This off-season in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) turned out to be rich in amazing, sensational and even mysterious transfers. It seemed that such transactions were no longer expected, as Spartak appeared on the stage. Muscovites a few days before the start of the new season gave away one of their best players Alexander Khokhlacheva. The eminent striker will continue his career in Khabarovsk «Amur».
In return, the Red-Whites received 17-year-old striker Artem Gumenyuk and monetary compensation. According to Sport, it amounted to 50 million rubles. It is also known that between «Spartak» and Khokhlacheva, who repeatedly appeared on the site in the status of the captain of the capital's team, there was no conflict and there is not. Modern hockey, as they say, is just business. The parties were negotiating the signing of a new contract, but did not agree. Even in a situation where nothing foreshadows failure, this also happens.
At the end of the upcoming season, Khokhlachev was supposed to become an unrestricted free agent. “Spartacus” could not offer the attacker the conditions that would satisfy him. But Amur did it. According to Sport, the Khabarovsk team offered Alexander a two-year contract with a salary of 70 million rubles per season, and the forward agreed.
Nevertheless, the very fact of Khokhlacheva's departure from Spartak is a real bolt from the blue. And for the fans of the «red-white», and for the entire Russian hockey community. It was almost impossible to predict such an outcome of events. Perhaps this transfer would not have made so much noise if it had happened in the middle of summer. But it happened now, and after all, on September 2, Muscovites will play their first match in the KHL regular season and will host the Chinese Kunlun Red Star on their site. By the way, a few days later, Spartak and Khokhlacheva will have a new meeting — on September 6, Alexander will come to visit his native team, but already in the colors of Amur.
It is not so much the transfer and its reasons that are amazing, but the circumstances under which it happened.
Spartak began preparations for the new season in mid-July. Since then, the team has held several training camps and a number of control matches without suffering a single defeat. Muscovites won seven meetings out of seven, and at the same time took over the Cup of the Mayor of Moscow, defeating sworn rivals CSKA in the final. Spartak pleased its fans and the hockey press not only with the results, but also with their game. The team has been noticeably updated: ex-coach of the Russian national team Alexei Zhamnov climbed onto the coaching bridge, joined by new assistants, and such star players as defender Michal Chaikovsky and forwards Alexander Burmistrov, Nikolai Goldobin and Pavel Poryadin with Ivan Morozov joined his gang.< br>
Even with an eye on the pre-season game, “Spartacus” looked very nice: maximum combinations in a strange area and a minimum of stuffing along the board. The nominal second link of the “red-whites” with Poryadin, Loktionov and Goldobin looked gorgeous, the first with Khokhlacheva, Burmistrov and Prince was powerful and, most importantly, productive. The performances of Zhamnov's wards inspired optimism, they were expected to make noise not only in the championship, but also in the playoffs. Although Alexey Yuryevich repeatedly warned the public at press conferences against hasty conclusions and overestimated expectations. Now they will obviously decrease: the loss of the owner of many club records, a leader by nature and behavior and the team's main scorer will most likely affect the game of Spartak.
The «exhaust» received by the «red-whites» looks amazing from the Khokhlacheva exchange. Young Gumenyuk and only 50 million rubles in the absence of an equivalent replacement on the market is not at all what the Moscow club could get for a player of such caliber as Alexander. And the parallels with Alexander Nikishin, whom Spartak lost a year ago, are quite obvious. Then the “red-whites” released, though young, but a star defender to the St. Petersburg SKA in exchange for a lot of hockey players and sports rights. Time has shown that the Spartacists lost from that exchange.
I wonder what this resonant move will lead to.