Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in 2017-18

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Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod have been in an interesting position the last few years: not Gagarin Cup contenders, but a very difficult handful for any team in the league.  2016-17 was no exception to this, as the post-season was visited for a fourth straight time, and though Torpedo were dismissed in five first-round games by Dynamo Moscow, four of those games went to overtime.  And then, this off-season, pretty much the entire roster departed and was replaced.  Was this upheaval for the better, or for the worse?  Read on…

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Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in 2016-17: 27 W — 8 OT/SO W — 7 OT/SO L — 18 L

4th in Tarasov Div., 6th in West Conf., 9th in KHL.  Lost in Conf. QFs.

Current Roster (via team website) 

Head Coach: Pēteris Skudra

Off-season Moves:

In: F Yegor Dugin (Dynamo Moscow); D Timur Fatkullin (Metallurg Novokuznetsk); G Stanislav Galimov (Ak Bars Kazan); D Mikhail Grigoryev (Avangard Omsk Oblast); F Žiga Jeglič (Slovan Bratislava); F Sergei Kostitsyn (Dinamo Minsk); D Tomáš Kundrátek (Slovan Bratislava); F Maxim Lazarev (Ak Bars Kazan); G Ivan Lisutin (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg); D Yegor Malenkikh* (Kulager Petropavlovsk [KAZ]); D Renat Mamashev (HK Sochi); D Pavel Medvedev (Sokol Krasnoyarsk [VHL]); F Jan Muršak (CSKA Moscow); F Denis Parshin (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); F Sergei Smurov (THK Tver [VHL]); F Gennady Stolyarov (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk); D Andrei Yermakov (CSKA Moscow); F Mikhail Zhukov (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk)

*=Player on try-out.

 Out: G Maxim Alyapkin (Sputnik Nizhny Tagil [VHL]); F Carter Ashton (Lada Tolyatti); G Mikhail Biryukov (Vityaz Moscow Oblast); F Vladislav Bogoslovsky (Unknown); F Bobby Butler (Milwaukee Admirals [AHL]); D Roman Derlyuk (Unknown); F Daniil Ilyin (Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk); F Maxim Kitsyn (Admiral Vladivostok); D Ilya Kolganov (Sokol Krasnoyarsk [VHL]); D Sam Lofquist (Unknown); F Brandon McMillan (Dinamo Riga); F John Norman (Jokerit Helsinki); D Maxim Osipov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa); G Ilya Proskuryakov (Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk); D Dmitry Shulenin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk); F Dmitry Syomin (Vityaz Moscow Oblast); D Stanislav Yegorshev (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg); D Ivan Vishnevsky (Traktor Chelyabinsk); F Daniil Zharkov (Lada Tolyatti); F Nikolai Zherdev (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk)

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Despite last season’s fairly solid performance, it was a summer of massive turnover for Torpedo, and we start in goal.  Proskuryakov did the lion’s share of the work last season, and did it decently enough (50 gp, .927 sv%), while Biryukov was very good in the back-up role (13 gp, .940 sv%).  Both have departed, but their two replacements should be up to the task.  Galimov went .926 in 24 games for Ak Bars last season, and has generally been one of the KHL’s better netminders throughout his career.  Lisutin, meanwhile, posted a .924 sv% with two teams in 2016-17.  Both new goalies, in other words, were above average, if not by a great deal, and a season of that should serve Torpedo just fine.

Torpedo’s defence was very effective in 2016-17.  The team conceded just 124 goals, fifth-best in the KHL, and only some of the credit for that goes to the goalies.  However, a scorched-earth policy has been adopted with regards to last year’s blueliners; of the seven d-men who played at least 20 games, only young power-play specialist Artyom Alyayev (31 gp, 6-2-8, with five of goals coming with the man advantage) remains in the fold, and he may be destined for the VHL farm club at least to start.  Osipov is the big loss, having led Torpedo’s rearguards in goals and points (58 gp, 7-9-16) and tied for second on the entire squad at +14.  Lofquist chipped in usefully as well (43 gp, 4-9-13), while Yegorshev was the unit’s defensive rock with a team-leading +22.  So, big skates, and many of them, in need of filling.

