Avangard season preview: Zvyagin’s full debut and the loss of the first line

In the latest instalment of KHL.ru’s club-by-club preview of the coming season we’re looking at Avangard. The Hawks signed goalie Mikhail Berdin and several strong defensemen, only to see injuries rob the team of its leading forwards.Last seasonThe 2023-2024 regular season went well in Omsk. Avangard was in contention for the Continental Cup until the final games. In the end, Mikhail Kravets’ team finished second to Metallurg in the East and eased past Lada in the first round of the playoffs to set up a meeting with Lokomotiv. Then it all went wrong. Avangard lost the opener in overtime, before suffering a 0-7 drubbing on home ice. That led to Kravets’ immediate dismissal. Sergei Zvyagin was appointed in his stead and managed to lead the team to game seven before losing out.RecruitmentArrivals:Goalie: Mikhail Berdin (HC Sochi). Defensemen: Darren Dietz (CSKA), Pavel Koledov (Salavat Yulaev), Alexei Solovyov (Admiral), Daniil Stepanov (Yuzhny Ural, VHL). Forwards: Linden Vey (Mannheim, DEL), Stanislav Galiyev (Ak Bars), Dmitry Zlodeyev (Abbotsford, AHL), Cole Kassels (San Jose, AHL), Lev Komissarov (CSKA), Alexei Makeyev (Avtomobilist), Vyacheslav Malov (Torpedo, returns from loan), Yegor Malin (Molot, VHL), Alexander Perevalov (Lokomotiv), Alexander Yaremchuk (Vityaz).Departures:Goalies: Lorens Zinaddin (Torpedo, returns from loan), Andrei Mishurov (Admiral, loan). Defensemen: Roman Abrosimov (Neftekhimik), Bogdan Kiselevich (Neftekhimik), Timur Kol (SKA), Yegor Rykov, Gleb Semyonov (Lada). Forwards: Denis Vengryzhanovsky (HC Sochi), Damir Zhafyarov (Barys), Yegor Kruzhenkov, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Valentin Pyanov (Sibir), Ryan Spooner, Ivan Telegin, Gleb Trikozov (Carolina, NHL), Tomas Jurco (Kunlun Red Star).Top 3 signingsMikhail BerdinMikhail Berdin comes from Sochi to Avangard having featured in the Fonbet KHL All-Star Game and earned a reputation as one of the league’s most spectacular goalies. At Sochi, Berdin gave it everything but goaltending for the Leopards is a tough call: in 2023-2024 he played 50 games and faced 1,774 shots. For comparison, at Sibir Anton Krasotkin played 49 games and faced 300 fewer shots! Overall, Mikhail is a goalie on the up. The only downside is that he has yet to feature in KHL playoff action.Darren DietzBut Dietz has playoff experience – and then some! With CSKA, the Canadian (who has long been part of the furniture in Russia, Kazakhstan and the KHL in general) won two Gagarin Cups. Darren offers a real boost to the power play, and to the team’s overall offensive threat. He has 229 (87+142) points in 428 KHL games, numbers that many forwards would envy.Stanislav GaliyevThroughout his KHL career to date, Stanislav Galiyev has consistently scored at least 10 goals a season. The only exception was last season at Ak Bars, when he scored seven. Nonetheless, one disappointing season does not change the fact that Galiyev is an excellent finisher who will be a great addition to Avangard’s forward line.CoachingThe 2024-2025 season will be Sergei Zvyagin’s first as head coach. Before his appointment at Avangard, he worked as a goalie coach – first at Barys (2012-13) then Metallurg (2013-2018) before joining Avangard in 2018 and contributing to the 2021 Gagarin Cup win.GoaltendingNewcomer Berdin will join Ilya Proskuryakov, who has more than 400 KHL games, and Pavel Khomchenko, who began last season at Admiral before he was traded to Omsk. In the playoffs, Khomchenko emerged as the first choice, winning seven out of 12 games, stopping 93.5% of shots for a GAA of 1.81 and one shut-out. DefenseOn defense, Avangard kept its key players. At the very least, Damir “Iron Man” Sharipzyanov is going nowhere, and neither are the fast-improving Semyon Chistyakov and Mikhail Gulyayev. Timur Kol is a notable departure, a highly-rated prospect who left as part of a three-way trade involving SKA and Sochi. Moreover, the new arrivals add further solidity. Apart from Dietz, Pavel Koledov and Alexei Solovyov are joining the team. It all adds up to a stronger D core in Omsk this season. ForwardsOver the summer, Avangard lost its second line. Damir Zhafyarov went to Barys, Tomas Jurco to Kunlun and Nikolai Prokhorkin is still looking for a club. Moreover, as the season starts, Omsk has to find a new first line: injuries to Vladimir Tkachyov and Reid Boucher have deprived Avangard of their leading forwards.“During my vacation I re-wrote the line-up about 50 times, but the top line always remained the same,” said Sergei Zvyagin after Tkachyov’s injury. “A few days ago I was forced to rethink our combinations.” Even though Avangard has good options among its forwards, they will struggle to replace Tkachyov and Boucher in full. The big hope now is that the young players will progress while Linden Vey, Stanislav Galiyev and Alexei Makeyev perform at a good level.YoungstersAvangard is developing an exciting cohort of promising youngsters. The most experienced among them is defenseman Semyon Chistyakov. At age 23 he’s already played 242 games in the KHL, picking up 69 (15+54) points. He’s joined on defense by Mikhail Gulyayev, 19, and Artyom Murylyov, 21. The former played 76 games last season, the latter made his KHL debut.There are also prospects among the forwards: Nikita Kholodilin (22), Ilya Reingardt (20) and Alexander Filatiev (20) all have plenty to offer in the KHL. Vyacheslav Malov, 20, is back from a loan spell at Torpedo, while another 20-year-old, Alexander Perevalov, joined the club from Lokomotiv this summer. He has played on loan with Kunlun and Sochi in the past, and already has a couple of KHL goals to his credit.ExpectationsAvangard has strengthened its goaltending and defense, but now faces serious problems on offense following injuries to its leading forwards. Might that force Zvyagin into a defensive style? It’s an open question, but it’s difficult to see how the loss of Tkachyov and Boucher could fail to hamper Avangard’s play. After all, much of the team was built around those players. Avangard has enough to stay out of trouble, but there’s a risk that Omsk will fall away from the undisputed leaders in the east and settle around fourth or fifth place.