Amur Khabarovsk

Amur Khabarovsk

Full name	Hockey Club Amur
Founded	1966
Based in	Khabarovsk, Russia
Arena	Platinum Arena (capacity: 7,100)
League	Kontinental Hockey League
Division	Chernyshev
Conference	Eastern
Team colors
Owner(s)	Dalspetsstroy
GM	Yuri Hrizman
Head coach	Sergei Shepelev
Captain	Dmitri Tarasov
Affiliates	Amurskie Tigry (MHL)
Website	www.hcamur.ru

Hockey Club Amur (Russian: Хоккейный клуб Амур), commonly referred to as the Amur Khabarovsk,^[1] is a Russian professional ice hockey team based in Khabarovsk. They are members of the Chernyshev Division of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Located in the Russian Far East, the team takes its name from the Amur River, and plays its home games at the Platinum Arena.

History

Amur Khabarovsk was founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk; it only adopted its current name in 1996, a name that comes from the nearby river Amur. By its location in the Russian Far East, the team is pretty isolated from every other team in the KHL, making rivalries difficult; the nearest KHL team is Admiral Vladivostok. Still, the team is very popular among Khabarovsk citizens, and despite its usual poor results, the team keeps being highly successful at the gates.

For a long time a lower division dweller, Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989, earning promotion to the upper level. In 1996, Khabarovsk promoted to the Russian Superleague. A relegation to the Vysshaya Liga occurred in 2004 when the mining company that funds the club had financial difficulties. The Tigers could promote back to the top level in 2006. That same financial crisis forced the team's reserve squad, the Golden Amur Khabarovsk, to withdraw from the Asia League where it played for the 2004-05 season. The team could finish the season and take part in the playoffs, however; they finished third in regular season standings and failed to reach the playoffs finals.

In 2008, Khabarovsk was one of the 24 founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League. The team played the league's inaugural game on September 2 against Dinamo Riga at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,100 people. Unfortunately for the fans, their team lost 4-2 to the Latvian side. Riga and the Tigers were playing back-to-back games in Khabarovsk, however, and on the second match, Amur won 7-6 in a tied game that went to shootouts. But the 2008-09 didn't prove to be very successful for the Tigers. The team was plagued with injuries - in October only, 11 players were side-lined, including imports Kyle Wanvig and Bryce Lampman. The Tigers needed to strengthen their squad, and therefore offered a contract to Carolina Hurricanes's Matt Murley, which resulted in a controversy sometimes compared to Alexander Radulov's, even though there are many differences. Murley's signing didn't prove beneficial for Amur though, as he only contributed 8 points to a fairly impotent offence that scored only 111 goals. Veterans Oleg Belkin and Peter Nylander were Amur's top goal scorers with 11 goals each; Belkin was top scorer with a meager 24 points in 50 games. Amur's defence was better, with regular defencemen Vasily Turkovsky and Viktor Kostyuchenok even managing to finish the season with a +3 and +2 record, respectively. But overall, the season was disappointing for the Tigers, with a 20th place, 15 wins and 60 points.

HC Amur players in 2015-16 season

Things barely improved in 2009-10. Amur finished 21st, out of playoffs again, this time again with 60 points and only 12 wins in regular time (plus three in overtime and six in the shootouts). Former Montreal Canadiens' and Columbus Blue Jackets' David Ling did the best in offense with 32 points, while Alexei Kopeikin and Ruslan Khasanshin were the best goal scorers with respectively 16 and 14 goals. All in all, it's only 129 goals that the team scored, 18 better than the previous season, but still fourth worst in the league. Oleg Belkin had to miss the whole season, while Peter Nylander left the team after ten game to go back in Sweden, joining Timrå IK of the Elitserien. The defence was not as solid as the previous season, with Turkovsky retired and Kostyuchenok traded to HC Spartak Moscow after 14 games. The result was 187 goals against, 29 more than the previous season. Former NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Nolan Pratt ended up being the fourth defenceman on the team in icetime and finished the season with 11 points and a -14 +/- rating. Fortunately, despite playing a disappointing season, Khabarovsk could still count on the 4th highest average attendance in the league, with an average of 7,100 fans per game.

Honors

Runners-up

KHL Cup of Hope (1): 2013

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	SOW	SOL	OTL	L	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Top Scorer	Playoffs
2008–09	56	15	2	2	6	1	30	60	111	158	6th, Kharlamov Div.	Oleg Belkin (25 points: 11 G, 14 A; 50 GP)	Did not qualify
2009–10	56	12	3	6	4	2	29	60	129	187	10th, East	David Ling (32 points: 8 G, 24 A; 46 GP)	Did not qualify
2010–11	54	13	1	1	3	4	32	50	112	173	11th, East	Radik Zakiev (25 points: 12 G, 13 A; 54 GP)	Did not qualify
2011–12	54	23	1	4	3	2	21	84	166	139	7th, East	Jakub Petružálek (50 points: 22 G, 28 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 4-0 (Avangard Omsk)
2012–13	52	11	1	4	1	0	35	44	115	167	13th, East	Jakub Petružálek (33 points: 15 G, 18 A; 41 GP)	Did not qualify
2013–14	54	8	1	4	10	1	30	45	106	182	14th, East	Alexander Yunkov (29 points: 18 G, 11 A; 50 GP)	Did not qualify
2014–15	60	11	0	3	4	2	40	45	117	207	14th, East	Dmitri Tarasov (36 points: 13 G, 23 A; 59 GP)	Did not qualify
2015–16	60	17	3	3	6	0	31	69	112	143	12th, East	Vladislav Ushenin (25 points: 14 G, 11 A; 57 GP)	Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Updated February 21, 2016.^[2][3]

