Amur Khabarovsk


Hockey Club Amur, commonly referred to as the Amur Khabarovsk, is a Russian professional ice hockey team based in Khabarovsk. They are members of the Chernyshev Division of the Kontinental Hockey League. Located in the Russian Far East, the team takes its name from the Amur River, 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 is Admiral Vladivostok. 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. The team played regular season games known as the "Red Army" against West Coast Hockey League teams for the 1995–96 and 1996–97 seasons.
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. They lost, 4-2 to the Latvian team. 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. 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. Despite a disappointing season, Khabarovsk still had the 4th highest average attendance in the league, with an average of 7,100 fans per game.

Season-by-season KHL record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime/Shootout Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
SeasonGPWOTWSOWSOLOTLLPtsGFGAFinishTop ScorerPlayoffs
2008–095615226130601111586th, Kharlamov Div.Oleg Belkin Did not qualify
2009–1056123642296012918710th, EastDavid Ling Did not qualify
2010–1154131134325011217311th, EastRadik Zakiev Did not qualify
2011–125423143221841661397th, EastJakub Petružálek Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0-4
2012–1352111410354411516713th, EastJakub Petružálek Did not qualify
2013–1454814101304510618214th, EastAlexander Yunkov Did not qualify
2014–1560110342404511720714th, EastDmitri Tarasov Did not qualify
2015–1660173360316911214312th, EastVladislav Ushenin Did not qualify
2016–1760201442297611013012th, EastTomáš Zohorna Did not qualify
2017–185621533618881321418th, EastAlexei Byvaltsev Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4
2018–1962172154334912617513th, EastTomáš Zohorna Did not qualify
2019–206220156426621321459th, EastVladislav Ushenin Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Franchise records and leaders

Scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history in the KHL. Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; bold = current Amur player
PlayerGPGAPtsPIM+/-PPGSHGGWG
Tomas Zohorna2755884142211-1013210
Vladislav Ushenin2796764131104318013
Vyacheslav Ushenin2773785122192-11805
Dmitri Tarasov2494763110140-451004
Jakub Petruzalek133505410460-218411
Alexei Kopeikin18332508268-431314
Alexander Yunkov186383876104-231112
Vyacheslav Litovchenko31633417485-401316
Dmitri Lugin20731397077-45703
Alexander Gorshkov15830366645-51005

Team Awards and Honors

Winners

Motor Cup : 2019

Runners-up

KHL Cup of Hope : 2013