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This content was machine-translated from the French version.
The hockey world will have its eyes on Saint Petersburg this Saturday, July 25. The Match of the Year, an event conceived by Artemi Panarin and Mikhail Sergachev, will pit two teams made up of 24 NHL players and 21 KHL representatives. A rare bridge between the two leagues, as Russian hockey players remain deprived of official international competitions since their federation was suspended by the IIHF.
The lineup is becoming clearer every day. Damir Sharipzyanov, captain and record-setting defenseman of Avangard Omsk, will join the Panarin team staff to oversee the defense. On the opposing side, Alex Ovechkin was drafted by the Sergachev team, alongside his Capitals teammate Aliaksei Protas. The SKA Arena, a 21,500-seat venue inaugurated in 2024, will host this gala that brings together a generation of Russian talents playing on both sides of the Atlantic. The unprecedented format seeks to maintain a link between NHL players and their home audience in a context where the national team remains absent from major tournaments.
Damir Sharipzyanov, captain and record-setting defenseman of Avangard Omsk, will join the Panarin team staff to oversee the defense.
A busy summer transfer market
The transfer market knows no pause. The Shanghai Dragons, a Chinese KHL franchise, have officially announced the signing of Canadian defenseman Turner Ottenbreit for one season. The 27-year-old giant knows the league well: he played 64 games with Kunlun Red Star in 2023-2024, compiling 110 hits and 103 blocked shots. Evgeny Artyukhin, the club's general manager, praised a player with an unyielding character, always ready to defend his teammates. Ottenbreit comes off a 13-point campaign in 57 games with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL. His return to Asia strengthens a Chinese defense looking to establish itself permanently in the KHL landscape.
Spartak Moscow, for its part, has secured its young forward Ignat Korotkikh. The 24-year-old has signed a two-season two-way contract. Arriving mid-last season from Amur Khabarovsk, he accumulated 20 points in 35 VHL games with Khimik Voskresensk, finalists of the Russian Champion Cup. In the KHL, his record stands at 51 points in 146 games.
Lada bolsters its roster, Minsk changes boss
The Togliatti club continues its rebuild. Two players have signed tryout contracts: veteran defenseman Maxim Berezin, 35, with 775 KHL games to his name, and forward Kirill Maximov, 27, trained at CSKA Moscow. Berezin returns to a club he knows well, having played 138 games there between 2018 and 2020. Maximov, meanwhile, will look to relaunch a career that saw him pass through Canadian junior leagues before 62 KHL appearances.
Meanwhile, Dinamo Minsk has officially installed Sergei Brylin as new head coach. A three-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils, Brylin said he has no difficulty returning to work in Russia and Belarus after two decades in North America. His arrival marks a new era for the Belarusian franchise, which has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2022.
Starchenko hangs up his skates, Kazakhstan turns a page
Roman Starchenko has officially announced the end of his playing career at age 40. The Kazakh forward immediately joins the coaching staff of Nomad, the farm team of Barys Astana. His legacy is colossal: 17 seasons in a Barys jersey, an absolute record of 819 games played with a single team in the KHL. In 871 games, he scored 215 goals and added 209 assists. On the international stage, Starchenko represented Kazakhstan at 18 world championships, including ten in the elite group. A tutelary figure of Central Asian hockey, he now passes on his knowledge.
Three days before the Match of the Year, the 2026 offseason continues to shape the contours of a season that promises to be particularly lively, between KHL roster overhauls and the fallout from the mega-contracts signed this summer in North America.