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
52		Alikin, EvgenyEvgeny Alikin	G	L	21	2015	Perm, Russia
49		Aliu, AkimAkim Aliu	RW/D	R	26	2015	Okene, Nigeria
27		Atyushov, VitalyVitaly Atyushov	D	L	36	2015	Penza, Russian SFSR
13		Bashkirov, RuslanRuslan Bashkirov	LW	L	23	2012	Perm, Russia
72		Bergfors, NiclasNiclas Bergfors	RW	R	28	2015	Södertälje, Sweden
28		Byvaltsev, AlexeiAlexei Byvaltsev	C	L	22	2015	Magnitogorsk , Russia
54		Cherepanov, NikitaNikita Cherepanov	D	L	20	2015	Yaroslavl, Russia
25		Dedunov, PavelPavel Dedunov	RW	L	25	2015	Bolshoy Kamen, Russian SFSR
87		Grachev, EvgenyEvgeny Grachev (A)	C	L	26	2015	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
88		Ibragimov, RinatRinat Ibragimov	D	L	29	2015	Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakh SSR
91		Katsuba, StanislavStanislav Katsuba	W	L	24	2014	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
29		Kolář, JanJan Kolář (A)	D	L	29	2015	Pardubice, Czechoslovakia
95		Kopienko, RomanRoman Kopienko	W	R	20	2011	Khabarovsk, Russia
6		Kurbatov, EvgeniEvgeni Kurbatov	D	L	27	2014	Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR
90		Li, OlegOleg Li	RW	L	25	2015	Volgograd, Russian SFSR
51		Litovchenko, VyacheslavVyacheslav Litovchenko	C	L	26	2005	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
77		Metsola, JuhaJuha Metsola	G	L	27	2015	Tampere, Finland
34		Pechurskiy, AlexanderAlexander Pechurskiy	G	L	25	2014	Magnitogorsk, Russian SFSR
17		Pervushin, VladimirVladimir Pervushin	RW	L	29	2015	Omsk, Russian SFSR
5		Shulakov, VitalyVitaly Shulakov	D	L	32	2015	Angarsk, Russian SFSR
18		Skladnichenko, NikolaiNikolai Skladnichenko	RW	L	21	2015	Moscow, Russia
42		Sokolov, KonstantinKonstantin Sokolov	RW	L	24	2015	Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakh SSR
55		Stalnov, DaniilDaniil Stalnov	D	L	21	2015	Rybinsk, Russia
14		Tarasov, DmitriDmitri Tarasov (C)	LW	L	37	2011	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
53		Tolpeko, DenisDenis Tolpeko	LW	L	30	2015	Moscow, Russian SFSR
71		Ushenin, VladislavVladislav Ushenin	F	R	23	2015	Magnitogorsk, Russia
79		Ushenin, VyacheslavVyacheslav Ushenin	C	R	23	2015	Magnitogorsk, Russia
58		Veryovkin, MaximMaxim Veryovkin	D	L	26	2015	Glazov, Russia
70		Wandell, TomTom Wandell	C	L	29	2015	Södertälje, Sweden
98		Zheleznov, MikhailMikhail Zheleznov	LW	R	25	2014	Moscow, Russian SFSR
80		Zohorna, TomášTomáš Zohorna	F	L	28	2015	Chotebor, Czechoslovakia
4		Zub, ArtyomArtyom Zub	D	R	20	2014	Khabarovsk, Russia

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history in the KHL. Figures are updated after each completed regular season.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; bold = current Amur player

Points Player Pos GP G A Pts P/G Dmitri Tarasov LW 249 47 62 109 0.43 Jakub Petruzalek RW 133 50 53 103 0.77 Alexei Kopeikin LW 183 32 51 83 0.45 Alexander Yunkov LW 186 38 39 77 0.41 Dmitri Lugin LW 207 31 39 70 0.33 Igor Ignatushkin RW 172 34 24 58 0.33 Vitali Shulakov D 179 16 37 53 0.29 Alexander Nikulin C 103 12 38 50 0.48 Alexander Osipov D 133 31 18 49 0.36 Sergei Plotnikov LW 141 24 20 44 0.31

Goals Player Pos G Jakub Petruzalek RW 50 Dmitri Tarasov LW 47 Alexander Yunkov LW 38 Igor Ignatushkin RW 34 Alexei Kopeikin LW 32 Dmitri Lugin LW 31 Alexander Osipov D 31 Sergei Plotnikov LW 24 Petr Vrana C 19 Ruslan Khasanshin C 18

Assists Player Pos A Dmitri Tarasov LW 62 Jakub Petruzalek RW 53 Alexei Kopeikin LW 51 Alexander Yunkov LW 39 Dmitri Lugin LW 39 Alexander Nikulin C 38 Vitaly Shulakov D 37 David Ling C 30 Andrei Stepanov RW 29 Alexander Krysanov LW 28

References

1. "Amur Khabarovsk's profile". Kontinental Hockey League. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
2. "Amur Khabarovsk Roster" (in Russian). www.hcamur.ru. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
3. "Amur Khabarovsk team roster". www.khl.ru. Retrieved 2014-12-30.

External links

• Official HC Amur website (Russian)