"Ak Bars" is no longer a grand: will Valiullin repeat his trick after the departure of the stars?

      Transfer drought at Kazan's Ak Bars: should we write off the entire upcoming season right now?

      The modesty of Ak Bars in the market: has Valiullin become too focused on trading or are financial capabilities no longer what they used to be?

      The transfer drought of Ak Bars is no longer news, becoming perhaps the main highlight of this summer. The silver medalists are falling apart before our eyes, with only old acquaintance Alexey Byvalcev among the acquisitions. It’s clear that the first impulse in such a situation is to wave a sword and curse Marat Valiullin for wasting a huge amount of time on rebuilding the roster, but it seems that the situation is dictated not only by the realities of a scarce market but also by several other financial capabilities of Ak Bars itself. Information about yet another reduction in expenses for Ak Bars is already a predictable line that began not this summer. The situation forces the general sponsor to reconsider its spending items, and hockey is no longer at the top of the list. Kazan has traditionally been perceived as a hockey Mecca with a powerful budget and championship ambitions since the late nineties, where players willingly came for generous contracts and trophies. But this summer, trading with agents is literally for every million, and such sudden stinginess is a worrying signal. It involuntarily transmits general uncertainty to the market and makes experts wonder: is everything alright with the internal resources and the established club system of Ak Bars?

      There are simply no quality free Russians left in the internal KHL market — all the juiciest lots have long been taken by more agile competitors. It’s too early to seek salvation across the ocean, as the North American market operates on its own schedule, and pulling a worthy legionnaire from there right now seems impossible. As a result, Kazan is left with only the option of extending agreements with their own hockey players through friction and collecting "workhorses" from the free agent market. Take the arrival of Alexey Byvalcev, for example: it’s classic patching holes at the bottom, which would fit perfectly into the strategy of a conditional "Siberia." Kazan needs creators in the top-6.

      Too caught up in positional battles over salary reductions, management has lost precious time for truly aggressive work in the external market. Without adequate replacements for the departed attacking leaders, the team risks starting the regular season in an unbalanced state. If Valiullin doesn’t pull off some transfer trick in the coming weeks, unexpectedly pulling an elite forward from his sleeve, the updated coaching staff will have a very tough time.

      The example of neighboring Ufa is illustrative — it can be learned from and taken into account what the policy of sharp savings and the loss of a whole range of performers who delivered results in favor of youth and workers leads to. Instead of the usual dominance on the ice, fans will likely have to watch sticky and heavy hockey. However, there is still plenty of time, and last year's story with a failed summer and catching up in the fall showed that Ak Bars knows how to "catch up with the market" after lagging behind at the start.

      Point extensions, or a compromise born of despair: Valiullin extends contracts with the remaining leaders, but are they worth it?

      It must be acknowledged that against the backdrop of the departure of a number of leaders, Marat Valiullin's position, forced to negotiate contract extensions with hockey players who have just reached the Gagarin Cup final, was not the strongest. There was nowhere to go; losing Artem Galimov and Timur Bilyalov in such a situation would have been unacceptable — the core would have completely fallen apart.

      Judging by the last week, Ak Bars management is gradually closing key deals within the club, negotiating contract extensions with Grigory Denisенко and Timur Bilyalov, and is about to shake hands with Galimov.

      On the one hand, retaining these performers gives Gatiyatulin a certain level of confidence and stability. On the other hand, there are questions accumulated for each of these hockey players as they head into the new season, and in a "healthy" market situation in the KHL, they would hardly dare to dictate their terms.

      The main problem with Artem Galimov is catastrophic instability and a complete lack of the ability to deliver a cohesive, even season. The forward has turned into a player of contrasts: in the 2024/2025 season, he had a fantastic smooth championship, scoring an impressive 59 (26+33) points in 67 games, but in the playoffs, he literally "dissolved," scoring just one goal.

