Amur Khabarovsk

Not to be confused with Amur Tigers.

Amur Khabarovsk

Full name	Amur 1998–present SKA-Amur Khabarovsk 1996–99 SKA Khabarovsk 1966–1996
Founded	1966
Based In	Khabarovsk, Russia
Arena	Platinum Arena (Capacity: 7,100)
League	KHL 2008-present
Division	Chernyshev
Conference	Eastern
Team Colors
Owner(s)	Viktor Ishayev
GM	Yuri Hrizman
Head Coach	Hannu Jortikka
Captain	Alexander Krysanov
Website	www.hcamur.ru

Amur Khabarovsk (in Russian: Амур Хабаровск) is a professional hockey team based in Khabarovsk, Russia playing in the Kontinental Hockey League. The team is nicknamed the Tigers (although it shouldn't be confused with the Amur Tigers) and plays its home games at the Platinum Arena.

History

Amur Khabarovsk was founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk; it only adopted its current name in 1996, a name that comes from the nearby river Amur. By its location in the Russian Far East, the team is pretty isolated from every other team in the KHL, making rivalries difficult; the nearest KHL team, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, is located some 3,000 km away. Still, the team is very popular among Khabarovsk citizens, and despite its usual poor results, the team keeps being highly successful at the gates.

For a long time a lower division dweller, Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989, earning promotion to the upper level. In 1996, Khabarovsk promoted to the Russian Superleague. A relegation to the Vysshaya Liga occurred in 2004 when the mining company that funds the club had financial difficulties. The Tigers could promote back to the top level in 2006. That same financial crisis forced the team's reserve squad, the Golden Amur Khabarovsk, to withdraw from the Asia League where it played for the 2004-05 season. The team could finish the season and take part in the playoffs, however; they finished third in regular season standings and failed to reach the playoffs finals.

In 2008, Khabarovsk was one of the 24 founding members of the Kontinental Hockey League. The team played the league's inaugural game on September 2 against Dinamo Riga at home in front of a sell-out crowd of 7,100 people. Unfortunately for the fans, their team lost 4-2 to the Latvian side. Riga and the Tigers were playing back-to-back games in Khabarovsk, however, and on the second match, Amur won 7-6 in a tied game that went to shootouts. But the 2008-09 didn't prove to be very successful for the Tigers. The team was plagued with injuries - in October only, 11 players were side-lined, including imports Kyle Wanvig and Bryce Lampman. The Tigers needed to strengthen their squad, and therefore offered a contract to Carolina Hurricanes's Matt Murley, which resulted in a controversy sometimes compared to Alexander Radulov's, even though there are many differences. Murley's signing didn't prove beneficial for Amur though, as he only contributed 8 points to a fairly impotent offence that scored only 111 goals. Veterans Oleg Belkin and Peter Nylander were Amur's top goal scorers with 11 goals each; Belkin was top scorer with a meager 24 points in 50 games. Amur's defence was better, with regular defencemen Vasily Turkovsky and Viktor Kostyuchenok even managing to finish the season with a +3 and +2 record, respectively. But overall, the season was disappointing for the Tigers, with a 20th place, 15 wins and 60 points.

Things barely improved in 2009-10. Amur finished 21st, out of playoffs again, this time again with 60 points and only 12 wins in regular time (plus three in overtime and six in the shootouts). Former Montreal Canadiens' and Columbus Blue Jackets' David Ling did the best in offense with 32 points, while Alexei Kopeikin and Ruslan Khasanshin were the best goal scorers with respectively 16 and 14 goals. All in all, it's only 129 goals that the team scored, 18 better than the previous season, but still fourth worst in the league. Oleg Belkin had to miss the whole season, while Peter Nylander left the team after ten game to go back in Sweden, joining Timrå IK of the Elitserien. The defence was not as solid as the previous season, with Turkovsky retired and Kostyuchenok traded to HC Spartak Moscow after 14 games. The result was 187 goals against, 29 more than the previous season. Former NHL veteran and Stanley Cup winner Nolan Pratt ended up being the fourth defenceman on the team in icetime and finished the season with 11 points and a -14 +/- rating. Fortunately, despite playing a disappointing season, Khabarovsk could still count on the 4th highest average attendance in the league, with an average of 7,100 fans per game.

Players

Current roster

Updated January 9, 2012.

