SKA Saint Petersburg

SKA Saint Petersburg
СКА Санкт-Петербург
Nickname Soldiers, Horses
City Saint Petersburg, Russia
League Kontinental Hockey League
Conference Western
Division Bobrov
Founded 1946
Home arena Ice Palace
(capacity: 12,300)
Colours Blue, white, red
              
Owner(s) Gazprom Export
President Gennady Timchenko
General manager Andrey Tochitskiy
Head coach Ilya Vorobiev
Asst. head coach Alexei Kudashov
Anvar Gatiyatulin
Captain Pavel Datsyuk
Affiliate(s) SKA-Neva (VHL)
SKA-1946 (MHL)
SKA-Serebryanye Lvy (MHL)
SKA-Varyagi (NMHL)
Website www.ska.ru
Home colours
Away colours
Franchise history
Kirov LDO
1946–1953
ODO Leningrad
1953–1957
SKVO Leningrad
1957–1959
SKA Leningrad
1959–1991
SKA Saint Petersburg
1991–present

The Hockey Club SKA (Russian: Хоккейный клуб СКА), often referred to as SKA Saint Petersburg and literally as the Sports Club of the Army, is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Saint Petersburg. They are members of the Bobrov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). In spite of its long history, the club never competed in a league final until the 2014–15 KHL season, where they defeated Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup. In 2012, with an average of 10,126 spectators, the SKA became the first Russian club ever to average a five-digit attendance.[1]

SKA is owned by Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom. The club used its immense wealth to gather almost all elite Russian KHL players under its umbrella to prepare them for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics. The success of Russian team in winning gold at the first Olympics since 1994 that did not feature any active NHL players were attributed to players' chemistry developed in SKA.[2]

History

Helsinki Ice Challenge 2017.

The club was established in 1946 as a top level club of the Soviet Championship League to participate in its first season. The original name of the club was Kirov LDO (Kirov Leningrad Officers’ Club). It was subsequently changed to ODO (District Officers' Club) in 1953, SKVO (Sports Club of the Military District) in 1957 and finally Sportivnyi Klub Armii (Sport Club of the Army) in 1959. During the Soviet era, the SKA (along with CSKA Moscow) belonged to the Ministry of Defense sports club system.

After finishing last in their group during the first season, LDO skipped the next season and was downgraded to the second level of the championship in 1948. The club returned to the Soviet Class A in 1950–51 and remained in the top division of the Soviet league until 1991. The highest achievements of the club during that time were the 1968 and 1971 Soviet Cup Finals (the former was lost to CSKA Moscow 7–1, the latter to Spartak Moscow 5–1) as well as the bronze medals of the 1970–71 and 1986–87 Soviet Championships.

After one season in the second level division of the Soviet League (the first and the only CIS Championship), the SKA joined the International Ice Hockey League established by the top ice hockey teams of the former Soviet Union. During its 1993–94 season, the SKA managed to advance to the IHL Cup semi-finals but lost to that year's champion Lada Togliatti. The club was less successful in the Russian Superleague, which replaced the IHL as the main Russian championship since 1996, failing to get further than the first playoff rounds.

The formation of the Kontinental Hockey League in 2008 marked the beginning of a new era for the team. HC SKA got into their first Conference Finals during the 2011–12 season and finishing first during the regular season the next year winning the 2012–13 Continental Cup.

In the 2015 Gagarin Cup playoffs, after defeating both Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and Dynamo Moscow in five games in the first two rounds, HC SKA were in the Western Conference Finals for the third time in four years this time facing CSKA Moscow. HC SKA were already down 0–3 after the first three games, but managed to rebound and win the next four straight clinching the series 4–3. This made them the first team in KHL history to win a playoff series after being down three games to none. The team would go on to defeat Ak Bars Kazan 4–1 to win the Gagarin Cup and become the KHL champions, the first nationwide championship in club history. But they could not manage to retain the Gagarin Cup in the following season, as they were swept by 2015–16 Continental Cup winners CSKA Moscow in the Conference Finals and finished in 4th place.

In the 2016–17 KHL season, SKA drew an average home attendance of 11,735.[3]

Awards and trophies

Team

Gagarin Cup

Continental Cup

Opening Cup

Soviet Championship League

Pre-season

Spengler Cup

  • Winners (4): 1970, 1971, 1977, 2010

Basel Summer Ice Hockey

  • Winners (1): 2009

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup

  • Winners (1): 2012

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/Shootout Wins, OTL = Overtime/Shootout Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

