In his first professional season, Alexander Zharovsky stood out for all the right reasons, not only points but in overall play and skill that transferred well from the Juniors into the pro ranks. The thing that benefited Zharovsky the most was the fact that Salavat Yulaev is a relatively small-market team within the KHL and the team had some financial difficulties at the start of the season. Because of that, the door was left open for Zharovsky to play a bigger role than he would have in a big-market team such as SKA, CSKA or Dynamo.
Expectations for Zharovsky were limited before the season started, however under his coach, former NHLer Viktor Kozlov, the forward blossomed. Even if he was injured at the time the season started, he came back into the line up with a bang with four points in three games. The KHL was quickly back on the radar of the Montreal Canadiens faithful.
Figure 1. Zharovsky’s points and time-on-ice over the season (smoothed curve).
Kozlov used Zharovsky mostly on the power play to start, but as the points accumulated and Zharovsky showed he could handle the rigours of travel within the KHL schedule, he was moved to a larger role within the team, even running the first power-play unit in November and December.
However, with injuries racking up, Salavat signed Yevgeni Kuznetsov, who had been released from Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Kuznetsov took over some of Zharovsky’s duties, especially on the power play, and it also meant that Zharovsky’s TOI dropped after the New Year. This is one of the reasons that Zharovsky’s performance dropped, the other would be fatigue as the KHL season dragged on. In the end, he finished with 42 points (16G, 26A) in 59 games, with two assists in 10 playoff games. It was enough to be KHL’s Rookie of the Year, and third in team scoring.
Strengths
The things that stand out when you watch Zharovsky are his high intelligence and creativity, and that is what helped him propel the Salavat power play to one of the best in the KHL when he entered the lineup. He beats defenders one-on-one and can set up a power play easily, using his creativity to distribute and time-space management to speed up or slow down the puck in order to set up teammates for the score.
Right now it’s all about offence, and he is a skilled player in that regard. He keeps the puck close to his body and he uses his spatial awareness to find unoccupied ice and more space, thereby creating more time for himself. He did this in most KHL arenas this season and that should be a good thing as he is not only doing this on an Olympic-sized rink.
Weaknesses
Zharovsky is lanky and while he seems to have gotten bigger throughout the season he still needs to build up both stamina and size. As can be seen in the chart, his ice time dropped in the last third of the season, and one has to factor in that it was his first season playing professionally. He played more or less the same number of games (64 in 2025, and 69 in 2026) but the level of play is vastly different.
One thing that always comes up is his skating. It is good but it is an area that needs improvement. It might improve as he works on his strength, but technically it isn’t good. Former Canadien Artturi Lehkonen worked for two seasons to correct his skating while in Frölunda, so it can be done, and Russia is home to some great skating coaches which makes it interesting that he hasn’t really needed to improve it before. It remains to be seen what can be done, and if he comes to development camp this year I hope to see an improvement at that stage.
While he has a good shot with a lot of pace on it, he has become a bit like Ivan Demidov, looking for a pass even in good shooting positions. Sometimes he uses his shot as an advantage as opponents do respect it, but other times a great scoring chance is passed up for a lower-percentage shot. In a way he needs to become more selfish, especially as the game is faster in North America and he won’t be able to manipulate things as easily.
Right now his defensive-zone work is under development and it can be considered unfair to put it under a weakness, but he needs to get better in this area even if he is an offence-first kind of player.
Grade: A+
I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better season with regard to Alexander Zharovsky’s development. He got a chance to play big minutes, and he proved he could do it at the KHL level. He ran a professional power play and kept up with the travel in KHL. He didn’t break the Rookie scoring record set by Demidov with 49 points (19G, 30A) last year, but Zharovsky is on a smaller team and had to do more by himself. With this in mind it is close enough that it can be called a draw. The difference is that Demidov looked NHL-ready, and I don’t think Zharovsky is at this moment.
The good thing is that he seems to be staying with Salavat for next season, and that should give him a good foundation to build upon. He is known by his coach and the team, he can focus his training to gain both stamina and size which should lead to an even better season in 2026-27. This should be good news for the Montreal Canadiens organization and fans as is really should benefit Zharovsky’s long-term goal of becoming an impact player in the NHL.
Montreal didn’t get a second consecutive Calder Trophy-winner as Matthew Schaefer deservedly won the award, however Montreal prospects have claimed the KHL Rookie of the Year award in back-to-back season. That is a strong review of Montreal’s drafting out of Russia.
