Avangard returned the main star. Tkachev can earn 200 million per season!
Rodion Vlasov August 6, 2023, 13:15 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
After many permutations and transitions from the Omsk club camp, unequivocally positive news comes.
The entire Avangard offseason passed under the sign of grandiose changes, and most often not with a plus sign. The departure of Alexander Krylov and the executive director, the soap opera named after Gritsyuk, the simultaneous departure of the student from Omsk and Tolchinsky to the SKA, a strong renewal of the coaching staff without the most experienced assistants, the signing of people who do not know They performed very well on the middle peasants. The list can go on for a long time – the Omsk summer turned out to be extremely chaotic.
But now Avangard fans have unequivocally positive news: the club signed a contract with Vladimir Tkachev for three years. “Since the connection with Reed Boucher remains, we believe that in the new season Vladimir will show the maximum of his abilities. I note that for Tkachev the option with our club was a priority, he wants to play at home and please his fans. Therefore, it was quite easy for us to come to an agreement. A team will be built around him for the next three seasons, ”said Anton Kuryanov, the club’s general manager.
vladimir tkachov
Photo: Victoria Trufanova, photo.khl.ru
However, the pleasure of extension was not cheap. According to SE, Tkachev’s salary will be 101 million rubles, and the striker can remove another 100 million with bonuses. It turns out that the Omsk pupil will occupy 11% of the space under the roof – this is the level of Nikita Kucherov in Tampa. However, the influence of the two wingers on their teams’ play is comparable. Perhaps the Omsk leadership took into account the spring events that caused the loss of the second link, and Tkachev’s transfer indicates that Avangard has restored relations with the influential Shumi Babaev.
However, the reactivation of the Boucher-Knight-Tkachev link will not happen, as the league’s main specialist in the game of throw-ins leaves for Switzerland. Colleagues report that Patrice Cormier may be a possible replacement for the Canadian. The former striker Avtomobilist is much inferior to Knight in the plan of attack, but he is not inferior to him in terms of efficiency and defensive play, and even more sharply in the “point”. Also, in a trio with two of those technicians, Cormier will be able to score a lot of points with a penny and spikes. It is true that in the summer the Canadian signed a contract in Germany, but Omsk certainly has funds in reserve for compensation.
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“Our number one goal is to go to the NHL. Abroad, there is interest in Vladimir, and I have already started negotiations with the clubs, ”Babaev said in April. But it was hard to imagine a small, technical forward in a league where the ideal of a modern hockey player is embodied by fast-footed Las Vegas greats. Tkachev would need to get into conditions like the old Tampa or Chicago to gain a foothold in the NHL, but there are very few such clubs in the league right now.
At the same time, unlike the story with Gritsyuk, the player and his representatives did not come into conflict with Omsk. “Tkachev did not refuse to play at Avangard. They just stopped talking. They said: “If we have Bob Hartley, we don’t see Tkachev in the lineup.” There are no questions,” Babaev said in the summer. It is not known how much the Canadian himself, who announced the end of his coaching career, wanted to return to Omsk, but without his assistants he would definitely not have done it: the return did not take place.
How will signing Tkachev affect the team as a whole? Much has been said about the weakened East, but many teams have either strengthened significantly (SU, Amur, Barys) or kept most of their backbone (Ak Bars, Avtomobilist). The heavy losses suffered mainly the residents of Omsk and Metallurg. Tkachev’s transfer saves Avangard from the worst possible option: in a higher link, even in the ceiling era, you can always go to the playoffs. But more questions arise.
Vladimir Tkachov and Reed Boucher
Photo: Dmitry Loshkarev, photo.khl.ru
Signing Tkachev also has reputational value: in the context of stereotypes about players “trying to leave Omsk”, keeping the local star was essential. Now, other free agents that Avangard will be chasing will have a living example before their eyes. Well, for Avangard itself, this is not the end of the selection, but only the middle: we must try to solve the problem with the second goalkeeper, with the strengthening of the third link, and Cormier himself or any other Canadian must also be taken to Russia.