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
77	Russia !	Bilalov, IlshatIlshat Bilalov	2.0 !D	L	27	2009	Nizhnekamsk, Russian SFSR
2	Russia !	Ezhov, DenisDenis Ezhov	2.0 !D	L	26	2011	Togliatti, Russian SFSR
13	Russia !	Glukhov, MikhailMikhail Glukhov	6.2 !LW/C	L	23	2009	Orsk, Russian SFSR
3	Russia !	Grot, DenisDenis Grot	2.0 !D	L	28	2011	Minsk, Belorussian SSR
85	Russia !	Ignatushkin, IgorIgor Ignatushkin	4.0 !C	L	27	2007	Elektrostal, Russian SFSR
25	Russia !	Kopeikin, AlexeiAlexei Kopeikin	6.0 !LW	R	28	2008	Angarsk, Russian SFSR
19	Russia !	Korotkov, EvgenyEvgeny Korotkov	4.0 !C	L	24	2011	Moscow, Russian SFSR
80	Russia !	Krysanov, AlexanderAlexander Krysanov (C)	7.0 !RW	L	31	2006	Voronezh, Russian SFSR
1	Slovakia !	Lasak, JanJan Lasak	1.0 !G	L	32	2009	Zvolen, Czechoslovakia
51	Russia !	Litovchenko, VyacheslavVyacheslav Litovchenko	4.0 !C	L	25	2005	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
7	Finland !	Mäenpää, MikkoMikko Mäenpää	2.0 !D	L	28	2011	Tampere, Finland
8	Russia !	Mukhachev, AndreiAndrei Mukhachev	2.0 !D	L	31	2011	Sverdlovsk, Russian SFSR
30	Russia !	Murygin, AlexeiAlexei Murygin	1.0 !G	L	25	2009	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
12	Russia !	Nikulin, AlexAlex Nikulin	4.0 !C	L	26	2010	Perm, Russian SFSR
57	Russia !	Osipov, AlexanderAlexander Osipov (A)	2.0 !D	R	22	2009	Nizhny Tagil, Russian SFSR
55	Russia !	Peretyagin, SergeiSergei Peretyagin	2.0 !D	L	27	2010	Perm, Russian SFSR
88	Czech Republic !	Petruzalek, JakubJakub Petruzalek	4.3 !C/RW	R	26	2011	Litvínov, Czechoslovakia
11	Russia !	Piganovich, OlegOleg Piganovich	2.0 !D	L	26	2011	Yaroslavl, Russian SFSR
61	Russia !	Plotnikov, SergeiSergei Plotnikov	6.0 !LW	L	21	2009	Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russian SFSR
72	Czech Republic !	Ruzicka, MartinMartin Ruzicka	7.0 !RW	R	26	2011	Beroun, Czechoslovakia
18	Russia !	Shitikov, DmitriDmitri Shitikov	7.0 !RW	L	26	2011	Tyumen, Russian SFSR
5	Russia !	Shulakov, VitalyVitaly Shulakov	2.0 !D	L	28	2006	Angarsk, Russian SFSR
16	Belarus !	Stepanov, AndreiAndrei Stepanov	7.0 !RW	R	25	2011	Moscow, Russian SFSR
14	Russia !	Tarasov, DmitriDmitri Tarasov (A)	6.0 !LW	L	32	2011	Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR
20	Czech Republic !	Vrana, PetrPetr Vrana	4.0 !C	L	26	2011	Šternberk, Czechoslovakia

Franchise 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; bold = current Dinamo player

Points

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
Vadim Pokotilo	C	231	45	67	112	0.48
Dmitri Tarasov	LW	290	47	64	111	0.38
Alexei Kopeikin	LW	239	45	55	100	0.59
Anatoly Ustyugov	RW	205	43	43	86	0.53
Igor Andryuschenko	C	172	35	42	77	0.44
Vitali Shulakov	D	237	26	49	75	0.31
Dmitri Uchaykin	LW	230	41	32	73	0.31
Sergei Krivokrasov	D	90	30	32	62	0.68
Igor Ignatushkin	RW	191	32	27	59	0.30
Sergei Arekaev	D	110	30	27	57	0.51

Goals

Player	Pos	G
Dmitri Tarasov	LW	47
Vadim Pokotilo	C	45
Alexei Kopeikin	F	45
Anatoly Ustyugov	LW	43
Dmitri Uchaykin	F	41
Igor Andryuschenko	RW	35
Igor Ignatushkin	F	32
Maxim Spiridonov	RW	32
Sergei Krivokrasov	RW	30
Sergei Arekaev	RW	30

Assists

Player	Pos	A
Vadim Pokotilo	C	67
Dmitri Tarasov	LW	64
Alexei Kopeikin	F	55
Vitali Shulakov	D	49
Anatoly Ustyugov	LW	43
Igor Andryuschenko	RW	42
Alexander Krysanov	LW	38
Vadim Averkin	C	34
Sergei Kuznetsov	LW	33
Dmitri Uchaykin	F	32

External links

• Official HC Amur website