Traktor’s conceptual mistake: Chelyabinsk players complete an unsuccessful season

Troubled off-season

The president of Traktor, the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Alexei Teksler, before the start of the season called the fight for the Gagarin Cup a task, but in December he was forced to change his rhetoric:

– We expect the team to make it to the playoffs. I set this task, despite the current failures. <...> In my opinion, Traktor’s roster today does not correspond to the place we occupy.

A completely fair assessment of the situation from the first person of the region. According to the Sport-Express newspaper, Traktor’s payroll is 670 million rubles. For comparison, this is more than Dynamo Moscow or Salavat Yulaev, and significantly more than Sibir, Torpedo or Admiral. All of the above teams secured access to the playoffs in advance, and some of them even fight for 2-3 places in their conferences.

Last season, Traktor reached the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup with plus or minus a similar budget. The tone in the team was set Legionnaires who left the team in the spring. It seemed that they could find a replacement on the Russian market. Anton Burdasov, a cult for Chelyabinsk, and a strong center forward Pyotr Khokhryakov were signed. At the gate, the bet was made on Emil Garipov, and on defense – on Artem Blazhievskiy. But a conceptual mistake was made right away – the club was counting on invited players with a name instead of focusing on the development of their talents. As a result, at the end of the season, we see that the team leaders are Chelyabinsk Anton Burdasov, Maxim Shabanov, Nikita Tertyshny, Sergey TeleginSergey Mylnikov, Ilya Karpukhin.

local leaders

The opening of the current season in the KHL was the Nizhny Novgorod “Torpedo”. There, Igor Larionov put together an incredible team of young people who are fighting for second place in the west. In Vladivostok, with minimal financial resources, coach Leonid Tambiev created a strong team of players, the ceiling of most of which was considered the VHL. In a situation where the market for available foreigners has drastically shrunk, it was necessary to restructure and trust our students more, and especially in such a hockey city as Chelyabinsk. But for some reason we couldn’t do it. During the season, only Maxim Shabanov, Mikhail Rolgizer, Sergey Mylnikov and Ivan Stezhkin gained a foothold in the main team.

The leadership did not dare to change the concept even after the frankly failed signings of Adam Almqvist, Andrew Hammond, Sergei Shumakov and Alexei Melnichuk. Also during the season, the team parted ways with Alexei Potapov, Evgeny Kulik and Emil Garipov, whom the coaching staff counted on before the start.

Traktor’s top scorer three games before the end of the regular season is Anton Burdasov with 42 points. And this despite the fact that he was injured for a significant part of the season and so far has played in only 48 meetings. The team’s second sniper, Maxim Shabanov, also stands out. The 22-year-old striker now has 16 goals and 9 of them were victorious.

In defense, locals are also among the best: Sergey Telegin and Ilya Karpukhin. It is they, as well as the experienced Kazan Albert Yarullin, who bear the main burden in defense. This season, young Alexander Shepelev performed well. This Chelyabinsk resident left his hometown a few years ago, but now he has returned and demonstrated a quality defense game.

Heavy contracts

At the same time, some players with the largest contracts and experience resemble ballast. Artem Blazhievsky, who was exchanged a year ago from Spartak Moscow, actually failed the season. The constant marriage in the transfers and the loss of the puck is not compensated by his blocked shots and power moves. Artem has the worst utility score in the team — “-16”. Center forward Andrei Stas had an extremely weak season. Total 6 (1+5) points scored. With him, the fourth link of the Chelyabinsk team posed a much greater threat to their own goal than to the opponent. Petr Khokhrakov (15 points in 63 games) is unlikely to show the kind of hockey for which he was signed for quite a lot of money before this season. In the end, the graduate of Neftekhimik played several good games, but this is clearly not enough to give him any rating other than bad.

Vladimir Tkachev and Sergey Kalinin left a controversial impression. Tkachev is one of the top three scorers on the team, but he also has a terrible utility score of -15. Of course, Tkachev is a very high-class center forward, but is he motivated to show his best hockey in Chelyabinsk?

Captain Sergey Kalinin is a versatile player who can play both on the flank and in the center. One of the best specialists in the game on a penny, but only 26 points in 65 matches, a negative indicator of usefulness, but most importantly, questions about the morale of his team. Chelyabinsk very rarely this season could turn the tide of an unsuccessful duel and win back, losing in the score. Let’s add here periodic unreasonable deletions sometimes at the most important moments of the meeting. I’m not saying that Sergei failed the season, but he definitely cannot be included in the asset.

