Red Star reloading

Kunlun Red Star, China’s second-year team in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League, opened training camp in Harisau, Switzerland on the weekend, under new head coach Mike Keenan and assistant Bobby Carpenter.

Keenan, a Canadian who is the only coach to win both the KHL’s Gagarin Cup (Magnitogorsk, 2014) and the NHL’s Stanley Cup (New York Rangers, 1994) and Carpenter, who starred for the Washington Capitals for 18 years and was the first US-born NHLer to snipe 50 goals in a season, will spend the next month paring the roster before Red Star opens the season with an eightgame road trip, starting Aug 22 in Sochi.

Red Star’s top offseason acquisitions were forwards Wojtek Wolski and Andrei Kostitsyn, both of whom starred in the NHL before jumping to the KHL. Keenan will be looking for the speedy duo to provide more offensive punch for Red Star, which finished eighth in the Eastern Conference last season before being eliminated by Magnitogorsk in the playoff quarterfinals.

Wolski, 31, had 99 goals and 267 points in 450 NHL games, mostly with the Colorado Avalanche, before signing with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in 2013. He was traded to Magnitogorsk in 2015, and last October in a game against Barys Astana he broke his neck and sustained a concussion, which left him unable to play the rest of the season. He has 65 goals and 138 points in 179 KHL games.

Kostitsyn, 32, was drafted 10th overall by Montreal in 2003 and sniped 103 goals and 222 points in 398 NHL games with the Canadiens and Nashville Predators. In 253 KHL games with Novgorod and Sochi, he has 75 goals and 162 points.

Following its extended season-opening road trip, Red Star will kick off a four-game home stand at Beijing’s Wukesong Arena on Sept 9, against Helsinki-based Jokerit.