Head Coach of Ak Bars Anvar Gatiyatulin In an interview with , he said that striker Alexander Barabanov is one of the team leaders and also has all the qualities to play in the main teams of foreign clubs.
Ak Bars announced the signing of Barabanov on August 1. Last season, the forward played in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks.
In recent years, the forward has played in the NHL, where he played for Toronto and San Jose. With the Russian national team, Barabanov won the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, and with SKA he won the Gagarin Cup twice.
— Alexander Barabanov is an Olympic champion, a brilliant third-line player. Do you put him in the top three, thinking that Sasha will turn out differently?
– I wouldn’t say that. It seems to me that Alexander could play on the first lines of the NHL. But it turned out that he was not used there. At Ak Bars, we believe that Barabanov is one of the leaders in the locker room, in everyday life and on the ice.
— Your troika is built on the concept that Nick Petan distributes passes, Dmitry Yashkin completes them, and Barabanov, so to speak, carries the piano?
— In my thoughts, yes, probably something like that. But this is just a theory. We will see on the ice how things go for them, “Gatiyatulin told .
In May, Ak Bars announced the appointment of Gatiyatulin as head coach, the contract is valid for two seasons.
The new season of the FONBET KHL Championship starts on September 3. Ak Bars will face Salavat Yulaev from Ufa on September 5.
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I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
