With two weeks to go until the 16th season of the Continental Hockey League begins, there are still some two dozen unrestricted free agent players on the market who have made a decent mark on Russian hockey. Today this list has been replenished with 29-year-old striker Vyacheslav Osnovin, who last season held one of the best championships in his career, but after changing coaches in Siberia, it turned out to be unnecessary for the Novosibirsk club. We will study the entire top 10 of the NSA, which in the near future may attract the attention of clubs that want to strengthen their squads.
v Anton Judobin, 37 years old
The last time the 37-year-old goaltender played in the KHL was 11 years ago during the NHL lockout. Then the Russian goalkeeper, who was under contract with the Boston Bruins, came to Russia and signed an agreement with Atlant. In the club near Moscow, Khudobin played several brilliant matches, but in general his performance in the KHL turned out to be far from the most impressive – seven wins out of 26 matches.
Since then, the career of a highly experienced goalkeeper has been able to deal with various twists of fate, both positive and negative. Only in recent years, Anton, unexpectedly having a chance to become the main goalkeeper of Dallas, managed to lead the American team to the Stanley Cup final, after which permanent injuries did not allow the goalkeeper to fully enjoy the game. at its end. seasons in the NHL.
After parting ways with Chicago, Khudobin closed the North American page on his career and is awaiting concrete proposals from the KHL. During the offseason, the Russian was paired with Lada, Dynamo Minsk or Barys, but so far the goalie remains in free agent status.
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H. Alexei Marchenko, 31 years old
The 31-year-old defender has long been one of Igor Nikitin’s favorite hockey players. One of the best specialists in the history of the KHL entrusted the hockey player with the main roles in the CSKA championship, and then took him to Yaroslavl. Alexei spent three seasons at Lokomotiv, the last of which was ruined by health problems.
In the 2022/2023 season, the player played only 22 matches in the regular season, and it would be a great luxury for the Yaroslavl club to continue to maintain a contract with a highly paid player. Nikitin himself spoke about this, commenting on the decision to refuse the services of a defender. Now Aleksey is a free agent, but still, the problems of a player with injuries scare many clubs away from his services.
“The injury, his relapse played a role. We cannot always control such processes. Hockey is a tough business. Hockey players, in general, sell their health. If there is no health, then there are problems in selling it. As harsh as it sounds, it’s the truth. I want to wish Lyokha good health. I told him about this after the termination of the contract, ”Nikitin frankly noted.
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H. Alexey Emelin, 37 years old
One of the most veteran players of the last season in the KHL managed to change teams during his course. Last season, the 37-year-old hockey player started in the Dynamo Minsk camp, but later moved to Spartak. And it is unlikely that this transition, at least to some extent, managed to strengthen the defense of the Moscow team.
Alexey Emelin
Photo: Vladimir Bezzubov, photo.khl.ru
At both clubs, Emelin was already pretty far from his best game. It is no coincidence that the final indicator of the hockey player’s utility was “-19” in 59 matches. The defenseman, who has played a total of nearly five hundred NHL games, may not be able to find a job this summer.
north. Daniel Tarasov, 32 years old
The 32-year-old striker’s career took a turn for the worse after leaving Dynamo Moscow. In his native club, Daniil progressed year after year, was one of the main leaders of the team and demonstrated high performance. It is no coincidence that Tarasov, with 77 goals, shares the second place in the list of the best Moscow snipers in the KHL to this day. Ahead is only Vadim Shipachyov, who scored 90 goals for the club.
However, after the move from Dynamo to Ak Bars, everything went very badly for Daniil. At first, the striker could not fully realize himself in the Kazan club, and then a frank failure in Avtomobilist followed (one goal in 11 matches). Now the hockey student from Moscow, apparently, will have to accept financial requests and find an acceptable option in which he can restart his career. Sibir’s interest in the player had been cautiously discussed for some time, but judging by Kirill Fastovsky’s latest statement, the Novosibirsk club are not currently looking for reinforcements on the free agent market.
