Emil Garipov, the Gagarin Cup holder with Ak Bars Kazan, has retired from the KHL at the age of 33. The goaltender’s last club was Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik, for which he played 8 games in the 2023/24 season.

During his career in the KHL Championship, Garipov played in 315 matches, in which he won 169 victories, reflecting 92.9% of shots on average per game with a reliability coefficient of 2.02. In 2018, he won the Gagarin Cup with Ak Bars. After that, he played for Dynamo Moscow, Avangard, Traktor and Neftekhimik.

As Emil himself said, each of his matches began and ended with the worship of Allah. He also marked the name of God on his helmet, which he did not throw on the ice even at the moment of celebrating the victory in the Gagarin Cup.

Emil Garipov, in a recent broadcast of the Ak Bars Show, told why he decided to retire:

– There is always something to strive for, you constantly think: if it were this way or that way. But why regret anything now? I am grateful to Almighty Allah that I managed to win with my hometown club – it means a lot to me.

I want to connect my life with hockey: it turns out it’s a little hard to stay at home. I don’t want to go back to the ice, I had too many injuries. I thought for a long time, I had offers from Europe, but there was no point in going anywhere.