Igor Zakharkin is joining SKA!

We're happy to reveal that Igor Zakharkin is returning to Saint Petersburg with SKA!

He will work as the Advisor to the General Director.

Reference:

Igor Zakharkin was born in Bryansk, Russia, progressing through the CSKA Moscow ice hockey system. He began his coaching career in Sweden where he worked between 1995 and 2004, before he subsequently became an assistant to Vyacheslav Bykov.

Bykov and Zakharkin began working with CSKA and the Russian national team in August 2006. Russia twice won the World Championship (2008, 2009) under their leadership, while also claiming silver at the 2011 tournament and reaching the quarter-finals of the 2010 Olympic Games.

After joining Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the 2009/2010 campaign, Zakharkin and Bykov initially earned the bronze medal of the Russian Championship in their first season and won the Gagarin Cup in the second. Zakharkin was then the head coach of the Polish national team from 2012 to 2014, claiming both bronze and gold of the 1B Division.

Zakharkin and Bykov joined SKA in the 2014/2015 season, steering our team to Gagarin Cup glory. The former later spent two seasons as the head coach of Salavat Yulaev, notably picking up another bronze medal of the Russian Championship.

He was the head coach of Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk in 2017. From 2021 to 2023, Zakharkin worked in the coaching staff of the Krefeld Penguins in Germany.