While the KHL conference finals rattle on in the background, two coaches, one from each conference, have been gifted extensions after two successful seasons: Andrei Nazarov of Barys and Harijs Vītoliņš of Dynamo Moscow.
We start with a contending team, Dynamo Moscow. Freshly after being eliminated in the semifinals, some positive news was delivered. President of the team, Arkady Rotenberg, confirmed that head coach Harijs Vītoliņš has been extended. While the details are not confirmed yet, they are due out before April 30. More so, it has put to rest the constant rumors about Oleg Znaroks is returning to his team and of course, his beloved cat as well. Vītoliņš was promoted to head coach of Dynamo Moscow last May after Oleg Znarok was named as Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s successor to Team Russia’s head coaching position.
Dynamo Moscow hasn’t done that bad this season either. They were a Gagarin Cup favorite, only to fall to SKA St. Petersburg in the second round of the playoffs. They finished the regular season with the same amount of points as SKA, but with a slightly worse record, finishing with a 41-13-6 record. While not achieving the same conference title as before, Dynamo hasn’t changed much. It has more to do with the fact that CSKA Moscow’s dominant force was pushing both SKA and Dynamo Moscow down. With a strong team and a good head coach, the extension seemed fitting. With his head held high, he commented to Allhockey.ru: “I hope that the future will be good!”. Things look bright for the talented Latvian coach and his team.
We then head over to Barys, where Andrei Nazarov was extended for one year, according to “F-Sport” and the team’s press service. The board of trustees had commented on the move saying that “at the end of the season, the team had achieved satisfactory results” and as a result they “decided to extend the contract with the coaching staff Andrei Nazarov for the season of 2015-16”. This extension is a nice reward for a team that has performed admirably and finished with a strong season.
While not being as dominant as the year before, Barys had a successful year, comfortably taking fifth place in the Eastern Conference and finishing with a 30-21-9 record. However, they stumbled at the first block and had their postseason cut short in a Game 7 loss to Avengard. It ended up being one of the more thrilling first-round series with displays of strong effort and a very close matchup. The season could easily be considered a success. Despite sitting lower down in the standings compared to the 13-14 season, they finished only one point less than last year. In context, playing in a tougher, stronger Eastern Conference with Ak Bars becoming a force and Sibir turning their season around halfway through, Barys did well to stay afloat and fight tooth and nail to the end. Obviously, the Board of Governors sees a strong future in this team and Nazarov will be a foundational asset for a team with that much potential.
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