During the off-season, a notable turnover is expected to take shape in St. Petersburg as five veterans are set to depart from SKA. The club announced that defenders Artem Sergeev and Mikhail Pashnin, along with forwards Brendan Laipsik, Artem Shvets-Rogovoy, and Alexander Kadeikin, will not be returning to SKA for the next campaign. This information was reported by Sports Express and has sparked conversations among fans and analysts about the strategic direction of the team after a season of high expectations.
According to Sports Express, the club’s front office has already informed these players about their upcoming exits. Looking at the season-by-season contributions, Sergeev appeared in 60 regular-season games, Pashnin logged 20, Laipsik participated in 19, Kadeikin played 45, and Shvets-Rogovoy saw action in five. The departures mark a significant shift in SKA’s defensive and offensive depth as the management recalibrates the roster to align with new plans and budgets for the coming year, while also considering the evolving dynamics of the league and the priorities of coaching staff.
In the Kontinental Hockey League standings, SKA finished the regular season at the top, signaling a strong performance across the campaign. Yet in the playoffs, Roman Rotenberg’s team fell short in the quarter-finals, losing four games to one to Avtomobilist in a best-of-seven series. This result added a layer of disappointment to what had been a competitive run, as SKA had hoped to translate regular-season dominance into a deeper postseason push. Traktor, meanwhile, also advanced to the semi-finals, highlighting the highly competitive nature of the league and the level of parity among top clubs this year.
CSKA Moscow, the defending Gagarin Cup champions, remains a focal point of the hockey calendar. Celebrating its centennial year since establishment, the army club secured the Gagarin Cup by defeating Ak Bars Kazan in the seventh and decisive game of the final series on April 29, 2023. That historic triumph underscored CSKA’s legacy and reinforced the expectation that the team will be a constant threat in the race for the cup in subsequent seasons. However, the current season has shifted the landscape, and CSKA and Ak Bars Kazan will not be meeting again in this edition of the competition for the championship, a development that shapes both teams’ strategies and the broader competitive context of the league.
Earlier in the off-season, CSKA also announced a decision regarding its coaching leadership, signaling a period of introspection and strategic realignment within the club. The choice of a new head coach is a critical element as the team seeks to maintain its status as a championship contender while integrating new players, refining systems, and nurturing the development of younger talent. The evolving coaching equation at CSKA, combined with the player movements at SKA, reflects a broader shift in the KHL as teams adapt to the financial realities of the league, the emergence of strong competitors, and the ongoing pursuit of hockey excellence across Russia and beyond.