HC Dinamo Minsk


Hockey Club Dinamo Minsk is an ice hockey team based in Minsk, Belarus. They are members of the Bobrov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Dinamo has qualified for the KHL playoffs four times: in the 2010–11, 2011–12, 2014–15 and 2016–17 KHL seasons. The team has not won a single round in the Gagarin Cup playoffs, losing in all four series.

History

The club's history begins in 1966, when the original Dinamo played 5 seasons in the Soviet Top Ice Hockey League, with its highest finish being 10th place in the 1989/90 season. It was a part of Dynamo sports society sponsored by the Soviet Ministry of Interior and the national security structures including the KGB. Dinamo was renamed as Tivali Minsk in 1993 and four times became a champion of the Belarusian Championship in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 2000. Tivali was disbanded in 2000. Dinamo was founded in 2003, taking the name of the historic club, and won the championship title once and the Belarus Cup twice.
On 26 March 26, 2008, the KHL confirmed the Belarusian club's inclusion in the Bobrov Division. Dinamo-Minsk started to play on the ice of Minsk Palace of Sports and was relocated to the newly built Minsk-Arena in December 2009. The first head coach of the club was Paul Gardner, however he was dismissed prior to the beginning of the season. The next head coach became Jim Hughes, a protégé of previous Belarus national team head coach Curt Fraser. But after the first twelve games, the team was ranked next to the last place and Jim Hughes was dismissed. The new vacancy was taken by Russian specialist Vasili Spiridonov whose efforts were not enough to raise Dinamo-Minsk from the bottom of the tournament table. The club ended the season ranked 22nd out of 24 teams.
The next season team began under command of Glen Hanlon, who brought the Belarus national team to the sixth place at WC2006 in Riga. The team roster was filled with world-famous players Ville Peltonen and Ossi Väänänen, and also one of the best Belarusian goaltenders Andrei Mezin. The season of 2009/2010 was similar to the previous one. The team did not show good result and Glen Hanlon was substituted by the head coach of HK Homiel. Dinamo-Minsk finished at the 17th spot in the KHL while missing the playoffs, but still managed to win Spengler Cup under the guidance of Alexander Andrievsky.
Season 2010/11 was Dinamo-Minsk's best season in the KHL. Marek Sýkora, who is widely thought of as one of the best coaches in the KHL, was appointed head coach. He brought Metallurg Magnitogorsk to the final games in 2005 and a rookie of the KHL Avtomobilist to the KHL playoffs in 2010. Dinamo-Minsk under his command managed not only to get into the playoffs but was byt one step removed from the Western Conference semi-finals when Lokomotiv prevailed in the decisive game seven of the series. In addition, Dinamo-Minsk was named the most attended club in the KHL in the 2010-2011 season.
The 2011/12 season of Dinamo-Minsk was to have begun on 8 September 2011, versus Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. However, on 7 September 2011, the plane carrying the Lokomotiv team to the game in Minsk had crashed during takeoff, killing all but one of Lokomotiv's roster. Four days later, a memorial ceremony took place at the Minsk-Arena, with Minsk players paying tribute to the victims.
In the 2016/17 season, the assistant coach of the Belarus national team Craig Woodcroft, became the head coach of Dinamo-Minsk. From the very beginning to the end of the regular season, the "Bisons" were in the playoff zone and breaking a number of club records. They first collected 105 points in a regular season and took eighth place in the general standings of the KHL. They regained the status of the most popular team of the Kontinental Hockey League, averaging 13,230 spectators at home matches. In total, more than 400,000 fans visited Minsk Arena during the season. But in the playoffs, Dinamo did not succeed. Again, as six years ago, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl became the rival at the first stage. The series ended in five games - 1-4. Also during the season, in December 2016, Dinamo for the second time took part in the Spengler Cup.
Woodcroft had a three-year contract, bu elected to leave the team in spring to head the Swiss club Geneva-Servette. Gordie Dwyer was appointed head coach for the 2017/18 season. The roster had to be formed taking into account the financial difficulties that arose at the end of the previous season, so the team was weakened. Leaders like Ben Scrivens, Kevin Lalande, Raman Hrabarenka, Matt Ellison, Rob Klinkhammer, Sergei Kostitsyn, Andrei Stas and Nikita Komarov left. Instead of these players came mainly young Belarusians and four hockey players who had not previously played in the KHL - Jhonas Enroth, Quinton Howden, Justin Fontaine and Jack Skille. Some of them showed great performance: Enroth joined the Sweden national team to participate in the Olympics in Pyeongchang and became the best player of the season in the opinion of the fans, and Howden took the second place in the list of the team's top scorers. But in general, the season for Dinamo was unsuccessful: the team finished in the 10th place in the conference and did not qualify for the playoffs.

