Sibir season preview: Experience in attack, youth in defense

Continuing KHL.ru’s club-by-club preview for the 2024-2025 season, we’re looking at Sibir. Last year’s campaign was disappointing for the Novosibirsk side, which led to a change at the team’s helm. However, the team’s roster mostly stayed the same.Last seasonAfter two years of “uninspired” hockey under Andrei Martemyanov, Sibir’s boards wanted something more intriguing, and ideally more effective, so David Nemirovsky was invited as head coach, under whom Torpedo had a distinctly reckless style. However, it is fundamentally impossible to achieve a radical change in style simply through a coaching change. It’s necessary to either assist the coach by selecting players that fit his style or patiently wait for him to adjust the existing players to his vision — especially if that vision differs significantly from what the players are used to. They managed to acquire only Nikolai Prokhorkin (who was later traded), and they were willing to wait just three months. At the end of that period, there was notably no sign of attracting and effective hockey — and Nemirovsky was dismissed.At that time, Sibir was still above the playoff line, but soon it left the zone due to a notorious story involving an unaccounted foreign player, losing four points because of it. In the end, ironically, Amur and Martemyanov finished eighth in the East, surpassing Sibir by exactly four points. However, a hypothetical return of those points would not have changed anything, as when points are equal, the team with more wins in regulation time ranks higher—and the Tigers had more of those.Roster changesArrivals: defensemen Fyodor Gordeyev (Maine Marines, ECHL), Yegor Martynov (Dynamo Moscow); forwards Maxim Karpov (Metallurg), Dmitry Ovchinnikov (Toronto Marlies, AHL), Valentin Pyanov (Avangard), Sergei Shirokov (Avtomobilist).Departures: goalie Anton Khudobin; defensemen Denis Alexandrov (Torpedo), Ziyat Paigin (Lada); forwards Maxim Marushev (Ak Bars, return from loan), Artyom Mikheyev (Dynamo Moscow), Mikhail Nazarov, Konstantin Suslov (Yuzhny Ural, VHL, trade).Top 3 signingsThere haven't been many acquisitions — just like losses — for Sibir, but the trend is clear: the focus is on experienced newcomers. Sergei Shirokov turned 38 in March, and Maxim Karpov will turn 33 in October; both faced some difficulties recently at Avtomobilist and Metallurg, respectively, but they remain highly qualified forwards. One of them, or perhaps both, can certainly expect to play in the top line for Sibir — at least initially.In defense, the 34-year-old Yegor Martynov will surely be useful. His rather modest statistics from last year may be misleading due to the limited number of games and playing time. However, there was very high competition for defensemen in Dynamo Moscow, particularly among right-handers. But Martymov mostly had a good use of the ice time he had.CoachingSpeaking of Vadim Yepanchintsev, we can once again (for the last time) return to Andrei Martemyanov — after all, it was Yepanchintsev whom Martemyanov replaced in Khabarovsk. In both cases, the management’s decision for a coach change seemed rather unsubstantiated. This was especially true with the Tigers, as under Yepanchintsev, Amur’s financial capabilities — and consequently, the team composition — were much more modest than they are now and even a year ago. And the Khabarovsk franchise didn’t make it to the playoffs at that time, but this was not so much unexpected as it was rather guaranteed.Nonetheless, Yepanchintsev maximized the potential of the available assets and finished just three points shy of the playoff spot. Moreover, he also raised some talents for the league, thanks to the loans of Nikita Grebyonkin and Yaroslav Likhachyov, as well as, to some extent, Sergei Dubakin (who had already logged around forty games before his loan spell to Amur, but with a small amount of playing time). In the KHL, in addition to the Tigers, Yepanchintsev led Spartak and even brought the Muscovites to the playoffs (for the first time in seven years at that time). In total, he had 147 games in the league, winning 67 of them (45.58%) — which is quite a respectable result for two relatively modest teams. For example, Nemirovsky’s percentage is somewhat lower. As for the VHL, Yepanchitsev even won the Petrov Cup with Yugra.GoaliesAnton Krasotkin is undoubtedly the first choice for Sibir, but his substitutes, Denis Kostin and 21-year-old Vladimir Tabatchikov, don’t look very convincing. Last season, the Novosibirsk side attempted to recruit experienced Anton Khudobin for this role, but the move wasn’t particularly beneficial. Currently, there are candidates in the market who are quite capable of strengthening this position.DefenseIn addition to Martynov, the defense has been bolstered by the return of Fyodor Gordeyev, who is now considered a Russian under the sport rules. However, this seems insufficient. Martynov, who will turn 34 in a week, is currently the oldest defender, followed by 30-year-old Dinar Khamidullin and 29-year-old Trevor Murphy, and... that’s it. All other defenders are significantly younger; another experienced veteran wouldn’t go amiss. The good news regarding the relatively young average age of the defensive line is that progress can and should be expected from it. The only question is how soon and how significant that progress will be.OffenseThere are also returns among the forwards, with Dmitry Ovchinnikov returning to Novosibirsk for the second time and Valentin Pyanov for the third. Ovchinnikov may compete with Shirokov or Karpov for a spot on the first line, while Pyanov fits seamlessly into the central axis alongside leaders Taylor Beck and Andy Andreoff. Even considering the issues with Nikita Shashkov, who is currently classified as a restricted free agent and seemingly won’t remain with the team, Yepanchtsev certainly has three solid lines at his disposal.Young playersFor several years, Ovchinnikov has been considered Sibir’s top prospects, but he has been quite unfortunate with the trust of the coaching staff. Looking back at the examples of Grebyonkin and Likhachyov, there are reasons to expect that things will go better with Yepanchtsev.During the year that Dmitry spent in the AHL, the title of main prospect was confidently taken over by Vladimir Mikhalyov, who quickly won the admiration of fans not only in Novosibirsk but throughout the League. Among the defenders, the greatest progress is expected from Artyom Zhukov, who made his KHL debut a year ago and previously averaged nearly a point per game in the MHL, where he was recognized as the best in his position.What to expectThe strategy of relying on youth in defense and experience in attack is quite unusual; it’s typically the other way around. Along with the theoretically likely problems of substituting the main goalkeeper in case of fatigue or injuries over a long distance, this could lead to a regrettable outcome. However, the long distance is beneficial because there is time for adjustments (and also Siberia has two free import slots). It requires precise adjustments; a global overhaul is not needed for this team, as it looks quite interesting. But if adjustments are not made, or if they are made but fail, the Novosibirsk side will, at best, have to fight for the eighth spot. And it’s not certain that they will emerge victorious from this struggle.