Leonid Tambiev: “We are at Admiral for five foreign players. We will be looking for an imported goalkeeper!

“Admiral” remember, this season did not reach the Gagarin Cup playoffs, scoring 54 points in 68 matches and finishing 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Yesterday, the FHR announced that at a meeting of the federation’s board of directors a decision could be made to return the limit of five foreign players per club to the KHL for the 2024-25 season. We built a conversation around this topic with the head coach of the Far East team Leonid Tambiev .

“We have not yet received instructions”

– Your work is in full swing. Surely you watch AHL games to recruit foreign players for the Admiral?

— Yes, we watch AHL games, we see interesting guys. Regarding the move to five foreign players, this has not yet been officially confirmed. These are just rumors. We are waiting for the final information, then we will discuss. At Admiral we haven’t received any instructions yet and they haven’t told me anything. I read the news on the Internet, like everyone else. No more.

— If the “Admiral” has not three, but five foreign players, how will the team change?

— The game will not weaken, that’s clear. And we will try to fill all vacancies competently. Let’s strengthen the positions we need.

Our situation regarding foreigners: Czech Libor Sulak is under contract. We made a qualifying offer to Canadian Giovanni Fiore.

And if there are five foreign players, then we have three or four vacancies. And there is freedom of maneuver. Maybe we will look for an imported goalkeeper in the market. The main thing is that it is officially accepted.

This is important to the admiral. It is difficult for us to fill quality vacancies with good Russian players. We will try to get new foreign players to definitely strengthen the team and become leaders. We have raised the level of the training process, which is important for our young people – let the guys follow them. The most important thing is that foreigners bring results to the team.

— So you’re going to look for a goalkeeper?

— We don’t have the first three yet. We need a frontline center forward. All the good Russian goalkeepers have already been taken. We want to find someone at the level of Nikita Serebryakov. Yes, it’s difficult, but maybe there will be such a goalkeeper in the market for foreign players?

A lot depends on this role. You see, Traktor with and without Zach Fucale are two different teams. You can say whatever you want. But a lot depends on the goalkeeper. And it doesn’t matter the level of the team. These playoffs have once again proven it for many teams: those currently playing for the Gagarin Cup have very strong goalkeepers.

“If we had at least two or three people like Bouchelnikov…”

– Lokomotiv has only one foreigner – Slovakian Martin Gernat. “Metallurg” – two foreign actors: American Luke Johnson and Swede Robin Press. So three foreigners aren’t even necessary?

— We can talk a lot, but Igor Nikitin and Andrei Razin have very promising young Russians in their hands. They are of a very high level. Lokomotiv usually has a group of local hockey players – club patriots who have played in Yaroslavl all their lives. They grew up there, they have an intelligent and powerful school.

We are talking about top clubs where everything is aligned. They train the players there themselves. Magnitogorsk – Yurov revealed himself there, the same Grebenkin shot in Khabarovsk. Last year, everything was clear to him.

I don’t usually complain. But if I had at least two of these Buchelnikovs, the admiral would also have a powerful attack. What can I say ? Two or three of these strikers – and I too would probably give up on foreign players. But where can I find them so that they produce results and embody the coach’s thoughts on the ice? Our Typhoon is still an underdog in the MHL, scoring only 21 points during the season. Well, who can I take there? We’re talking about serious things.

We are therefore thinking about how to fill the vacancies. There will be five foreign players, we will see depending on the situation. We need to complete all five. If good Russian hockey players appear, we may not accept so many foreigners. It is very difficult for Admiral to compete in the market with other teams. Many players want to go to central Russia. But I don’t want to take anyone. Therefore, we treat the selection scrupulously, trying not to step on the same rake as this season. Now we want to take the ones that are needed, and to be sure. We want to raise the level of the admiral so that he himself wants to go to Vladivostok and play here.

“No one will leave the KHL in the middle of the playoffs”

— Do foreigners now have a choice in the market?

— There is a choice among those who want to play in the KHL. There are very good players. They offer us very interesting options. This is currently under negotiation.

It would be very good for the Admiral to have five foreign players. This is optimal for the entire league. It is easier to register a Russian player, because there is a lot of paperwork with foreigners. Their completion takes a lot of time. But we are in favor of the previous limit and there cannot be two opinions here.

— And wage levels are unlikely to skyrocket. Tomas Jurcho came to Avangard for only 13 million rubles.

“It’s easier for them to negotiate.” And when we talk about “Admiral”, foreigners look at the map of Russia: “Wow, I’ll have to fly.” A lot depends on logistics. We try to explain in the negotiations that the organization is good, that the league is strong and that the conditions are excellent.

But Fiore wasn’t afraid of flights at all. He wanted to play in the KHL and loved playing for Admiral. He really loved our league. At the beginning it was very difficult for him, but at the end of the season he played. I realized that the KHL is stronger than the German championship. They are completely different levels of hockey.

— How many foreign players did you have when Admiral reached the second round of the 2022-23 season?

— We had full vacancies – all five of us: Libor Sulak, Canadian Colby Williams, Czech Rudolf Cherveny, Latvian Nikolay Eliseev and Slovak Michal Kristof. This is not to say that they are top foreign players. No one has scored more than 13 goals. But they were well-trained players, they gave us heart and soul.

— The KHL season begins on September 3 and could end on May 31. You will recruit five foreigners, and someone will go to their national team for the World Cup in the middle of the playoffs.

– Who will go? The Canadian and United States national teams bring together NHL and college players. The question concerns only the Kazakhstan national team. Slovaks do not have a large selection of hockey players.

– The Slovak is going to leave you…

“This means we will not sign the Slovak.” Well how? Why do we need these problems? But I think if a player comes to the KHL and reaches the second or third round of the playoffs, then he will play for the club until the end. It makes no sense to leave the team for the national team in the midst of the fight for the Gagarin Cup. So undermine your reputation in the league. So how are you going to look the guys in the locker room in the eye?

Hockey players at this stage come together and fight for each other so much that it’s nice to see. It has always been like this. “Lokomotiv”, “Avtomobilist”, “Magnitka” – look at them… I think no player will leave at such a time. Everyone will fight until the end for the cup. There can’t even be two opinions here. Leave the team?.. Such players do not exist!

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