Salavat Yulaev traded a promising defender from SKA

The Ufa club acquired 23-year-old defender Nikita Zorkin

In the opposite direction, 18-year-old forward Alexander Filippov will go to the banks of the Neva. Let’s look into the next transfer of the Ufa team.

Nikita Zorkin is a fairly young defenseman, born in 2000, but to date he has played 90 matches in the KHL for SKA, Sochi and Dynamo Minsk. A native of the Russian capital and a graduate of the CSKA school, at the age of 14 he moved to Khanty-Mansiysk, where he graduated and began his career in the MHL. From the age of 18 in St. Petersburg, he played for SKA-1946 and SKA-Neva. As part of the youth team, he took part in a “sandwich” tour of Canada. The MHL scoring record is 14 points per season. In the 2020/21 season, he began to appear in the KHL, where he played six matches for SKA. The next season he played in Sochi – 37 matches with an average playing time of 10:56. Last season he played for three KHL clubs at once, playing a total of 47 matches. The greatest productivity was achieved in Sochi and Minsk – 4+6 and 6+1, respectively. A total of 17 points, 69 power moves and 79 blocked shots with a utility indicator of “-3”.

The defender is strong and large – 188 cm and 88 kg, has a very good throw and the ability to join the attack. He can take care of himself. Last season he demonstrated his potential as an attacking defender. “Salavat Yulaev” needs such a player. It was not possible to find a player for the majority on the foreign player market and it is unlikely to be able to do so this season, but Zorkin may in the future be a contender for this role. In the longer term, there is Sasha Komarov in Ufa, but we all remember how long it took Shakir Mukhamadullin to reveal his potential. Zorkin is a more mature and experienced player and should be useful. Several very reputable clubs showed interest in him, but in St. Petersburg they agreed on an exchange with Ufa. Last season, the defender had a very decent contract – 23 million rubles, since last summer the Sochi team had to repeat the contract offer from Magnitogorsk. Zorkin will get less than 20 this season.

Our fellow countryman Sasha Filippov is one of the top prospects of the Ufa club, although he was born in 2005 on the team. began to take leading roles only shortly before graduation. In his senior season, he scored 46 (25+21) points in 35 matches of the Russian championship in the Urals and Western Siberia. Played one match for Tolpar. Last season, he scored 23 (13+10) in 45 matches of the MHL regular season and 1+1 in the play-in and the same number in the playoffs. In January, he played with Matvey Babenko for the Russian junior team at a tournament in Minsk and scored a goal. This season he was supposed to become the leader of Tolpara, for the youth team this is definitely a big loss. At the Rodion Amirov Cup he scored 6 (3+3) points in four matches. He has good speed, is assertive and has good court vision, capable of playing smart hockey. It’s difficult to talk about his prospects in the team of masters, but they wouldn’t take just anyone in exchange for a strong KHL player in St. Petersburg.

This exchange is in the same series as the exchange of Danil Aimurzin to Severstal. “Salavat” needed a defender ready for the KHL with attacking potential, and Filippov, of course, is far from Aimurzin and will not appear in the KHL soon. However, the true price of this exchange will become known only in the long term, when the Ufa player reaches the desired level. If it works out, of course.

“We continue to form a team,” sports director of the Ufa club Vasily Chizhov commented on the exchange. – After Shakir Mukhamadullin left for the NHL, we needed a young defenseman with experience playing in the KHL. Zorkin has good attacking skills, is capable of playing power hockey and at the same time plays reliably in defense. We wish Sasha Filippov good luck in his new club, further growth and progress. He is capable of raising his level of play in the coming years to get into the KHL

Unlike Aimurzin, for whom the exchange to Cherepovets is a big step in his career, Filippov will have a difficult time. The system of the St. Petersburg club, overly saturated with talents from all over the country, cannot digest everyone, and Zorkin is an example of this. It is noteworthy that in the SKA system there is already one person from the Ufa school, Filippov’s former teammate in Salavat 2005, Ignat Lutfullin. Moreover, he plays in the same position and has a similar set of qualities. On the other hand, in St. Petersburg, a graduate of the Ufa school may have a chance to play in the KHL, if not for SKA, then for one of the many farm clubs from the Northern capital in the Moscow region, Togliatti, Sochi or Minsk. But in “Salavat” this might not have happened.