Igor Esmantovich: CSKA is a special club, with a special history and philosophy

Igor Esmantovich, President of PHC CSKA:

— The season ended unsuccessfully. The season went by very unevenly and nervously. During the season, we understood the situation that needed to be corrected. Unfortunately, together with the coaches we couldn’t cope with it, we couldn’t find the necessary levers in order to achieve results.

— If CSKA had gotten any other club in the playoffs except Lokomotiv, it would have passed it and started playing in ascending order. What do you say about this?

— It’s difficult to answer for one reason – sport is so flexible that it’s hard to say. I don’t want to throw the puck into anyone’s garden. Maybe they passed, or maybe they didn’t. Another team? Why did there have to be another team? This is a sports principle: everyone played, everyone under the same conditions, with the same platforms. There is a result, and it is bad. All 16 teams were worthy, and the playoffs showed their worth in this regard for a long time. Always when CSKA won, a fairly large number of teams were contenders for this cup. We always understand, appreciate and evaluate this from the point of view of our approach.

— How and why was the decision made regarding Sergei Fedorov after two Gagarin Cups? It is clear that CSKA has maximum goals, but still the man’s merits were quite high.

— We give awards for merit. When Sergei Viktorovich won, he received awards for his services – a gold medal, the Gagarin Cup, an award as a head coach. This club needs to fight and fight for the cup every year. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. For this purpose, there is a supervisory board, which contains serious leaders, they gathered us and decided to recognize the work as unsatisfactory and, based on the results of this work, to remove Sergei Viktorovich.

— Will Sergei Viktorovich continue to work in the system?

— Yes, he is a member of the supervisory board, and remains so.

— Igor Nikitin lost his job after losing in the final, Sergei Fedorov was not asked to have one unsuccessful season, despite two cups. Will Ilya Vorobyov have any credibility at the start of the season, given that big changes are taking place at the club, or will he also be in demand from the first official match?

— Everything has a place for dialogue, of course. It is impossible to say categorically what kind of carte blanche for Vorobyov, who can start working next season. To do this, you need to look at the results and his work. And carte blanche for the duration of his stay at the club is only in the hands of the supervisory board. Personnel issues regarding the appointment of a head coach are handled only by the supervisory board of the CSKA hockey club.

— Will Ilya Petrovich be given carte blanche to develop young players?

— The regulations themselves require the development of young players. You understand perfectly well that there are players who are limiters. By age next season it is 2004 and 2005. This time. Secondly, the head coach has complete carte blanche to work with young people. Here we will focus on July, because we are now within the framework of selection work. Nothing prevents Ilya Petrovich from engaging with young people and promoting them. The result is important. Look how Metallurg plays – how many young guys they have there! Why not? You see how stereotypes are broken or changed. This is wonderful! And we are one of the engines of progress here. The CSKA hockey school provides hockey players not only for our army club, but for the whole country.

— Why did the choice fall on Ilya Petrovich Vorobyov?

— CSKA is a special club, with a special history and philosophy. The tasks of returning the sports component of our country to Olympus, which were set by Rosneft in 2011, were and remain a priority. Thank God that we have five Russian championship titles, three Gagarin Cups, a World Cup and a Kharlamov Cup, we have now taken first place in the standings of Moscow schools for the seventh time in a row. This creates certain difficulties for the appointment of the coaching corps. Nowadays, not many coaches today can be under pressure regarding the difficult result of their work. Ilya Petrovich raised his cup, speaking in slang. We saw his work in 2022 when we played them in the final and won the cup. We discussed everything with him, listened to him, what his vision of development is. Guessing with the coach is also part of the work and the sports result.

— Can you say who exactly is leaving the team?

— Plotnikov, Grigorenko, Svetlakov, Slepyshev, Dietz will not remain on the team. Fedotov, who signed a contract in Philadelphia, will not remain. According to Dietz and Slepyshev, we are working with agents and clubs to exchange them.

— How long has the contract with Ilya Petrovich been signed and who will be his assistants?

— We have talked about assistants with five coaches whose candidacies are still being considered for our headquarters. Ravil Yakubov will not be there, his contract has expired, and neither will Sergei Naumov. All the coaches who were “on the ice” are leaving. Popov’s position at CSKA is as a hockey player development coach. He remains one. Ilya Petrovich has a three-year contract.

— Have you thought about invigorating the team with a coaching change during the season?

