Increased competition – welcome aboard, Ivan Nalimov!

For now, though, he’s committed to Red Star for the coming season and he will provide competition for Alexander Lazushin and Sun Zehao in our goaltending stable. Having joined up with the team in Sochi and completed his medicals, Nalimov might even get a chance to make his debut on Wednesday when we wrap up our Sochi Hockey Open program against Russia ‘B’.

Head coach Jussi Tapola spoke about the new arrival. “So far I haven’t seen him in a game, nor even in training,” he said. “But I’ve seen videos of his games at his old club and I can say he is more than capable of earning his team wins. We’ve been looking for a goalie for a long time and now we have two great players. I hope Nalimov and Lazushin will be good competition for each other.”

Following Magnus Hellberg’s departure, we have another big goalie – Nalimov stands at 194cm. Another big point in his favor is his long experience of life in the Far East. Most of his 116 KHL games were for Admiral Vladivostok, so he’s well used to the unique way of life playing for a Far Eastern team. Hopefully it won’t take long to adapt to the day-to-day realities of life in Chinese hockey.