Timur Fatkullin shows of Torpedo’s new 2017-18 sweater earlier this month.  (Image Source)

However, much as with the goalies, Torpedo’s defensive newcomers are a promising lot.  Kundrátek, Medvedev, and Mamashev have proven track records as scoring defencemen, if not of the first rank, while Grigoryev is likely slated for a more depth-y sort of role.  Yermakov, just 23, is making his way as a defensive type (interestingly, he and Medvedev were team-mates on the 2012-13 Spartak junior squad that went all the way to the MHL’s Kharlamov Cup final).  But the pick of the incoming blueline group may be Fatkullin.  Still just 20 years old, he scored nine points in 39 KHL games last season, and a very impressive 9-10-19 in 22 games on the junior circuit (he also, in the KHL, managed to go -7 on a dreadful Metallurg Novokuznetsk team, and that’s not bad at all).  Definitely a young man to keep an eye on!

Torpedo were far from an offensive powerhouse last season (145 goals for, third-fewest among KHL playoff teams), so no surprise that there has also been significant turnover in the forward group.  For the past couple of seasons, Kaspars Daugaviņš has been the go-to man for offense in Nizhny Novgorod, and last season he joint-led the team with 32 points (10-22-32) in 47 games.  Daugaviņš remains on the roster, but the other 32-point man, Syomin (60 gp, 14-18-32), is gone, as is Torpedo’s top 2016-17 goal-scorer in Ashton (59 gp, 18-10-28).  When we toss in Zherdev (54 gp, 8-21-29), three out of Torpedo top four point-scorers from last season are gone.  Now, that’s not as big a problem as it might seem, since those numbers are particularly impressive for the team leaders, and Daugaviņš is certainly capable of scoring more than he did last season.  However, reinforcements were certainly needed this summer, and we do indeed see a large number of new forwards coming through the door.

Among those newcomers, the most likely to turn Torpedo’s scoring woes around would seem to be Lazarev.  At just 21, he is coming off a rookie professional campaign in which he scored 3-1-4 in 35 games for Ak Bars, and added a line of 20 gp, 3-5-8 in the second-tier VHL.  Not great numbers, to be sure, but Ak Bars is a notoriously tough place for youngsters to play; those four KHL points were recorded in just six minutes of ice-time per game.  And Lazarev was a prolific scorer for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles of the QMJHL.  From 2014 to 2016, he posted a line of 66-89-155 in just 117 games in “the Q,” so he certainly knows where the net is, and it will be interesting to see how he flourishes away from the strictness of the Ak Bars system.

As for the other new forwards, Muršak and Parshin both have very solid scoring seasons on their resumes, and although in neither case were those the most recent campaign, they still represent very solid bets.  Muršak’s fellow-Slovenian Jeglič is not quite at the same level, but did post career-best numbers with Slovan last season (58 gp, 11-16-27) and is a good playmaker.  Stolyarov and Kostitsyn, meanwhile, bring some veteran stability to the forward group, and should be very solid additions as long as they are not asked to carry too much of the freight.  Overall, then, I think we have to say that there has been a net improvement of Torpedo’s roster up front.

On paper, the goaltending and defence look to be about equal to last year’s editions, despite all the turnover, and as mentioned the forwards should probably be a bit better in 2017-18.  The question however is how quickly the team can gel as a unit, given the large number of new faces.  Here, though, Torpedo have an ace in the hole in coach Skudra.  Now entering his fifth season in charge of the team — a remarkably long tenure for a KHL head coach — the 44-year-old has a reputation for doing a lot with middling talent, although he can also get himself into disciplinary trouble on occasion.  This Torpedo team should certainly finish no worse than last year’s, and may well climb a spot or two in the West Conference standings.

The Big Question: Based on the criteria laid out in  the league’s new strategic plan, three teams will be leaving the KHL after 2017-18 — will Torpedo be one of them?  Almost certainly not; this is a well-run club in a fairly large market (Nizhny Novgorod has about 1.25 million people), with good on-ice results and excellent attendance (95% capacity last season).  The only reason for the “almost” is Torpedo’s arena.  The Trade Union Sports Palace seats only 5600, and is half a century old to boot (it was significantly renovated in 2007, mind you).  There has been much talk over the past few years of a new building, but seemingly little progress.  However, there are any number of teams in more dire straits than Torpedo, overall, and the Nizhny Novgorod club should be just fine.

Next up: Dinamo Minsk.