Yuri Babenko has joined the SKA coaching staff!

Yuri Babenko has joined the coaching staff of the senior SKA team.

SKA Hockey Club welcomes Yuri to Saint Petersburg, wishing him success!

Reference:

Yuri Babenko was born in Penza, Russia. After playing in his native country for Dizel and Krylya Sovetov, Yuri made the move to North America, where he played for the Plymouth Whalers (OHL), Hershey Bears (AHL) and Colorado Avalanche (NHL). He made three appearances in the National Hockey League.

He returned to Russia ahead of the 2002/2003 campaign, going on to represent Dynamo Moscow, Khimik Voskresensk, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, MVD Balashikha and SKA. Yuri recorded 13 (4+9) points for SKA across 49 matches.

Yuri became a two-time Gagarin Cup champion with Dynamo, while also notably winning the 1996 World U18 Championship with the Russian national team.

He ended his playing career and switched his hand to coaching in 2016. Yuri worked as an assistant coach with the U18 (2016-2018) and U20 (2016-2019) Russian national teams, and with Dynamo from 2019 to 2021. He was the head coach of Vityaz Moscow Region in the 2021/2022 KHL season, before subsequently working as an assistant with Ak Bars Kazan (2022-2024) and CSKA Moscow (2024/2025 season). Yuri was the interim Ak Bars head coach in December 2022.