SeasonGPWOTWLOTLPtsGFGAFinishTop ScorerPlayoffs
2008–09562691741001431053rd, TarasovMaxim Sushinsky (45 points: 18 G, 27 A; 48 GP)Lost in preliminary round, 0–3 (Spartak Moscow)
2009–10563641061221921181st, BobrovMaxim Sushinsky (65 points: 27 G, 38 A; 56 GP)Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1–3 (Dinamo Riga)
2010–1154239139961711442nd, BobrovMattias Weinhandl (49 points: 21 G, 28 A; 54 GP)Lost in Conference Semifinals, 3–4 (Atlant Moscow Oblast)
2011–12543261151132051301st, BobrovTony Mårtensson (61 points: 23 G, 38 A; 54 GP)Lost in Conference Finals, 0–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2012–13523621131151821161st, BobrovPatrick Thoresen (51 points: 21 G, 30 A; 52 GP)Lost in Conference Finals, 2–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2013–14533311341051741132nd, BobrovArtemi Panarin (40 points: 20 G, 20 A; 51 GP)Lost in Conference Semifinals, 2–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2014–15603621421232101362nd, BobrovArtemi Panarin (62 points: 26 G, 36 A; 54 GP)Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Ak Bars Kazan)
2015–16602922121001631972nd, BobrovVadim Shipachyov (60 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)Lost in Conference Finals, 0–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2016–1760397881372491141st, BobrovIlya Kovalchuk (78 points: 32 G, 46 A; 60 GP)Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
2017–185640392138227971nd, BobrovIlya Kovalchuk (64 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)Lost in Conference Finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)

Players

Current roster

Updated September 3, 2018.[4][5]

# Nat Player Pos S/G Age Acquired Birthplace
82 Russia Andrei Altybarmakyan RW L 20 2017 Saint Petersburg, Russia
94 Russia Alexander Barabanov RW L 24 2013 Saint Petersburg, Russia
77 Russia Anton Belov D L 32 2014 Ryazan, Soviet Union
28 Russia Alexei Byvaltsev C L 24 2018 Magnitogorsk , Russia
13 Russia Pavel Datsyuk (C) C L 40 2016 Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union
92 Russia Alexander Dergachyov C L 22 2018 Langepas, Russia
55 Russia Danila Galenyuk D L 18 2017 Tyumen, Russia
46 Russia Vladislav Gavrikov D L 22 2017 Yaroslavl, Russia
97 Russia Nikita Gusev LW R 26 2015 Moscow, Soviet Union
45 Sweden Magnus Hellberg G L 27 2018 Uppsala, Sweden
6 Sweden Patrik Hersley D R 32 2016 Malmö, Sweden
29 Russia Ilya Kablukov LW/C L 30 2014 Moscow, Soviet Union
91 Russia Maxim Karpov RW L 26 2017 Chelyabinsk, Russian SFSR
40 Russia Evgeny Ketov RW L 32 2013 Gubakha, Soviet Union
3 Russia Dinar Khafizullin D L 29 2014 Kazan, Soviet Union
4 Finland Jarno Koskiranta C L 31 2015 Paimio, Finland
78 Russia Alexei Kruchinin F R 27 2018 Penza, Russian SFSR
96 Russia Andrei Kuzmenko RW R 22 2018 Yakutsk, Russia
90 Russia Oleg Li RW L 27 2018 Volgograd, Russian SFSR
31 Russia Mikhail Maltsev LW L 20 2017 Saint Petersburg, Russia
38 Russia Alexei Melnichuk G L 20 2017 Saint Petersburg, Russia
16 Russia Sergei Plotnikov F L 28 2015 Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Soviet Union
74 Russia Nikolai Prokhorkin F L 25 2016 Chelyabinsk, Russia
5 Russia Roman Rukavishnikov D L 26 2014 Moscow, Russia
7 Sweden David Rundblad D R 28 2017 Lycksele, Sweden
57 Russia Yegor Rykov D L 21 2015 Vidnoe, Russia
30 Russia Igor Shestyorkin G L 22 2014 Moscow, Russia
10 Russia Viktor Tikhonov RW R 30 2015 Riga, Soviet Union
24 Russia Vasili Tokranov D L 29 2018 Almetyevsk, Russian SFSR
64 Russia Nail Yakupov LW L 25 2018 Nizhnekamsk, Russia
8 Russia Artyom Zemchyonok D R 27 2018 Moscow, Russian SFSR
2 Russia Artyom Zub D R 23 2016 Khabarovsk, Russia
28 Russia Andrei Zubarev D R 31 2015 Ufa, Soviet Union

All-time KHL scoring leaders

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

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

     = current SKA player


Head coaches

References

  1. ↑ "Swiss club and Swedish league lead European attendance rankings". INTERNATIONAL ICE HOCKEY FEDERATION. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
  2. ↑ "Геннадий Тимченко: СКА – это базовый клуб сборной России, и ЦСКА – тоже". Sovetsky Sport. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  3. ↑ http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/attendance-2016-2017/
  4. ↑ "СКА Team Roster". www.hc-ska.ru. Retrieved 2012-08-14.
  5. ↑ "SKA Saint Petersburg team roster". www.khl.ru. Retrieved 2013-09-07.
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