Red Star launches Keenan era

With new head coach Mike Keenan behind the bench, Beijing-based Kunlun Red Star opens its second Kontinental Hockey League regular season tonight in Sochi, Russia.

Keenan, the only coach to win both the Stanley Cup (1994 New York Rangers) and the KHL’s Gagarin Cup (2014 Metallurg Magnitogorsk) was hired by Kunlun at the end of last season following the unexpected resignation of Vladimir Yurzinov.

Few familiar faces remain from last season. Red Star’s top eight scorers have all moved on, and the new-look lineup is led by Swedish center Richard Gynge and two former NHL stars: right winger Andrei Kostitsyn of Belarus and Poland-born Canadian left winger Wojtek Wolski. Keenan will be looking for the trio to generate the majority of Red Star’s goals.

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.

Wolski, 31, had 99 goals and 267 points in 450 NHL games 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, which left him unable to play the rest of the season.

He has 65 goals and 138 points in 179 KHL games.

Other Red Star newcomers include Brandon Yip, born in Canada of Chinese and Irish ancestry, who logged 174 NHL games for Colorado, Nashville and Phoenix before spending last season with Dusseldorf in the German national league. Brandon Wong, another Chinese Canadian, played for Regensburg in the German circuit.

Tomi Karhunen, who was 11-11-5 in 27 starts for Red Star last season, is expected to carry the brunt of the goaltending load, with three potential backups still being evaluated.

Following an eight-game road trip to open the season, Red Star will kick off a fourgame home stand at Wukesong Arena on Sept 9, against Helsinki-based Jokerit.