HC Vityaz

HC Vityaz
HC Vityaz
City	Balashikha, Moscow Oblast
League	KHL 2008–present RSL; 2000–2001, 2005–2008; Vysshaya Liga; 1998–2000, 2001–2005; First League; 1997–1998;
Conference	Western
Division	Bobrov
Founded	1996
Home arena	Arena Balashikha; (capacity: 5,500)
Colours
President	Mikhail Golovkov
General manager	Igor Varitskiy
Head coach	Pavel Desyatkov
Captain	Vladimir Galuzin
Affiliates	HC Yunison-Moskva (VHL); Russkie Vityazi (MHL)
Website	hcvityaz.ru
Franchise history
	HC Vityaz Podolsk; 1996–2004, 2013–2022; HC Vityaz Chekhov; 2004–2013; Vityaz Moscow Region; 2022–present
	Current season

Hockey Club Vityaz Moscow Region (ХК Витязь) is a professional ice hockey team based in Balashikha, Moscow Oblast, Russia. They are members of the Bobrov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League. In the first few seasons of the KHL, the team was widely known for playing a tough and physical North American-influenced style of hockey.^[1]^[2]

History

The club was founded in 1996 in Podolsk. In 2000, the team moved to the neighboring city of Chekhov; however, the team kept playing under the name Vityaz Podolsk until 2004, where the renaming was finally done. The team initially played its home games at the Ice Palace Vityaz in Podolsk, the same arena HC MVD used until 2006. Such a thing was allowed by virtue of the opening in 2004 of a new arena in Chekhov, the Ice Hockey Center 2004, that Vityaz began using. Initially, this arena had a capacity of 1,370; it was expanded in 2007–08 to 3,300. Vityaz played at the top level of Russian hockey for the 2000–01 season; it got relegated to Vysshaya Liga at the end of the season. In 2005, Vityaz made to the Vysshaya Liga final losing the championship to HC MVD 4 games to 1 but earned a promotion back to the elite level.^{[citation needed]}

Rumors of a move back to Podolsk arose in the wake of the inaugural KHL season as even with the expansion of 2007–08, due to Chekhov's capacity being below the KHL league standards. The team restarted playing their home games in Podolsk, but remained attached to Chekhov. For the 2013–14 KHL season, the team moved back to Podolsk.^[3]

Kontinental Hockey League

Chekhov's debuts in the KHL were pretty bad. Vityaz registered a mere 6 wins in regulation, plus 5 in overtime; in counterpart for those 11 wins, the team lost 45 times (of which, 12 games were in overtime). The meager 40 points collected meant that the team finished at a dismal 23rd place out of 24, a single point ahead of the equally bad Khimik Voskresensk. Head coach Sergei Gomolyako made the mistake in October to dress one more foreign player than allowed by the rules, resulting in a match lost by forfeit. Gomolyako claimed he ignored there was such a rule, and the following week, he was fired, to be replaced by former NHL player and Vityaz head coach Mike Krushelnyski. Vityaz' fans enjoyed the return of Krushelnyski, who was had brought the team to the playoffs in 2006–07. But Chekhov's goon-full roster, which general manager Alexei Zhamnov wishes to shape after the 1990s Chicago Blackhawks for whom he played, just couldn't bring good enough performances to repeat the feat. They however led the league in penalty minutes, some 500 minutes ahead of the second most penalized club, with players such as Nathan Perrott (137 minutes in 9 matches and not a single point), Darcy Verot (more disciplined and productive than in his first season with Vityaz, even though it still only meant 5 points and 168 minutes) and Chris Simon (league leader at 263 minutes, and club's second best scorer behind Gleb Klimenko at 27 points).^{[citation needed]}

Death of Alexei Cherepanov

Chekhov's season was darkened by the death of Alexei Cherepanov in October 2008, a death occurred on its home ice and that might have been avoided had Chekhov's arena been equipped with a working defibrillator and the ambulance that is required to remain available until the end of the match not departed well before the end, resulting in much longer delays between the accident and the moment where Cherepanov arrived at the nearest hospital.^[4] ^[5]

Mass brawl in Chekhov

2009–10 felt like déja-vu for Chekhov. After almost being thrown out of the league due to its finances in August (it needed to find 300 million rubles, which it did), the Knights started the season with two wins and temporarily led the league. Things didn't last however as the team finished 23rd out of 24 teams with only 13 regular-season wins (plus 3 in overtime and 2 in the shootouts—an improvement from the previous year), 54 points and, once again, a colossal amount of penalty minutes: 1522, ahead and by far every other team in the league. Vadim Berdnikov, Gleb Klimenko (who came back from Kazan) and Chris Simon led the offence with respectively 33, 27 and 25 points.^{[citation needed]}

