Dynamo Moscow head coach, two-time Gagarin cup winner Olegs Znaroks (51) has signed a contract to become head coach of Russian National Ice Hockey team, and Znaroks long time assistant Harijs Vitolins will be joining him, meanwhile Vitolins will be leading Dynamo Moscow and Olegs Znaroks will be a unofficial assistant with the club.

Olegs Znaroks was the only candidate, but just a few moments before the meeting it was said that they should carefully analyze if he is the man for the job, as Russians wanted a Russian native as head coach. (Olegs Znaroks has Russian, Latvian and German passports). The final decision was made on Monday March 24th, when Russian Hockey Federation head Vladislav Tretjak and Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko met behind closed doors to discuss the position. Later that week, on Friday, the official press conference was held and Olegs Znaroks was named head coach. Meanwhile the Russian National Ice Hockey team also got a new general manager – Andrej Safronov (the Director of Dynamo Moscow).

Safronov stated that the Federation signed four-year contracts with both Znaroks and Vitolins, meaning that the position will take them through the next winter olympics in South Korea. He also mentioned that if things go wrong with Dynamo Moscow, Olegs Znaroks will be jumping in to save the day and Vitolins would be demoted to assistant coach with the club.

During press conference Znaroks said that he asked for help from former Dynamo Moscow, Russian National Teams and Dinamo Riga head coach Vladimir Jurzinov and this will be the person who he will be asking advice from going forward.

Znaroks said: ”Jurzinovs big experience is needed for our team. Knowing the fact that our person works in MHL (Russian Junior League) he knows everything about our rookies and we’re glad to have his help”

Jurzinov said: ”Znaroks is very experienced and already highest rate coach, who has earned his things with his own powers, and of course assist from his team which always follows him. I really thought that they don’t need my help, but they insisted, so I just took their offer, if they think my experience is interesting I could give a helping hand.”

Russian hockey legend and head of Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretjak said that he really doesn’t think Znaroks as not a Russian coach. He was born in Chelyabinsk and he is a very good specialist. His German passport shouldn’t bring any question of his loyalty and it doesn’t make him different from other candidates. He also stated that the Federation is in need of good Russian coaches, and noted that there are 10 different nationalities of coaches in KHL right now, making it harder to find a good Russian coach there. He also pointed out that he hoped KHL clubs would hire more Russian specialists.

Earlier this week Znaroks also said that he has no regrets, he shouldn’t be ashamed of Russian team no matter what happens, he stated that he needs all the support, even from media, he ever promised to be more nicer to them. (Znaroks is known as a coach who likes to ignore media, and during press conferences sometimes spits out some evil jokes).

Znaroks has a great past, born in Chelyabinsk, Russia on January 2nd 1963. His hockey career started playing for Chelyabinsk Traktor (1978-1982). The majority of his career was spent with Dinamo Riga (1983-1992) and playing for the Latvian National team (1993-1999) . Znarok has given Latvian hockey a lot of happy moments, such as scoring game winning goal against Swizerland (1999) which led Latvia to the Elite Division of the IIHF. He earned his Latvian passport for the hard work he put in to help Team Latvia reach their goals. In later years of his career, Znaroks played in Germany, and decided to get his passport to be eligible for his pension.

After he retired as a player he became head coach of Team Latvia in 2006, and he worked there until 2011. During that time he also coached MVD Balashika. Since 2010 he has been the head coach of Dynamo Moscow. In Russia his assistant is his former team mate Harijs Vitolins. These two coaches together went far, won two Gagarin Cups (2012,2013), and Olegs Znaroks is now the most sucessful European head coach in Russia’s KHL.

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