have to part with someone anyway. Without exposing the position, Severstal receives money and a very promising newcomer. As for “Salavat”, the most difficult thing here. Here and now the team needs a stable first number, and Samonov can become such with a high probability. On the other hand, the “Yulaevites” lose not only the most progressive player in the vertical, but also the only center with a very large potential in the system. A comprehensively gifted guy born in 2002 promises to grow into a top center-playmaker. What he lacked so far was the stability that comes with experience. Centers of this level on the transfer market rarely appear and are very expensive. Too expensive for the current “Salavat”. It turns out that “Yulaev’s” management closes one important position at the cost of exposing another, no less important one. One creative center – Mikhail Vorobyov – “Salavat” has already lost a sniff of tobacco, now gives the next. Well, at least Samonov signed a contract for three years, and will not leave after a season, as was the case with Dinar Khafizullin.

Could it have been otherwise? I can’t speak for the Ufa management, but it was worth looking for a goalkeeper for whom you don’t have to pay such a high price. Not to fill the precious vacancy of a legionnaire with Ho-Seng, but to take a goalkeeper, for example.

Matvey Guskov

CSKA signed young striker Matvey Guskov and lost to Salavat Yulaev for monetary compensation. Guskov signed a three-year contract with the Ufa club.

In short, the Bashkir club more or less closed the issue with the young center that arose after the exchange of Danil Aimurzin. Personally, I think Ufa at the moment is more interesting than a novice, but “Salavat” preferred to acquire a goalkeeper who can play here and now. Well, let’s hope that Matvey will be able to shoot in Ufa.

The same age as Alalykin and Amirov, Guskov managed to see the world for his 22 years. As a child, following his father, he changed several top clubs, was called up to the junior teams born in 2000 and 2001, played for two years in the Canadian Ontario League (OHL) for London. In the last three years, he played for all clubs in the capital’s “army” vertical. In the KHL for CSKA, he played 71 matches in the regular season – 17 (6 + 11) points – and 16 games in the playoffs without scoring points. Two-time winner of the Gagarin Cup. Do not forget to note that Matvey is the son of the famous defender Alexander Guskov, now a member of the board and vice president of the KHL for the development of youth hockey.

– Matvey is a young, overall, trained player, – Vasily Chizhov shared his opinion about the newcomer with the club press service. – A central striker who can play from the side. Fast, technical, holds power struggle well, has cup experience. We hope that in our team he will realize his best qualities, be able to become a leader and help us achieve high team results.

The guy always gave the impression of a properly educated and hardworking player. In CSKA, he got a limited role with a minimum of creative functions, and Guskov always gravitated towards this kind of hockey, he loves smart hockey, playing the pass. Among his idols, he singles out Datsyuk and Larionov – smart creative centers. Today in Ufa there are not many players with high performance on the “point” and this is a good opportunity for Matvey to gain a foothold in the central axis of “Salavat”. The guy is young, developing, at the same time quite strong and has gone through a serious school in the system championship team. Today, it needs more comfortable conditions to open up. It looks like a good buy to me. Sometimes a common sponsor and “Salavat” can be useful. Of course, there is always the possibility of a return route to CSKA if a young player shoots in Ufa. The administrative capabilities of the two clubs are not comparable, but such a risk has to be taken.

Shumilov – Lugovyak

“Severstal” and “Salavat Yulaev” exchanged defenders. Vasily Shumilov will leave Ufa for Cherepovets, and Semyon Lugovyak will follow in the opposite direction.

Vasily Shumilov, a student of Perm hockey, moved to Ufa at the age of 13. He won with the “Yulaev” team of his year the UHL Championship. Called to the national team. By the age of 19, he became one of the leading defenders of Tolpar, consistently went out in the second pair and scored 20+ points in the regular championships. Last season, he showed the best utility among the defenders of the Ufa “youth team” in the regular season. In the playoffs, he performed noticeably below his level, did not score points and had +/- negative.

Semyon Lugovyak, a native of the capital, is already 25, but only last season he managed to break through to the highest level of domestic hockey through the “army” vertical and play 10 matches for CSKA. He won with the “Red Army” the main trophy of the MHL Kharlamov Cup. Last summer, he was traded to Severstal for another defender, Ivan Rogov. Andrey Razin got decent playing time for a rookie (13.29 in the regular season and 14:59 in the playoffs). Spent 45 matches in the regular season and 4 in the playoffs for the team from Cherepovets, scoring eight assists with a utility of “-1”. A strong textured hockey player (94 kg at 185 cm height), is not afraid of the fight (but does not aspire to it) and willingly catches the puck (54 blocks in the regular season). Rather a homebody than a creator, although he himself says that he gravitates towards attacking hockey. Having cooked in two of the most systemic teams in the KHL, he cannot but have good performance and discipline. The contract with the recruit of the Ufa club is two-sided until the end of next season.

We can safely say that “Salavat Yulaev” continues the course that he set with the previous exchange with the Cherepovets club. In Ufa, they are not ready to wait for progress from young players and prefer to get a titmouse, rather than catching a crane in the sky. Whether Shumilov is able to play at the KHL level is an open question, since we did not have the opportunity to look at him at least in the “Toros”, and Lugovyak is already a ready-made hockey player, albeit not enough stars from the sky. Workhorse for 3-4 pairs of defense and rotation. As for Shumilov, this transition will rather benefit Vasily, since in Tolpar he will be supported by a new set, and in Toros there are already quite a few defenders who left the MHL in the status of very promising, but did not get a chance to show himself in Salavat. For the KHL, the young defender is definitely raw, I think they understand this in the Vologda region, so they take the player for the future, and he will start the season in Almaz or Voronezh Buran.