Once again, an incident between Vityaz and Avangard marked the season. On January 9, 2010, the game between Vityaz and Avangard was stopped after 3 minutes and 39 seconds when a bench-clearing and penalty-box-clearing brawl broke out. Darcy Verot had instigated the brawl after three minutes of play when he shot the puck at an Avangard player. A mass brawl quickly followed, which the referees could deal with. However, as soon as the game was resumed, fighting resumed as well and both benches cleared to join the fight.^[6] The game was quickly getting out of hand and the officials decided it was better to cancel the whole game. Little else could be done, as a whopping total of 707 penalty minutes had been incurred – a new world record – and a total of 33 players on both teams have been ejected from the game, as well as both head coaches. Only four players avoided being ejected. The KHL imposed a total of 5.7 million rubles (about US $191,000) fines, including 150,000 rubles fines to Vityaz's Darcy Verot and Brandon Sugden and Avangard's Alexander Svitov and Dmitry Vlasenkov.^[7] Additionally, Verot, Sugden, Vlasenkov and four other Vityaz players received one-game suspensions.^{[citation needed]}

Season-by-season KHL record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	GP	W	OTW	L	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Top Scorer	Playoffs
2008–09	56	7	5	32	12	43	137	226	6th, Chernyshev	Gleb Klimenko (30 points: 19 G, 11 A; 39 GP)	Did not qualify
2009–10	56	13	5	33	5	54	142	216	6th, Tarasov	Vadim Berdnikov (33 points: 9 G, 24 A; 47 GP)	Did not qualify
2010–11	54	13	4	32	5	52	119	178	6th, Tarasov	Vadim Berdnikov (29 points: 12 G, 17 A; 53 GP)	Did not qualify
2011–12	54	10	6	36	2	44	108	193	6th, Tarasov	Mikhail Anisin (29 points: 16 G, 13 A; 38 GP)	Did not qualify
2012–13	52	11	7	26	8	55	119	151	6th, Bobrov	Alexander Korolyuk (29 points: 15 G, 14 A; 41 GP)	Did not qualify
2013–14	54	12	6	26	10	58	110	147	7th, Tarasov	Maxim Afinogenov (26 points: 12 G, 14 A; 53 GP)	Did not qualify
2014–15	60	20	6	28	6	78	152	186	7th, Tarasov	Mario Kempe (30 points: 13 G, 19 A; 54 GP)	Did not qualify
2015–16	60	17	6	32	3	70	129	166	6th, Tarasov	Maxim Afinogenov (28 points: 15 G, 13 A; 56 GP)	Did not qualify
2016–17	60	26	7	22	5	97	162	158	5th, Tarasov	Alexei Kopeikin (51 points: 21 G, 30 A; 60 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0–4 (SKA Saint Petersburg)
2017–18	56	17	4	27	8	67	131	160	7th, Tarasov	Alexei Makeyev (38 points: 18 G, 20 A; 55 GP)	Did not qualify
2018–19	62	23	5	27	7	63	134	169	4th, Tarasov	Miro Aaltonen (42 points: 19 G, 23 A; 61 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2019–20	62	19	8	24	11	65	137	166	3rd, Tarasov	Alexander Semin (38 points: 18 G, 20 A; 50 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0–4 (SKA Saint Petersburg)
2020–21	60	21	6	28	5	59	155	175	5th, Bobrov	Justin Danforth (55 points: 23 G, 32 A; 58 GP)	Did not qualify
2021–22	48	9	6	20	13	43	121	149	5th, Bobrov	Niko Ojamäki (43 points: 29 G, 14 A; 48 GP)	Did not qualify
2022–23	68	24	10	26	8	76	169	170	3rd, Bobrov	Scott Wilson (39 points: 20 G, 19 A; 66 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2023–24	68	14	6	40	8	48	133	224	5th, Bobrov	Derek Barach (35 points: 10 G, 25 A; 68 GP)	Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Updated 15 September 2024.^[8]^[9]


