There was a time when Spartak Moscow were one of the giants of Russian and European hockey. Through the Soviet era, Spartak, sponsored by various trade unions, were always the “people’s team,” fierce rivals of the army men of CSKA Moscow and the KGB’s Dynamo club. While they never enjoyed the success of mighty CSKA, the red-and-whites could boast their share of famous names of decades past, including the USSR’s top scorer at the 1972 Summit Series, Hall-of-Famer Alexander Yakushev. And on four occasions, Spartak overcame their famous rivals to take home the Soviet Championship title.
But it has been almost a half-century since the most recent of those national titles, and the post-Soviet era has not been kind to the club from Sokolniki Park (Spartak now play at the Megasport Arena, a bit to the west of their traditional home). While both Dynamo and CSKA have been able to recapture some of their past glories, if only fleetingly now and then, Spartak’s trophy cabinet has been largely bare. In fact, the once-proud red-and-whites have even flirted with oblivion, twice being forced to miss entire seasons due to financial difficulties. And while the Spartak system can still turn out a star player now and then (Ilya Kovalchuk and, more recently, Igor Shesterkin are products of Spartak’s youth programs), it has fallen behind some of its KHL colleagues in that regard, too.
However, since lack of funds forced Spartak to miss the 2014-15 KHL season, stability and improvement – albeit slow improvement – have been features of the club’s story. Spartak returned to the KHL for 2015-16, and made the playoffs in 2017-18. After a small hiccup (Spartak missed the playoffs in 2022-23), 2023-24 featured a first playoff series win since 2009-10. At least, it was the first series win that took place on the ice; Spartak had “defeated” Jokerit Helsinki in the first round in 2021-22, when the Finnish club refused to participate because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And so here we are in 2024-25, and Spartak can have realistic hopes of another trip to the second round of the post-season – and perhaps even beyond that. As of October 27th, Spartak sit third in the KHL’s West Conference, with a record of 11-8. Although last year’s scoring hero, Nikolay Goldobin, is a bit off the pace this time around (he’s recorded 11 points in 18 games this season, after 87 in 78 contests in 2023-24), others have stepped up. Blueliner Andrei Mironov has 11 points in 15 games, while Slovak forward Adam Ružička, formerly of the Calgary Flames, has 10 goals already in 19 contests. And speedy little Pavel Poryadin, coming off a career high of 64 points last season, looks on course to match if not better that number this time around. There are still some questions to be answered in goal, where neither Dmitry Nikolayev nor Patrik Rybár have produced superstar numbers, but their work has been good enough to this point. It may yet all end in tears, but so far, this has been a very solid campaign for Spartak Moscow.
But interestingly, it is not just the senior squad in the KHL that is enjoying success this season. Spartak’s top junior team, MHK Spartak, leads the West Conference of the MHL’s “Gold Division” – the junior league’s elite tier. Below the Gold Division is the Silver Division, and Spartak’s other junior squad, Krylya Sovetov Moscow, are sitting a comfortable third out of ten in that tier. Krylya Sovetov were themselves a famous club back in the day, and so was Khimik Voskresensk – now Spartak’s top professional farm club in the VHL, Russia’s equivalent of the AHL. And Khimik too are having a fine 2024-25 season, sitting third in the 33-team VHL at this point; 23-yeard-old goalie Dmitry Kulikov has been the big story there, having stopped 194 of 206 shots (.942 sv%) through nine games so far.
As mentioned, there’s plenty of time for it all to go wrong, but the Spartak Moscow club is telling a pleasant tale in the early going of the 2024-25 season in several different leagues. Good to see, especially for hockey fans (like myself) who have a soft spot for the famous old teams of the world!
Patrick Conway is a writer based in Peterborough, Ontario. He previously covered Russian hockey at the Conway’s Russian Hockey blog, and he still keeps an eye on goings-on in that area.
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