Goalkeeper question

The goalkeeping line deserves a separate discussion. The very first matches of the championship showed that Emil Garipov is not ready for the season. He was quickly put up for exchange. Suddenly, the first number of Tractor was 35-year-old Ilya Proskuryakov. Honor and praise to him, he rescued the team at a critical moment and literally “pulled out” in several matches. Sergey Mylnikov from Chelmet also got his chance, who gradually got used to the level of the KHL, but in the end he got used to it and even earned a couple of crackers. After the failure of Garipov, the club’s management acted chaotically and signed two goalkeepers who did not last five matches in Chelyabinsk. Aleksey Melnichuk arrived from Sochi, but it obviously didn’t work out for him at Traktor, and after four unsuccessful attempts, the club got rid of him. Canadian goalkeeper Andrew Hammond was loudly announced, but when he flew to Russia, it turned out that chronic injuries prevented him from even just walking, and not just playing hockey.

By the end of the regular season, Traktor had two main goalkeepers: Sergey Mylnikov and Kirill Ustimenko, who was acquired in the summer but missed the start of the season due to a serious injury. The first is 23 years old, the second is 24, for both this is the first full-fledged experience at the KHL level. And in Chelmet there is a talented 20-year-old Vyacheslav Buteets, who also knocks on the Traktor locker room. As a result, the most problematic line now looks the most promising, as the three goalkeepers are progressing and in a year they can become one of the best goalkeeping teams in the league.

Unrealized potential

Well, about those who could have played this season in Traktor, but did not get such an opportunity. 17-year-old striker Alexander Rykov scored great goals in the Polar Bears and Chelmet, received a call to Traktor, but made several mistakes and again flew out of the squad, and then got injured altogether. I am sure that the talent needed to forgive the flaws and continue to trust. Similar story with Yaroslav Yapparov, with the only difference being that Traktor did not raise him, but acquired him from Ugra in the summer. Both talents had crumpled seasons, which are unlikely to contribute to their development.

The Polar Bears and Chelmet have been doing well this season and there are a few players there who are already drawing attention. With a weak game of Khokhrakov and Stas, Yegor Gorbunov could be tried. Right-handed players are always in short supply, so high-scoring striker Dmitry Kandakov could make his first-team debut this season. Also in the “Polar Bears” a whole scattering of defenders is growing up, of which Alexander Filatov, Artem Pronichkin, Artem Shchuchinov and Alexey Savelyev stand out. The example of Torpedo shows that now it is necessary to take risks and give the young a chance. Well, if you need to name a player who could strengthen Traktor right now, then this is Chelmet defender Konstantin Klimontov. At 32, the player is experiencing a second youth and is absolutely the best in his team. Behind him is a colossal experience of playing in the KHL and it is a mystery to me why the Traktor coaching staff stubbornly ignores Konstantin. In addition, the captain of the Chelmet has excellent human qualities and universal respect. His family is raising two adopted children and is not shy about talking about it.

What’s next?

I asked questions about youth and the reserve more than once head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin. Talk of his resignation dragged on throughout the season. At some point, his assistants Alexei Tertyshny and Alexei Chikalin were even fired. Andrey Sokolov and Igor Efimov were appointed in their place. Castling benefited Traktor: the team looked better at the end of the championship, although the changes did not become radical. I think the team needs Anvar Gatiyatulin. Yes, obviously, a fair share of the blame for the result is on him. He could not cope with the departure of legionnaires and could not redistribute their roles among the remaining players. In places he lacked tactical flexibility and the courage to trust the young more. Also the fact that the team was not the best atmosphere and game discipline suffered. Nevertheless, two semi-finals of the Tractor Gagarin Cup under his leadership say that this specialist knows how to win. I’m sure he will learn from the current problematic season that will make him stronger and allow him to prepare a new team.

I will not undertake to comment on the work of the club’s management in the person of director Ivan Savin, since his activities are beyond the competence of a sports observer. But in terms of transfers and player contracts, it is quite clear that serious mistakes have been made. For the successful signings of Anton Burdasov, Robert Hamilton and Nikita Soshnikov, we have failed Hammond, Shumakov, Almqvist, Garipov and the list goes on. At the end of the season, Traktor got a new general manager Alexei Volkov. He successfully worked in Omsk and led Avangard to the championship. By the new season Traktor will be staffed by him.

The 2022/23 season will go down in Traktor history as an unsuccessful one. The reasons are in team building, chaotic transfers, mistakes of the coaching staff and the shortcomings of many players. Those responsible at the end of the championship will be named by the president of the club, Alexei Teksler. Work on the new composition is already underway. The team needs to look for players under the top 6 and let fresh blood into the roster. Fans of the “black and white” are no strangers to the fact that a successful year is replaced by a failure. Based on this, the pendulum for the Chelyabinsk team should swing in a good direction, and the team, with the right work of the leadership, will be able to return to the ranks of the leaders of Russian hockey.