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
98	Nikita Almazov	F	L	20	2023	Kaluga, Russia
15	Ilya Anufriyev	F	R	21	2022	Podolsk, Russia
93	Ilya Arkalov (C)	LW	L	31	2021	Moscow, Russia
26	Derek Barach	C	R	29	2023	Glenmont, New York, United States
73	Nicholas Baptiste (A)	RW	R	29	2024	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
72	Dmitri Buchelnikov	LW	R	21	2024	Nizhny Tagil, Russia
7	Yaroslav Busygin	D	L	21	2021	Korkino, Russia
82	Ivan Chekhovich	LW	L	25	2024	Yekaterinburg, Russia
28	Andrei Chivilev	F	L	24	2024	Nizhnekamsk, Russia
41	Alexander Daryin	LW	R	24	2023	Yaroslavl, Russia
83	Maxim Dorozhko	G	L	26	2022	Podolsk, Russia
10	Vladimir Galuzin (C)	C	L	36	2022	Nizhny Novgorod, Russian SFSR
23	Frédérik Gauthier	C	L	29	2024	Laval, Quebec, Canada
2	Igor Golovkov (A)	D	L	34	2011	Moscow, Russian SFSR
91	Ivan Kozlov	C	L	25	2023	Yaroslavl, Russia
19	Daniil Malorosiyanov	D	L	19	2023	St. Petersburg, Russia
95	Yegor Morozov (C)	RW	L	29	2024	Tolyatti, Russia
53	Ruslan Pedan	D	L	30	2023	Kaunas, Lithuania
79	Jeremy Roy (A)	D	R	27	2022	Richelieu, Quebec, Canada
57	Yegor Rykov	D	L	27	2024	Vidnoye, Russia
21	Ivan Savchik	C	L	24	2023	Chelyabinsk, Russia
44	Dmitri Shikin	G	L	33	2022	Elektrostal, Russian SFSR
96	David Shvangiradze	D	L	20	2023	Penza, Russia
18	Dean Stewart	D	R	26	2024	Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada
87	Vladislav Tsitsyura	F	L	25	2023	Rybinsk, Russia
9	Vladislav Valentsov	D	L	28	2022	Tyumen, Russia
16	Grigori Vashchenko	D	L	29	2024	St. Petersburg, Russia
67	Kirill Vasilyev	D	L	21	2022	Podolsk, Russia
86	Ivan Vorobyov	F	R	22	2023	Surgut, Russia
59	Yegor Voronkov	D	R	27	2015	Podolsk, Russia
13	Stanislav Yarovoy	F	R	21	2022	Tuymazy, Russia
27	Ivan Yezhov	F	L	24	2022	Nizhnevartovsk, Russia
65	Filat Zotov	D	L	22	2021	Samara, Russia
14	Yegor Zubov	F	L	23	2021	Chelyabinsk, Russia

All-Star game

KHL All-Star Game

Players

Mikhail Anisin, RW, 2011–12, 2012
Alexander Korolyuk, RW, 2004–05, 2005–08, 2012–2014, 2013
Chris Simon, LW, 2008–11, 2010, 2011
Ivan Lisutin, G, 2012–15, 2014
Maxim Afinogenov, RW, 2013–18, 2014

Head coaches

Vyacheslav Anisin, July 1, 1997 – 31 May 1999
Alexander Zachesov, 1 June 1999 – 11 October 2000
Alexander Barinev, 11 October 2000 – 30 April 2001
Valery Belov, 30 April 2001 – 15 June 2003
Yury Rumyancev, 15 June 2003 – 5 April 2004
Miskat Fakrutdinov, 5 April 2004 – 16 January 2005
Alexander Bodunov, January 16, 2005 – 30 June 2005
Anatoly Bogdanov, 30 June 2005 – 27 October 2005
Alexander Bodunov, 27 October 2005 – 4 April 2006
Mike Krushelnyski, 4 April 2006 – 31 March 2007
Miskat Fakrutdinov, 18 June 2007 – 28 October 2007
Sergey Gomolyako, 29 October 2007 – 5 November 2008
Mike Krushelnyski, 6 November 2008 – 3 December 2009
Alexei Yarushkin, 6 December 2009 – 14 October 2010
Andrei Nazarov, 14 October 2010 – 18 May 2012
Yuri Leonov, 20 June 2012 – 11 January 2014
Oleg Orekhovskiy, 11 January 2014 – 2016
Valeri Belov, 2016 – 2019
Mikhail Kravets, 2019 – 2021
Yuri Babenko, 2021 – 2022
Vyacheslav Butsayev, 2022 – 2023
Dmitri Ryabykin, 2023 – 2024
Pavel Desyatkov, 2024 –

Franchise records and leaders

KHL scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history in the KHL. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; bold = current Vityaz player ^[10]

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
Alexei Makeyev	381	86	101	187	134	−4	17	5	16
Maxim Afinogenov	268	80	84	164	325	−24	19	3	9
Miro Aaltonen	198	57	95	152	76	4	22	2	11
Roman Horak	224	59	56	115	106	−22	21	5	4
Alexander Semin	144	45	53	98	150	−12	17	0	11
Vadim Berdnikov	163	31	61	92	177	−22	7	3	3
Mario Kempe	166	39	44	83	144	−28	13	2	7
Chris Simon	113	37	43	80	503	−17	19	0	9
Jakub Jeřábek	158	21	57	78	118	5	10	0	2
Artemi Panarin	143	29	46	75	97	−15	10	0	2