      In the past season of 2025/2026, the situation mirrored: after a gray regular season where the forward scored a modest 24 points, Galimov unexpectedly transformed in the Gagarin Cup, becoming one of the main motors of the team on the way to the final. Such a sinusoidal graph of the forward before the new start again puts the staff in a dilemma: which version of Artem will Kazan see in the fall, and is it worth giving him the role of an unconditional leader? It doesn’t seem like this is a player who fully dedicates himself to hockey. The restaurant business and other interests are pulling the player's concentration "in the wrong direction."

      There is also a certain skepticism regarding Grigory Denisенко. Last summer, Ak Bars endured a difficult transfer battle, giving a solid monetary compensation and rights to talented prospect Andrey Pustovoy to Lokomotiv to acquire a forward from North America labeled as a potential superstar. However, Denisенко openly failed the regular championship: only 28 (14 + 14) points in 64 games with unimpressive play and constant dips during matches.

      Only in the Gagarin Cup did Grigory manage to restructure, scoring 4 useful points in 20 games and providing important dynamics in power play, which convinced Marat Valiullin to agree to Denisенко's terms. The question is how ultimatum the hockey player and his agent Alexander Chernykh acted in these negotiations, using the old, well-known trick of supposedly having interest from abroad. Of course, no one believed it, but the hockey player’s terms had to be accepted — the new salary for the forward will be 50 million rubles, and a bonus is also provided in case of making it into the top-3 scorers of the KHL regular championship, amounting to another 50 million rubles.

      A similar situation exists with Timur Bilyalov, who literally twists the arms of Ak Bars management every "contract" season. Each time, these manipulations from the 31-year-old goalkeeper look like an attempt to leverage his name rather than his significant merits.

      As insider Mikhail Zislis claims, Bilyalov is guaranteed to receive 95 million rubles (35 + 60) over two seasons. In addition to his salary, the goalkeeper has the opportunity to earn a bonus of 30 million rubles if recognized as the best goalkeeper of the season. And traditionally, to take part of the amount out of the salary cap, Timur is entitled to "advertising money" of 25 million rubles in the first season. One can only guess what Bilyalov will be advertising.

      Signing a new agreement with Timur is more of a story about the acute shortage of quality goalkeepers and the management's unwillingness to seek alternatives in other markets. In the past regular season, Bilyalov played 47 matches, reflecting 91.9% of shots. In the playoffs, the goalkeeper had 18 games with 92.8% of saved shots. But the final series once again exposed his long-standing vulnerability. Uncertainty in key moments, periodic nervousness, and decisive missed goals under colossal pressure once again confirmed the long-known truth: Bilyalov is a reliable goalkeeper for the regular season distance, but in the final stretch of the Gagarin Cup, he catastrophically lacks composure. As a result, Ak Bars retained its usual core, but questions about the mental resilience of the leaders before the new season have only multiplied.

      Repetition of Valiullin's past trick: will legionnaires bring Ak Bars back into the Cup race?

      However, it is definitely not worth writing off too soon: everyone remembers how last year's silence of Ak Bars in the market ended after almost the entire summer. Back then, the general manager of Ak Bars similarly failed the summer segment of the off-season, generating a lot of skepticism among fans and experts, but then made a loud correction. Just before the start of the season, they finally agreed with Denisенко, and defense was strengthened by Ilya Karpukhin. During the fall, the team was joined by Alexander Khmelevsky, and in winter by Nathan Todd, which covered up the terrible acquisitions of Wyatt Kalinyuk and Brandon Biro. With the latter, it was eventually possible to part amicably.

      If the Kazan leadership manages to pull off deals of a similar scale with legionnaires, the situation will change instantly — Ak Bars will immediately return to the status of one of the main favorites of the league.

      The main hopes of the Kazan team are now tied to targeted imports. Insider circles are actively discussing Ak Bars' substantive interest in Swedish forward Robin Kovach, who finished sixth in the Swedish championship in the sniper list last season. He is a fast, technical forward with an excellent shot, capable of adding the very non-standard and creative creativity to Kazan's attack that the club lost with the departure of Alexander Barabanov. Additionally, the list of potential foreign targets includes Canadian Evander Kane. It sounds more like a beautiful