The new season of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) promises to bring many surprises due to new innovations. At the same time, one of the main contenders for the Gagarin Cup decided to add reasons for discussion. First, the composition of the team has undergone changes. And now there have been changes in the leadership of the club.
The process was started by Gennady Timchenko. The functionary left the chairman of the board of directors of SKA. The notorious Alexander Medvedev was appointed in his place. For six years he led the KHL, and now he rules the football «Zenith». Vladimir Yurzinov also joined the Board of Directors. However, few expected that the reforms in the structure would also affect head coach Roman Rotenberg.
The coach of the team, who holds many positions in Russian hockey — from SKA and KHL to FHR, was relieved of his duties as general director. The position was taken by the ex-financial director of the club Dmitry Konstantinov. And Andrey Tochitsky, who worked as an executive director, said goodbye to the team. Even more interesting is Rotenberg's new contract.
Roman Borisovich will remain as head coach of SKA until 2028! There have been no five-year agreements in the history of the KHL.
«
"Our common goal is to implement a long-term club strategy, among the main goals of which are leadership both in terms of sports results and in terms of the commercial component, as well as the effective development of youth hockey and the SKA Academy. I consider such a credit of trust to me as a solid foundation on which we will build a powerful and modern team of winners. We continue to focus on bold hockey, we combine power, speed, aim at the goal with a smart combination game that will always delight the fans,» Rotenberg commented on the signing of a new agreement in the Telegram channel.
This news will not do without jokes on the Internet. Like, Roman Borisovich himself wrote out such a long-term contract for himself. However, the club in a statement speaks of full confidence in the specialist:
“In order to achieve the highest sports results as part of the strategy, a five-year contract was signed with the head coach of the SKA team, Roman Rotenberg, which will allow planning and developing the club’s sports management system, as well as managing the main team and other teams of the SKA system. Although the coach's new contract is striking in terms.
To the career of a coach, Roman Rotenberg followed the standard path. In 2019, he received a specialized education at the Higher School of Coaches of the Siberian State University of Physical Culture and Sports. For example, Igor Nikitin once studied there. In September 2020, Rotenberg has already tried himself as a SKA mentor.
True, he was forced to replace the then helmsman of St. Petersburg Valery Bragin, who fell under the rink of the coronavirus pandemic. In January 2022, Roman Borisovich was approved in a new position. Recently, he has been combining it with work in the Russia 25 team, a new project of the FHR.
Since his official appointment, Rotenberg has helped the team become the winner of the regular KHL season 2022/23 and twice brought the St. The first round of the playoffs will be held according to the standard scheme within the conferences. From the second team will be divided into two groups.
In the first — the best of the remaining teams of the West will play with the fourth team of the East. The second seeded club in the East will meet with the third team in the West.
In the second group, the best club in the East will meet with the fourth team in the West. The last pair will be made up by the third strongest team from the East and the second from the West.
The winners of the pairs will play each other in the Gagarin Cup semi-finals, where there will be new seeding teams. Thus, it is possible that two clubs from the same conference will meet in the Gagarin Cup final.