Arenas

Dinamo-Minsk called Minsk Sports Palace as their home until they moved to the new Minsk-Arena in 2010.

Season-by-season KHL record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, OTW = Overtime/Shootout Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime/Shootout Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points
SeasonGPWOTWLOTLPtsGFGAFinishTop ScorerPlayoffs
2008–0956123347491241976th, BobrovYaroslav Chupris Did not qualify
2009–1056176312651391646th, BobrovGeoff Platt Did not qualify
2010–1154178227741501554th, TarasovKonstantin Glazachev Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 3-4
2011–1254217206831581484th, TarasovTeemu Laine Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0-4
2012–1352186235711251485th, TarasovTim Stapleton Did not qualify
2013–1454134316531021617th, BobrovGeoff Platt Did not qualify
2014–15602772151001711593rd, BobrovCharles Linglet Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4
2015–1660207249831471684th, BobrovMatt Ellison Did not qualify
2016–176027101941051711502nd, BobrovMatt Ellison Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4
2017–1856205283731121294th, BobrovMarc-Andre Gragnani Did not qualify
2018–1962152378421191805th, TarasovTeemu Pulkkinen Did not qualify
2019–20621133711391352326th, TarasovRyan Spooner Did not qualify

Players

Current roster

Franchise records and scoring leaders

KHL scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history while being a KHL club. Figures are updated after each completed KHL regular season.
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; = current Dinamo Minsk player''
PlayerPosGPGAPtsP/G
Geoff PlattLW/C26087831700.65
Matt EllisonRW16666951610.97
Charles LingletLW22145801250.57
Alexander KulakovLW/RW37651621130.30
Dmitry MeleshkoRW35651521030.29
Marc-André GragnaniD1581880980.62
Andrei StasC3073556910.30
Alexei KalyuzhnyC1522863910.60
Olexander MaterukhinRW2135335880.41
Zbyněk IrglRW1533751880.58

PlayerPosG
Geoff PlattLW/C87
Matt EllisonRW66
Olexander MaterukhinRW53
Dmitry MeleshkoRW51
Alexander KulakovLW/RW51
Charles LingletRW45
Andrei MikhalevLW/RW41
Jonathan CheechooRW40
Andrei StepanovRW40
Teemu LaineLW37

PlayerPosA
Matt EllisonRW95
Geoff PlattLW/C83
Charles LingletLW80
Marc-Andre GragnaniD80
Alexei KalyuzhnyC63
Alexander KulakovRW62
Lukas KrajicekD60
Andrei StasC56
Nick BailenD55
Dmitry MeleshkoRW52

Franchise records

Regular season

  1. Dmitry Meleshko, 11-21-2010 at Metallurg Magnitogorsk - needed 43.26 to complete the feat
  2. Zbyněk Irgl, 11-22-2011 at Barys Astana - needed 31.48 to complete the feat
  3. Jonathan Cheechoo, 09-04-2014 at Jokerit - needed 42.54 to complete the feat
  4. Jonathan Cheechoo, 10-24-2014 at Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk - needed 26.09 to complete the feat
  5. Matt Ellison, 10-03-2015 at Avangard Omsk - needed 17.05 to complete the feat
  6. Matt Ellison, 10-05-2015 at Barys Astana - needed 21.45 to complete the feat
  7. Rob Klinkhammer, 10-23-2016 at Sochi - needed 39.52 to complete the feat
  8. Quinton Howden, 10-02-2017 at Dinamo Moscow - needed 43.45 to complete the feat

    Honors

Champions

Belarus
BSSR
Europe
Belarus