— We thought about not only coaching, but also playing. This was all discussed together with Sergei Fedorov, but in the end the decision was made to work with the current lineup due to the fact that these guys had proven their worth earlier, when we were also in a difficult situation. We decided to go all the way with the guys we trusted before. We approached this situation honestly both in relation to the headquarters and the players.

— At CSKA, the new head coach determines his assistants, and the supervisory board approves them, or is this a collective decision?

— Together with Ilya Petrovich, we select assistants, and he approves these candidates at the supervisory board.

— Is CSKA really heading for the return of its players from North America?

— We probably have this in the genetic code of CSKA. Just as good guys go to America, they come back. Remember 2018, the beginning of the season – how many guys who became Olympic champions we brought back! And Slepysheva, and Mamina, and Grigorenko, and Nesterova. Of course, our priority within the framework of today’s regulations is to try to find a common language with our many guys in North America and convince them that the time has come to come to our beloved country. We are working in this direction. Everything is very difficult. I really hope that we will be able to surprise our fans in this direction.

— Are Okulov, Williams, and Klasson still on the team?

— We are negotiating with Colby, looking for a format for financial opportunities on both sides. How it will turn out, I don’t know yet. Okulov and Klasson have valid contracts.

— Last off-season, clubs actively used offers and rentals of young players. Do you have similar plans?

— At the moment there is no problem to buy for a lot of money. All hockey players are burdened with legal rights in their clubs. Rental options may be presented within the framework of the regulations.

— Your Top 6, the leading defender, is leaving. Do you already see what the new CSKA will be like? Will he still be a clear contender for the Gagarin Cup?

“We will definitely be a contender for next season, that’s for sure.” Believe me, if we do this, we understand what we are doing. We are ready to form a team that will give maximum results.

— Is it possible that the club’s management will be more relaxed about the results, given that CSKA is in perestroika?

— I would like to thank the Rosneft company for the returns that are coming our way. Winning the Gagarin Cup is a difficult task, but we are always determined to do it. CSKA cannot have any other goals. It is unlikely that the management will relent, realizing that we are not going after the Gagarin Cup. We are capable of this task, believe me. We just have to wait a little until August.

Denis Denisov, sports director of PHC CSKA:

– We are judged by our results. The CSKA hockey club is accustomed to giving the maximum, the best result, so we certainly consider this season to be unsuccessful.

— Does the club already have plans for pre-season training?

“We have three teams, and they already have preseason schedules planned. “Red Army” will go to Aleksin in the Tula region to prepare, “Zvezda” will go to Saransk, CSKA follows the old system: we train in Minsk, gather on August 1 and have a training camp from the 5th to the 19th. Then we come to Moscow, play one control game and enter the Moscow Mayor’s Cup, after which the championship begins.

— How difficult will it be to replace departing players and can we say that this will be the most difficult off-season for you as a sporting director?

“These are guys who have won names for themselves, have authority and have proven everything to everyone. I can only say thank you to them and wish them in the future to show what they do best – play hockey. As for our work, it’s no secret that everyone is busy with this now. Teams are being formed for the next season. Let’s hope that we will be leaders here.

— Are the graduates of the CSKA Hockey School ready to soon join the “Red Army”, “Zvezda” and CSKA?

— As already mentioned, the CSKA school won the overall standings of the city of Moscow for the seventh time in a row. We will build on this. If the school produces results, then all professional teams of the club should be replenished with their students. This is where we are going. “Red Army” and “Zvezda” are one of the youngest teams in the league, “Zvezda” has already begun to give a certain result. These teams will be tasked with high goals. We will continue to introduce young players into the first team. God grant that they grow into professionals and play not only for the club, but also for the Russian national team.

— Will changes be made to the team’s preparation taking into account the fact that the season will end a month later, on May 31?

— It would make sense to make changes if the start of the championship was at a different time. According to the regulations, the season begins on August 1, only on this date can we assemble a team. Players with bilateral and trilateral contracts will be collected earlier and will undergo full training with the Red Army and Zvezda. Applicants for a place in the first team will go to a training camp in Minsk, after the preseason and test games certain conclusions will be drawn.

— Will there be changes in the coaching staffs of “Zvezda” and “Red Army”?

— No, no changes are planned. Head coaches remain with their jobs and their staff. “Zvezda” performed quite well and reached the playoffs. We failed to win the seventh match of the playoffs, but nevertheless we consider the result satisfactory. There is nothing to execute or pardon for. Full work in progress. As for the “Red Army”, we were aware that such results could happen when we took 15 hockey players born in 2006 to the team. We must gradually adapt them to professional hockey, giving them time for this.