![]() ![]() And Sharov is not a bad choice for third man on that line. Stoa (53 gp, 15-15-30 for Spartak last season) is a good scorer who can help Kravtsov along the 31-year-old American has four 15-goal seasons in the KHL. Sharov drew into that slot for Sunday’s game. However, judging by Sunday’s season-opener for Traktor, his linemates are likely to be newcomer Ryan Stoa and somebody else Alexander P. Kravtsov missed much of the pre-season on duty with Russia’s U20 national team, so we don’t know much about how coach Titov will use him. He’s big (6’4″), very skilled, and was chosen tenth overall by the New York Rangers in the 2018 NHL draft. In short, when Bailen is not on the ice, the goal for the defencemen will largely be to keep things quiet and let the forwards do what they can.Īnd what can those forwards do? Of course, much attention this season will be paid to 18-year-old Vitaly Kravtsov, who caught the hockey world’s eye in this spring’s playoffs by scoring 11 points in Traktor’s first nine games (this earned him, mildly controversially, the KHL’s Rookie of the Year Award). Much the same can be said about the pairing of Yevgeny Ryasensky (20 gp, 0-1-1, +1) and Chelyabinsk native Artyom Borodkin (50 gp, 2-6-8, +2), although the latter at least has shown some two-way ability in his career. Newcomer Nikita Khlystov (32 gp, 1-1-2, -3 for KRS) and NHL veteran Nikita Nikitin (33 gp, 0-4-4, +8) will be one duo, and should be able to do the job defensively, although neither will contribute to the scoring very much. That duo likely will return this season, and in theory it will allow Bailen to rampage around and support the forwards, while Shinin minds the shop at the back.Īs for the second and third pairings, I expect few miracles, although they should not be disastrous. And things settled a bit for him last season after he was paired with the very stay-at-home Alexander Shinin, a veteran of all 11 KHL seasons who by coincidence has also scored 11 career goals. Nick Bailen was a high-event guy at both ends of the ice in 2017-18, but the positives out-weighed the negatives, as he scored 11-19-30 in 56 games and went +2 (that’s decent scoring for a forward, let alone a d-man). On the bright side, however, Traktor still have a very nice first pairing. In fact, the team will very much miss Ivan Vishnevsky, who scored well while keeping the chaos to a minimum (56 gp, 5-12-17, +9). Traktor conceded 34 shots per game last season, most in the KHL, and there are few new faces to call upon. However, “pretty good” may not be good enough, unless new coach Titov finds a way to settle the defense a bit. While Traktor’s goaltending will likely regress this season compared to last, it should still be pretty good. And in acquiring Alexander Sudnitsin from Lokomotiv, they get an experienced goalie who can start, play backup, or platoon with Demchenko (Sudnitsin played 35 games last season, with a. That’s impossible to replace, but Traktor can at least still call upon Vasily Demchenko, who did very well as a frequently-used backup to Francouz last season (28 gp. ![]() 946, and won the league’s top goalie award (no fluke, either - he went. ![]() Off to the NHL is Czech netminder Pavel Francouz, after a season in which he played 35 games, posted a sv% of. First, the bad news: Traktor had the best goalie in the KHL last season, and they don’t have him anymore. ![]()
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