SKA Saint Petersburg

SKA Saint Petersburg
SKA Saint Petersburg
City	Saint Petersburg, Russia
League	KHL
Conference	Western
Division	Bobrov
Founded	1946
Home arena	SKA Arena; (capacity: 21,500)
Colours	Red, blue;
Owner(s)	Gazprom Export
President	Gennady Timchenko
General manager	Dmitry Konstantinov
Head coach	Roman Rotenberg
Captain	Marat Khairullin
Affiliates	SKA-Neva (VHL); SKA-1946 (MHL); Akademiya SKA (MHL)
Website	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
	Current season

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). The club never competed in a league final until the 2014–15 KHL season, where they defeated Ak Bars Kazan winning the Gagarin Cup. They won their second Gagarin Cup in 2017, defeating Metallurg Magnitogorsk. In 2012, with an average of 10,126 spectators, the SKA became the first Russian club ever to average a five-digit attendance.^[2]

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 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.^[3]

In 2023, Roman Rotenberg, the General Manager of the Russian team, thanked Russian state-owned Gazprom for their contribution to Russia's victory at the 2018 Winter Olympics.^[4]

History

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 3rd place.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2016–17 KHL season, SKA drew an average home attendance of 11,735.^[5]

Awards and trophies

Team

Gagarin Cup

Winners (2): 2014–15, 2016–17

Continental Cup

Winners (3): 2012–13, 2017–18, 2022–23

Opening Cup

Winners (2): 2017–18, 2018–19

Soviet Championship League

3rd place (2): 1970–71, 1986–87

Pre-season

Spengler Cup

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

Motorola Cup

Winners (1): 1983

Puchkov Cup

Winners (6): 2008,2015,2017,2018,2019,2021,2022

Basel Summer Ice Hockey

Winners (1): 2009

Donbass Open Cup

Winners (1): 2011

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan's Cup

Winners (1): 2012

Tournament Hameenlinna

Winners (1): 2013

Sochi Winter Cup

Winners (1): 2022

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

Season	GP	W	OTW	L	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Top Scorer	Playoffs
2008–09	56	26	9	17	4	100	143	105	3rd, Tarasov	Maxim Sushinsky (45 points: 18 G, 27 A; 48 GP)	Lost in preliminary round, 0–3 (Spartak Moscow)
2009–10	56	36	4	10	6	122	192	118	1st, Bobrov	Maxim Sushinsky (65 points: 27 G, 38 A; 56 GP)	Lost in Conference quarterfinals, 1–3 (Dinamo Riga)
2010–11	54	23	9	13	9	96	171	144	2nd, Bobrov	Mattias Weinhandl (49 points: 21 G, 28 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference semifinals, 3–4 (Atlant Moscow Oblast)
2011–12	54	32	6	11	5	113	205	130	1st, Bobrov	Tony Mårtensson (61 points: 23 G, 38 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 0–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2012–13	52	36	2	11	3	115	182	116	1st, Bobrov	Patrick Thoresen (51 points: 21 G, 30 A; 52 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (Dynamo Moscow)
2013–14	53	33	1	13	4	105	174	113	2nd, Bobrov	Artemi Panarin (40 points: 20 G, 20 A; 51 GP)	Lost in Conference semifinals, 2–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2014–15	60	36	2	14	2	123	210	136	2nd, Bobrov	Artemi Panarin (62 points: 26 G, 36 A; 54 GP)	Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Ak Bars Kazan)
2015–16	60	29	2	21	2	100	163	197	2nd, Bobrov	Vadim Shipachyov (60 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 0–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2016–17	60	39	7	8	8	137	249	114	1st, Bobrov	Ilya Kovalchuk (78 points: 32 G, 46 A; 60 GP)	Gagarin Cup Champions, 4–1 (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
2017–18	56	40	3	9	2	138	227	97	1st, Bobrov	Ilya Kovalchuk (64 points: 17 G, 43 A; 54 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2018–19	62	45	4	5	8	103	209	80	1st, Bobrov	Nikita Gusev (82 points: 17 G, 65 A; 62 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 3–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2019–20	62	30	14	13	5	93	179	118	1st, Bobrov	Vladimir Tkachev (42 points: 14 G, 28 A; 55 GP)	Won in Conference quarterfinals, 4–0 (HC Vityaz) Playoffs cancelled due to COVID-19
2020–21	60	33	4	8	15	82	178	126	1st, Bobrov	Vladimir Tkachev (38 points: 11 G, 27 A; 45 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2021–22	48	25	6	11	6	68	146	98	1st, Bobrov	Andrei Kuzmenko (53 points: 20 G, 33 A; 45 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 3–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2022–23	68	40	10	5	13	105	243	150	1st, Bobrov	Dmitrij Jaškin (62 points: 40 G, 22 A; 67 GP)	Lost in Conference finals, 2–4 (CSKA Moscow)
2023–24	68	40	6	19	3	95	220	139	1st, Bobrov	Alexander Nikishin (56 points: 17 G, 39 A; 67 GP)	Lost in Quarterfinals, 1–4 (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg)

