HC CSKA has signed five-year contracts with the coaching staff until the end of the 2029/30 season. Here are the names: head coach Igor Nikitin, senior coach Dmitry Yushkevich, assistant coach Alexander Popov, goalie coach Rashit Davydov, fitness coach Dmitry Pirozhkov, and athletic coach Vladislav Bryzgalov.
Igor Nikitin is back after his CSKA stint from 2014-2021, a tenure that was highlighted by guiding the team twice to the championship of Russia (2019, 2020) and winning the Gagarin Cup for the first time in its history (2019), as well as three Continental Cups (2019-2021). Of note, Nikitin won the Gagarin Cup for the second time in his career in 2025. Being a member of the coaching staff of the Russian national team from 2011-2018, he won a gold medal at the Olympics (2018) and a two-time world champion (2012, 2014).
Dmitry Yushkevich was senior coach of CSKA from 2017-2021, and then filled out Nikitin’s coaching staff of Lokomotiv. He won the Gagarin Cup twice (2019, 2025).
Rashit Davydov is the first coach in KHL history to win four Gagarin Cups. He became champion with Dynamo in 2012 and 2013, with SKA in 2017, and with Lokomotiv in 2025.
Dmitry Pirozhkov worked for CSKA from 2016-2021 and won the 2019 Gagarin Cup with the team. And being with Lokomotiv, he won the trophy in 2025.
Alexander Popov and Vladislav Bryzgalov will be retained within the CSKA coaching staff. Popov has been coaching since 2023, and prior to that won the Gagarin Cup twice as a player (2019, 2022) and was named the most valuable player of the 2022 playoffs. Bryzgalov has been working with the team since 2021 and has won the Gagarin Cup twice (2022, 2023).
