{"id":61122,"date":"2025-07-13T02:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T02:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61122\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T02:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T02:26:08","slug":"babcock-gallant-tortorella-kuznetsov-obvintsev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/61122\/","title":{"rendered":"Babcock, Gallant, Tortorella, Kuznetsov, Obvintsev"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The KHL\u2019s Kunlun Red Star is making an aggressive push to land a high-profile name as its next head coach. They\u2019ve made attempts to land longtime NHL coaches Mike Babcock, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/gallage01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gerard Gallant<\/a><\/strong>, and John Tortorella this summer, reports <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sport24.ru\/hockey\/article-766657-kitaytsy-okhotyatsya-na-luchshikh-trenerov-mira-boss-kunlunya-khochet-privezti-v-kkhl-bebkoka-tortorellu-i-gallana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dmitry Erykalov of Sport24.ru<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While legally based in Beijing, Kunlun hasn\u2019t played in China since the pandemic. They\u2019ve operated out of a Moscow suburb called Mystichi in recent years but will now play out of St. Petersburg\u2019s SKA Arena, the largest area in the world built for hockey at a capacity of 22,500. Just a few years old, SKA St. Petersburg played part of last season there but will move back to its old venue for 2025-26 due to underwhelming attendance and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sport24.ru\/hockey\/news-766840-ska-arena-budet-pereimenovana-v-blizhayshem-sezone-kkhl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">\u201clow transport accessibility.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Erykalov writes that Kunlun has also appointed former Avangard Omsk chairman Alexander Krylov to a hockey operations role ahead of the 2025-26 campaign; he previously approached Babcock about Omsk\u2019s vacancy in 2022. Of the three, Erykalov relays that Gallant would be the most realistic hire for the fledgling club as he\u2019s told KHL clubs he \u201cwould not mind working\u201d in Russia. That tracks after he wasn\u2019t firmly connected to any NHL coaching vacancies this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Kunlun has long been irrelevant in the grand scheme of KHL play, especially with the goal of directly supporting professional hockey in China seemingly abandoned post-Olympics and pandemic. The club made the KHL playoffs in its first season back in 2016-17 but hasn\u2019t since. Their 19-34-9-6 record last season was its best in five years, though.<\/p>\n<p>Other notes from Russia:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier today, we <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/2025\/07\/morning-notes-comtois-kuznetsov-ahl.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">relayed<\/a> word that the Canadiens wouldn\u2019t be offering center\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuzneev01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-12_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Evgeny Kuznetsov<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>a contract as he attempts an NHL return despite speculation otherwise. His agent also said to rule out a return to the Capitals, where he spent the vast majority of the first stint of his time in North America. \u201cI don\u2019t see how he could go back,\u201d Shumi Babaev said, after Kuznetsov\u2019s tenure in Washington ended on the waiver wire before being dealt to the Hurricanes for a mid-round pick at the 2023 trade deadline. Kuznetsov, whose 568 points in 723 games rank seventh in Caps franchise history, had 37 points in 39 KHL games last season for SKA in his first season at home in over a decade.<\/li>\n<li>Maple Leafs goaltending prospect\u00a0<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/691416\/timofei-obvintsev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Timofei Obvintsev<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>has signed a one-year deal with Gornyak-UGMK of the VHL, Russia\u2019s second-tier pro league, the league <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vhlru.ru\/lenta\/542913\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a>. A 2024 fifth-round pick, Obvintsev saw just 11 games of action in Russia\u2019s top junior league last season with CSKA Moscow\u2019s affiliate club, posting a 2.78 GAA, .908 SV%, one shutout, and a 6-4-0 record. The 20-year-old could be in line for a move to North America next season if he impresses in the pro ranks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The KHL\u2019s Kunlun Red Star is making an aggressive push to land a high-profile name as its next&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[44098,44099,44100,21619,44101,293,62,44102,1304,67,132,68,3109],"class_list":{"0":"post-61122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-evgeny-kuznetsov","9":"tag-gerard-gallant","10":"tag-john-tortorella","11":"tag-khl","12":"tag-mike-babcock","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-timofei-obvintsev","16":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-washington-capitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114843561908102607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}