Players

Current roster

Updated 1 April 2024.^[6]^[7]


No.	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
72	Vladimir Alistrov	LW	L	23	2023	Mogilev, Belarus
10	Zakhar Bardakov	F	L	23	2021	Seversk, Russia
92	Andrei Chivilev	F	L	24	2023	Nizhnekamsk, Russia
25	Pavel Dedunov	LW	L	34	2023	Bolshoy Kamen, Russian SFSR
11	Ivan Demidov	RW	L	18	2022	Sergiyev Posad, Russia
77	Stepan Falkovsky	D	L	27	2021	Minsk, Belarus
71	Ilya Fedotov	LW	R	21	2023	Saratov, Russia
65	Maxim Fedotov	D	R	22	2023	Saratov, Russia
89	Alex Galchenyuk	LW	L	30	2023	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
27	Emil Galimov	RW	L	32	2020	Nizhnekamsk, Russia
7	Vasili Glotov	C	L	26	2022	Barnaul, Russia
68	Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov	RW	L	30	2022	Saint Petersburg, Russia
81	Arseni Gritsyuk	LW	L	23	2023	Zheleznogorsk, Russia
78	Alexander Kadeikin	C	L	30	2023	Elektrostal, Russia
12	Nikita Kamalov	D	L	28	2021	Novokuznetsk, Russia
61	Marat Khairullin (C)	RW/C	L	27	2022	Volzhsk, Russia
88	Brendan Leipsic	LW	L	30	2023	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
1	Johan Mattsson	G	L	32	2023	Huddinge, Sweden
39	Matvei Michkov	RW	L	19	2021	Perm, Russia
21	Alexander Nikishin	D	L	22	2022	Oryol, Russia
97	Amir Nugmanov	LW	R	18	2023	Nizhnekamsk, Russia
33	Mikhail Pashnin	D	L	35	2022	Chelyabinsk, Russian SFSR
3	Andrey Pedan	D	L	30	2022	Kaunas, Lithuania
14	Nikolai Polyakov	F	L	23	2020	St. Petersburg, Russia
71	Borna Rendulic	RW	R	32	2023	Zagreb, Croatia
9	Sergei Sapego	D	L	24	2023	Vitebsk, Belarus
98	Nikita Serebryakov	G	L	28	2023	Moscow, Russia
93	Artyom Sergeyev (A)	D	R	31	2023	Moscow, Russia
57	Artyom Shvets-Rogovoy	C	L	29	2019	Saratov, Russia
18	Stepan Starkov	F	L	24	2023	Shchebekino, Russia
28	Sergey Tolchinsky (A)	LW	R	29	2023	Moscow, Russia
42	Mikhail Vorobyev	C	L	27	2021	Salavat, Russia
8	Artyom Zemchyonok	D	R	32	2023	Moscow, Russian SFSR
16	Ivan Zinchenko	C	L	22	2023	Rostov-na-Donu, Russia
90	Valentin Zykov	RW	R	29	2021	St. Petersburg, Russia

All-time KHL scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed KHL regular season.^[8]

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

Goals
Player	Pos	G
Ilya Kovalchuk	LW	138
Nikita Gusev	LW	109
Anton Burdasov	RW	83
Vadim Shipachyov	C	76
Viktor Tikhonov	C	75
Evgenii Dadonov	RW	72
Tony Mårtensson	C	71
Patrick Thoresen	C	68
Andrei Kuzmenko	RW	64
Alexander Barabanov	RW	62

Assists
Player	Pos	A
Nikita Gusev	LW	225
Ilya Kovalchuk	LW	189
Vadim Shipachyov	C	171
Tony Mårtensson	C	117
Patrick Thoresen	C	103
Andrei Kuzmenko	RW	90
Maxim Sushinsky	RW	88
Evgenii Dadonov	RW	86
Alexander Nikishin	D	83
Sergei Plotnikov	LW	82