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north. Fedor Malykhin, 32 years old
The 32-year-old striker was unemployed at the end of April when Avangard terminated the contract with the hockey player. The contract with the player was supposed to be valid until April 30, 2024, but in Omsk they decided to refuse the striker’s services. The season in the “hawks” Malykhin definitely could not write down as an asset.
Fedor Malijin
Photo: Ilnar Tukhbatov, photo.khl.ru
It is clear that the striker was used mainly in a holding combination, but nine points in 61 games, and even with a negative utility of “-8”, spoke for themselves. The transition from Vityaz to Avangard definitely did not benefit the striker, who once lit up very brightly in Avtomobilist.
north. Artem Fedorov, 30 years old
A year ago, after parting ways with Dynamo Moscow, Artyom Fedorov unexpectedly ended up at SKA. With all due respect to the striker’s ability, it was highly doubtful that Artyom would be able to break into the army club in the face of fierce competition. And so it happened. After 10 matches in the SKA form, Fedorov was exchanged in a direction known to former players of the army team – at HC Sochi.
In the southern club, Fedorov looked very good at times. 10 points in 16 games is a very good result. But all the impression of the game of Artyom on the Black Sea coast did not work out. All because of the injury, for which the striker missed an important part of last season.
north. Roman Lyubimov, 31 years old
Roman Lyubimov, 31, had absolutely no success last season. Once Dmitry Kvartalnov, who worked at CSKA, put the hockey player in the top three for Alexander Radulov, and that moment was one of the best in Roman’s career. It was after that season that Lyubimov was noticed by the Philadelphia Flyers, where the Russian forward subsequently played for a year.
roman lyubimov
Photo: Yuri Kuzmin, photo.khl.ru
After returning to his homeland, Lyubimov’s career began to develop in a downward direction. At first, there was a fairly decent season in Magnitogorsk (21 points), but then everything began to go downhill: a failure in Spartak, an unsuccessful transition to Ak Bars, an average championship in Amur and a final failure – all in the same Spartak ” (three points in 43 games).
H. Maxim Goncharov, 34 years old
It seemed that Maxim Goncharov was already close to the end of his playing career. We increasingly remember the 34-year-old defender as the host of one of the most famous hockey podcasts, where Goncharov acted as an interviewer together with Alexei Potapov.
But last season, Maxim made quite a decent impression in Neftekhimik, where the experienced defender did not spoil the picture at all. According to the player’s agent, Alexander Chernykh, there are teams interested in Goncharov’s services, and, apparently, closer to the beginning of the season, Maxim should find a job in one of the KHL clubs.
north. Alexey Potapov, 34 years old
Potapov, like Goncharov, recently participated in podcasts and featured performances, but Alexei still does not have a team – the striker was not offered a new contract at Dynamo Moscow. Last season was largely ruined due to a series of injuries.
Alexey Potapov
Photo: Sergey Babunov, photo.khl.ru
The episode that happened to Potapov in the match with CSKA immediately comes to mind, when his Dynamo teammate Andrei Nikonov hit Alexei on the head with a powerful throw. Due to the injury, the forward was out of action for an entire month, and then he also broke down during the playoffs, ending the series with Torpedo ahead of schedule due to a new injury.
north. Viacheslav Osnovin, 29 years old
But the former striker of “Siberia” will surely be able to find a new club even before the start of the regular season. The Chelyabinsk hockey graduate has never been distinguished by higher performance in the KHL, but last season Vyacheslav came just one point away from repeating his personal league record.
The 2014 MFM bronze medalist scored 22 points in 55 games, and earlier in his career finished the KHL regular season twice with 23 effective actions. One of the options being seen for a continuation of a hockey playing career is Amur, which is now managed by former Sibir coach Andrey Martemyanov.
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Other notable free agents: Mr. Stepan Sannikov, b. Vladislav Kartaev, b. Kirill Kapustin, b. Denis Mosalev, b. Viacheslav Litovchenko, b. Georgy Belousov, b. Artem Gareev, b. Gleb Zyryanov.
