Our delegation is holding the final practices for young ice hockey players in Al Ain right now. It’s time to tell about our coaches – people with a lot of playing and managing experience. Who are they?

Andrey Sergeevich Makarov was born in 1964 in Kazan. A graduate of Kazan ice hockey system. He played as a striker in: Ak Bars (Kazan), SKA (Leningrad), Zvezda (Olenegorsk), IF Troja-Ljungby (Sweden), AIK (Sweden), Neftyanik (Almetyevsk), Neftyanik (Leninogorsk). He spent 13 seasons for the Ak Bars team, played 611 matches. Scored 202 goals and made 78 assists.

Andrey Sergeyevich has been working as a coach since 2000 and began his career as a manager at the Ak Bars ice hockey school. In 2016 – coach of Bars (Kazan). In 2017-2018 – head coach of Irbis (Kazan). In 2019-2022 – coach of Irbis (Kazan).

Andrey Vyacheslavovich Kazennykh was born in 1965 in Yaroslavl. At the moment, he holds the position of coach of the development group of pupils of the Ak Bars ice hockey system. A graduate of the Torpedo (Yaroslavl) ice hockey system, played for the team in the USSR championship until 1983.

He started his coaching career in 1996, at the Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl) ice hockey academy. From 2002 to 2010, he lived in the USA, where he worked in summer camps for professional ice hockey players and individually with hockey players from the NHL.

He worked as a manager of ice hockey programs at Wall Township Sports Arena (2004-2005), New Jersey Penguins (2003-2004), Ocean Hockey Academy (1998-2002). Since 2016, he has been preparing hockey training programs for the Ak Bars Ice Hockey Academy. He worked in the US pre-season training camps with such players as Pavel Bure, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexey Yashin, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Radulov and many others.