KHL.ru continues its review of the 2024/2025 season for each league club. “Vityaz,” under a new head coach, demonstrated some progress compared to the previous championship, but it wasn`t enough to qualify for the playoffs.
The most notable event of the past offseason for “Vityaz” was the appointment of Pavel Desyatkov. He took the helm without prior KHL head coaching experience. In hindsight, this decision seems validated: although “Vityaz” missed the playoffs, they performed better in the regular season than in 2023/2024 (scoring 59 points versus 48 in the same number of games) and at times showcased very appealing hockey. However, building a team is a process that spans multiple seasons. Desyatkov`s debut as a KHL head coach can be considered satisfactory.
Throughout the regular championship distance, “Vityaz” experienced fluctuating success. They achieved victories against top clubs but also suffered setbacks in matches against opponents of similar strength. While they managed to avoid excessively long losing streaks (the longest was six consecutive losses, occurring twice), the team also didn`t put together significant winning streaks. The result was a modest improvement in points compared to the previous season, but a 10th-place finish in the Western Conference. For the second year in a row, “Vityaz” failed to reach the playoffs, losing their chance on March 3.
Best Players
Dmitry Buchelnikov
65 games, 54 (15+39) points
“Vityaz” became Buchelnikov`s third team in his KHL career. After playing for “Admiral” on loan from SKA in the 2023/2024 season, he joined the Moscow Region team as a result of a trade. At “Vityaz,” he was entrusted with significant ice time and a spot on the power play, and Dmitry repaid the coaching staff with 54 points. This championship was naturally his most productive in the League. Moreover, he became “Vityaz”`s top scorer, outperforming the next player by 11 points, and also set a new club record in the KHL for the number of assists in a single regular season. Another indicator of his strong play was an invitation to the Fonbet KHL All-Star Game, his first such appearance.
Maxim Dorozhko
42 games, 12 wins, 92.1% SV%; 2.68 GAA
Dorozhko has played for “Vityaz” for four seasons and year after year shows very solid numbers for a goaltender whose team doesn`t make the playoffs. Statistically, he performed slightly better this championship than the previous one with a comparable workload. He set a club record in the KHL for shutouts (11) and moved into a clear second place for the number of games played (129) and wins (43) among “Vityaz” goalies in the League.
Yaroslav Busygin
59 games, 19 (6+13) points
Busygin can definitely be named the player who showed the most significant progress at “Vityaz” over the season. He became the second-highest scoring defenseman on the team after Jeremy Roy, started playing on the power play, and more than tripled his personal record for points in a season. Considering Busygin is only 22 years old, he will likely continue to progress and could well become a leading defenseman for his team.
Dean Stewart
52 games, 15 (5+10) points
Stewart, who joined “Vityaz” in the offseason, quickly became a core player providing tangible benefit to the team. It`s important to remember that this was his first season in a new league, and he understandably needed time to adapt. But even under these conditions, he showed decent scoring numbers for himself and led the team in plus/minus rating (+5).
Coach
Pavel Desyatkov took charge of the team in the offseason and began to instill an interesting, combination-focused style of hockey. In an interview with KHL.ru last August, he said: *”Vityaz will be aggressive and biting, we won`t give anything away easily.”*
And, broadly speaking, his words aligned with the team`s performance – they truly battled in every game, regardless of the opponent`s status. The net result of Desyatkov`s debut KHL season is 24 wins in 68 games. Overall, the numbers are not the worst, but the main goal – reaching the playoffs – was not achieved.
Best Match
On November 17, “Vityaz” visited “Severstal” in Cherepovets and delivered a crushing 7:1 defeat to the opponent. By the third minute, the Moscow Region team was leading 2:0, and by the 30th, it was 5:0. The hosts` subsequent goal could no longer turn the tide, and the visitors scored two more times before the final buzzer. This victory was “Vityaz”`s largest in the KHL era. Interestingly, the previous best achievement (7:2) was also set in a game against “Severstal” on January 6, 2011.
Young Players
A total of 14 players under 23 years old played for “Vityaz” in the 2024/2025 season. Buchelnikov and Busygin were mentioned above. Also noteworthy are Ivan Vorobyov (60 games, 13+13), Stanislav Yarovoy (49 games, 9+3), and Daniil Malorossiyanov (63 games, 0+6). The other nine players played less frequently; only two of them – Nikita Almazov and Maxim Ilyichyov – played more than ten games, with 18 and 12 respectively.
Offseason Work
So far, “Vityaz” has not been marked by major signings but has made several important contract extensions – Busygin, Stewart, Vladislav Valentsov, Matvey Zaseda, and Ivan Chekhovich have all signed new two-year contracts with the club.
The question of whether “Vityaz” will retain Jeremy Roy, their leading defenseman, remains open. As a restricted free agent (RFA), Roy accepted a contract offer from CSKA on June 5th. “Vityaz” has one week to match the offer.
Among those who have definitely left the team are Andrey Chivilyov, whose loan term from SKA ended, and Dmitry Shikina, who transferred to HC Sochi.
Gareth Tenby