Dinamo Riga and Dynamo Minsk were the weakest this KHL season. What to expect from them in the mid-season?

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the season in the KHL is finished early, and we all hope and believe that the next championship will start on time. Let’s imagine that the situation in the world is stabilizing by the summer, sports and hockey will be “unfrozen” and the more or less normal off-season will take place in the KHL. We figure out what in this case, the tasks will need to be solved by all the league teams. Let’s take a look at what needs to be done by the clubs.

Dynamo Minsk

“Bisons” had a terrible season, took the last place in the West and once again raised a question about the appropriateness of their presence in the KHL. No one is opposed to a distinctive and robust team from Belarus playing in our league. Still, the results of Dynamo in recent years have frankly annoyed everyone even at home, and in the KHL they are starting to get used to the fact that Minskers are one of the league’s main ballasts.
In the offseason, Dynamo has a lot of work, as always, but the transfer issues are still far from the first place. Firstly, it is not yet clear whether the “bisons” will remain in the KHL at all, given the aggravated political contradictions between Russia and Belarus regarding oil supplies. There is no guarantee that the main person in the republic, Alexander Lukashenko, will not freak out and cut off all contacts with Russia, including the KHL. Secondly, if Dynamo remains, then you need to understand the financial conditions. It is no secret that Minskers want to get off the needle of state funding, but now it is impossible to predict how realistic this is and where it will lead.

After solving these critical issues, it will already be possible to talk about selection and to start with the head coach figure, Craig Woodcroft is fairly optimistic about the past season, but the club leaders are unlikely to agree with his point of view. If we talk about the players, then Dynamo, of course, needs to strengthen all positions.

Dinamo Riga

In recent years, Dinamo Riga has also turned into a hopeless outsider of the KHL. Still, the club quite adequately assesses its capabilities and abilities. It simply intends to continue to live within its means in the league (as long as the size of the salary floor will allow), trying to enjoy the process. It will be, of course, great if in Riga they suddenly manage to assemble a team that will compete for the playoffs, but for this, a lot of factors must converge. The first is the head coach. Girts Akipans will not steer the team from Riga next season, and now Dinamo needs to find a coach who can show results in not very comfortable conditions.

As for the hockey players, there are a lot of players with ending contracts in Dinamo, and the club is waiting for a severe cleanup. From the first selection rumours, it is clear that Riga residents will again seek happiness in the European market and will try to get some low-budget foreign diamonds from Old World clubs. Of course, Dinamo will try to bet on the legionnaires, but at the end of April, the agreements with the iconic players of Latvian hockey will end. It is unlikely that there will be much demand for Darzins, Mikelis Redlihs and Gints Meija, but the task of leaving them at home will probably be a priority for Dinamo.