Although no official announcement has been made, the Philadelphia Flyers have hired four-time KHL Coach of the Year Oleg Znarok as a European Player Development and Scouting Consultant, according to the team’s Hockey Personnel page on the NHL website.
(Photo: matvey_michkov39/Instagram)
Znarok, 61, is a Soviet-Latvian former player turned coach who was a star forward for Dinamo Riga, among others, during his professional playing career. As a player, Znarok won a gold medal for the Soviet Union during the 1981 IIHF European Junior Championship, scoring eight goals, eight assists, and 16 points in five games as his nation’s leading scorer.
After his playing career finished, the Flyers’ new scouting consultant took up coaching in the KHL, guiding the defunct HC MVD to the Gagarin Cup Finals in only his second season on the job in 2009-10. Znarok was appointed head coach of Dynamo Moscow in 2010-11 and brought them to the Gagarin Cup playoffs in each of the next four seasons there, winning the Gagarin Cup twice.
Following a two-year hiatus in the KHL, Znarok returned in 2016-17 to coach SKA St. Petersburg, leading his squad to a dominant 39-7-8 record, a Bobrov Division title, and a Gagarin Cup victory.
For his KHL coaching career, Znarok won 295 of his 564 regular season games behind the bench and three out of four Gagarin Cup Finals, on top of being named KHL Coach of the Year in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2017.
If that wasn’t enough, the 61-year-old also coached Russia from 2014 to 2018, most notably winning Olympic Gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Znarok was most recently seen accompanying Flyers rookies Matvei Michkov and Ivan Fedotov on their offseason trip together. Michkov posted a photo of the trio in Colorado (with Znarok in the middle) to his Instagram account on Aug. 26, captioning the post, “Good time and the beautiful view in the back!”
Znarok is likely to help the Flyers work more closely with Michkov, Fedotov, Egor Zamula, and perhaps Alexei Kolosov, as the organization aims to soften the language barrier and make it easier for its young Russian players to adapt to playing in Philadelphia.
