Kazakhstan's Olympic qualifying roster
ChelseaFunNumberOne - Kazakhstan's Olympic qualifying rosterIn an attempt to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics, Kazakhstan is bringing a relatively young team, but one that has plenty of international experience from the last couple of IIHF World Championships. The team also has a couple of longstanding veterans in 38-year-old Roman Starchenko and 35-year-old Yevgeni Rymarev, who have played in nine and seven World Championships, respectively.
Gone are the days when Kazakhstan’s national team was filled with naturalized Canadians, Americans and Swedes who played on the country’s KHL team, Barys Astana, for enough years to qualify. Barys is still the largest contibuting club to the national team with 11 players, with six coming from other KHL teams. Only four players come from Kazakhstan’s domestic league, and two of those actually play for Humo Tashkent, which is based in Uzbekistan.
The lone European-based player is starting goaltender Andrei Shutov, who plays for Slovak club Slovan Bratislava and will actually be playing in his home rink for the Olympic qualifying tournament. Shutov has been named top Kazakhstan Player of the Year the last two straight seasons.
Since the formation of their national team in 1992, the Kazakhs have made the Olympics in men’s ice hockey on two previous occasions. They’ll be hard-pressed to make it a third time needing to beat Austria, Hungary and host Slovakia, but it’s not impossible. Interestingly, when Kazakhstan made the Olympic quarterfinals in 1998 in Nagano, the team beat Slovakia and tied Austria in the preliminary round.
In preparation for this weekend's tournament, Kazakhstan held a training camp in Czechia and on Sunday played an exhibition game against Czech second-division club Piráti Chomutov, winning 4-2.
Goaltenders (3): Nikita Boyarkin (Barys Astana), Maxim Pavlenko (Ryazan VDV, Russia), Andrei Shutov (Slovan Bratislava, Slovakia).
Defensemen (8): Adil Beketayev (Barys Astana), Dmitri Breus (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), Samat Daniyar (Barys Astana), Tamirian Gaitamirov (Barys Astana), Leonid Metalnikov (Admiral Vladivostok, Russia), Eduard Mikhailov (Arlan Kokshetau), Valeri Orekhov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Russia), Ivan Stepanenko (Humo Tashkent, Uzbekistan).
Forwards (13): Alikhan Asetov (Barys Astana), Alexander Borisevich (Barys Astana), Ruslan Dyomin (Saryarka Karaganda), Artyom Likhotnikov (Humo Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Nikita Mikhailis (Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Russia), Maxim Mukhametov (Barys Astana), Ruslan Ospanov (Barys Astana), Kirill Panyukov (Amur Khabarovsk, Russia), Mikhail Rakhmanov (Barys Astana), Yevgeni Rymarev (Yunison Moscow, Russia), Kirill Savitsky (Barys Astana), Arkadi Shestakov (Admiral Vladivostok, Russia), Roman Starchenko (Barys Astana).
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