Bogdan Konyushkov loses KHL captaincy

Among the Habs prospects, Bogdan Konyushkov is an intriguing name. The 21-year-old Russian defenseman is playing huge minutes in the KHL despite his young age.

He has earned the trust of his coach, Igor Larionov… who even named him team captain in the middle of last season.

Evening, captain Bogdan Konyushkov #GagarinCup pic.twitter.com/zO262kkzoo

– KHL (@khl_eng) March 1, 2024

What you need to know is that while Konyushkov wasn’t the captain every game, he was more often than not. The C’s were in rotation… but Konyushkov was the captain for the majority of the time.

But this season, that seems to have changed for Torpedo, Konyushkov’s club. While he was club captain last year, he is no longer captain this year.

In preseason, Maxim Letunov wore the C on his jersey for Larionov’s team.

Torpedo has a new captain.#GoHabsGo prospect Bogdan Konyushkov is out. #KHL

– Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) September 3, 2024

Of course, all this is peculiar in the sense that Konyushkov is still with the same team and under the same coach. And when you know that the latter sees Mikhail Sergachev-like potential in Konyushkov, you know he likes him a lot.

So you have to wonder why the club decided to make the change. On the one hand, the more optimistic will probably say that the club made this decision to take some pressure off the kid and give the C to a guy who’s been with Torpedo for a few years (and scored 48 points in 66 games last year).

However, the more pessimistic will perhaps see another explanation: one wonders if Konyushkov, who still has two years left on his contract in Russia, is pushing to go to America… which would clearly not make his team happy.

If the kid turned down a contract extension, for example, perhaps they’re trying to “punish” him in this way.

This will be an interesting situation to monitor, because we know that Igor Larionov has a lot of confidence in his young player. The question is whether he’s simply trying to protect him… or whether there’s more to it than that.