Today, the graduation ceremony and closing ceremony for the 2025/26 season took place at the CSKA ARENA. Club and school leaders summed up the season, presented awards to the young players and their coaches, and sent off the graduates of the 2009 CSKA team to adulthood.
The ceremony was hosted by renowned hockey commentators and experts Natalia Clark and Vladimir Guchek. The young athletes were congratulated on their successful season by distinguished guests: Igor Esmantovich, President of the CSKA Moscow Ice Hockey Club; members of the club's supervisory board, including Honorary President Boris Mikhailov; Vladislav Tretiak, President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation; Sergei Fedorov, Advisor to the CEO of Rosneft Oil Company; Denis Denisov, Sports Director; Kirill Pafifov, Director of the CSKA Hockey School; Svetlana Ishmuratova, Deputy Head of the CSKA Ministry of Defense for Military-Political Work; and Pavel Karnaukhov and Dmitry Gamzin, players from the CSKA main team.
This season, the 2009-born Army men became the best team in Russia in their age group for the sixth consecutive time – a unique achievement that had never been achieved before. In honor of these victories, special jerseys with gold accents and a chevron symbolizing their six victories in all-Russian competitions were made for the players' graduation ceremony. As Igor Vyacheslavovich Esmantovich reported, most of the graduates have already been offered professional contracts, and they can start next season with the MHL team Red Army, led by Mikhail Deev, coach of the 2009 CSKA Moscow team.
Specifically for the celebration, the club's partner, OLIMPBET, prepared special awards, which were presented in 15 categories to the best coaches and players of the CSKA Hockey School this season.
Denis Denisov, the club's sports director: "The school's success is the result of the painstaking work of the management, Rosneft, which creates these conditions for us, our director, Igor Vyacheslavovich Esmantovich, and absolutely the entire coaching staff we have assembled. They are truly diamonds in their field. We pursue them, we convince them that they should work for CSKA, a club that will win medals. I wish our graduates the best in life. First and foremost, so they become people. They're no longer children, but adults, real men who have become role models and supporters for their families and, of course, for the younger generation to whom they passed on their banner today".
Boris Mikhailov, Honorary President of the Club: "Our school is one of the leading in the country. It works very well. Both the director and the coaching staff do everything to instill in the players a sense of victory. Because CSKA has always fought for first place. I would like to wish the graduates to absorb well what their coaches teach them. They must do everything with soul and love. Not everyone will become a great hockey player, but through hockey they will become true patriots of the Motherland."
