The Kontinental Hockey League formally wrapped their sixteenth season tonight in Moscow with their annual Closing Ceremony, awarding the league’s top teams, players and executives for their performance this year, with six IHLC winners, all from Russia, taking home trophies.

The troika of Nikita Gusev, Alexander Nikihsin and Ilya Nabokov were the biggest winners of the evening, each taking home a trio of accolades – Gusev capturing his second MVP title, along with Top Scorer honours; Nikishin winning both the Top Scoring Defender and Top Plus/Minus; and Nabokov winning Playoff MVP and Top Rookie, while each was also awarded a Golden Helmet as the league’s top All-Star team. Nabokov, whose Metallurg Magnitogorsk just recently captured the Gagarin Cup, saw his teammate Yegor Yakovlev capture the Loyalty To Hockey award, and his coach Andrei Razin capture Top Coach honours.

Due to Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent ban from international competition and exodus of non-Russian teams and most non-Russian players, the only non-Russian trophy winners were American Reid Boucher (Most Goals) and Swede Robin Press, winning a Golden Helmet on the blueline with Nikishin.

The KHL Award Trophy winners for the 2023-24 season (with winners in bold and an asterisk denoting former IHLC holders) are as follows:

Golden Stick (League MVP)
🇺🇸 Reid Boucher (Avangard)
🇷🇺 Nikita Gusev (Dynamo)*
🇷🇺 Vladimir E. Tkachyov (Avangard)*

Top Scorer (Most Points)
🇷🇺 Nikita Gusev (Dynamo)*

Top Sniper (Most Goals)
🇺🇸 Reid Boucher (Avangard)

Top Scoring Defenceman
🇷🇺 Alexander Nikishin (SKA)*

Top Goaltender
🇨🇦 Zachary Fucale (Traktor)*
🇷🇺 Danil Isayev (Lokomotiv)
🇷🇺 Ilya Nabokov (Metallurg)

Best Plus / Minus
🇷🇺 Alexander Nikishin (SKA)*

Iron Man Award
🇷🇺 Yegor Yakovlev (Metallurg)*

Alexei Cherepanov Award (Top Rookie)
🇷🇺 Roman Kantserov (Metallurg)
🇷🇺 Ilya Nabokov (Metallurg)
🇷🇺 Anton Silayev (Torpedo)

Gimayev Prize (Loyalty To Hockey)
🇷🇺 Yevgeni Biryukov (Salavat)*
🇷🇺 Grigori Panin (Salavat)
🇷🇺 Sergei Shirokov (Avtomobilist)*

Overtime Hero
🇷🇺 Vasili Atanasov (Torpedo)

Best Coach
🇷🇺 Andrei Kozyrev (Severstal)
🇰🇿 Igor Nikitin (Lokomotiv)*
🇷🇺 Andrei Razin (Metallurg)*

Valentin Sych Award (Best Director)
🇷🇺 Alexei Teksler (Traktor)

Playoff MVP
🇷🇺 Ilya Nabokov (Metallurg)

Golden Helmet (KHL All-Star Team)
🇷🇺 Nikolai Goldobin (Spartak)
🇷🇺 Nikita Gusev (Dynamo)*
🇷🇺 Ilya Nabokov (Metallurg)
🇷🇺 Alexander Nikishin (SKA)*
🇸🇪 Robin Press (Metallurg)
🇷🇺 Vladimir E. Tkachyov (Avangard)*

Photo Credit: KHL – IIHF – HHOF – IOC