Hall of Famer Igor Larionov makes extremely bold claim when comparing NHL & KHL
Hockey Hall of Famer Igor Larionov is in the midst of his first season as a head coach in KHL as his team, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod is currently in the second round of the playoffs against SKA St. Petersburg.
In the first round of the playoffs, Larionov's club knocked off Dinamo Minsk in six games and as he reflected on the series and his time as a head coach this year, the three-time Stanley Cup champion made a bold claim, saying that there isn't that big of a gap in quality of play between the NHL and KHL.
Note: the following has been translated from Russian by DeepL.
Assessing the last games against Dynamo - the overtime, the intrigue, the cool moments the guys have been creating, and in this series. I don't think there's that big of a gap between the NHL and the KHL. There's another gap, you can read between the lines. I'm not going to talk about it, you can see why."
As for the other gap Larionov mentioned, it's hard to pinpoint what he's referring to, but there's a very good chance he means facilities and money, as NHL clubs have a lot more than KHL teams.
A good way to test Larionov's theory that the quality of play between the two leagues isn't that far apart would be by having teams from the NHL and KHL play against each other. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, the two leagues were in discussions regarding potential games between teams, but ultimately those plans fell through.
Do you think Larionov has a point in saying that the quality of hockey between the two leagues isn't that far apart or is he out of his mind? Have your say in the poll below!
Source: Sport24.ru
| POLL | ||
MARS 19 | 1 ANSWERS Hall of Famer Igor Larionov makes extremely bold claim when comparing NHL & KHL Is Larionov right in saying the KHL and NHL are close in terms of quality of play? | ||
| Yes | 0 | 0 % |
| No way | 0 | 0 % |
| See Results | 0 | 0 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
|
LIVE
JUNE 6, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Dylan Coghlan | - | - | - | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | - | - | |
| Nic Dowd | - | - | - | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | - | - | |
| Jack Eichel | - | - | - | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | - | - | |
| Taylor Hall | - | - | - | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | - | - | |
| Carter Hart | - | - | - | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | - | - | |
| Brett Howden | - | - | - | |
| Mark Jankowski | - | - | - | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||