Anton Kuryanov: I plan on winning the Gagarin Cup with Traktor

- Of course I’m glad I've signed with Traktor. Whatever happens happens for the best. Besides, this move was long overdue.

Once you said it was mentally difficult for you to be in Omsk, so you decided to leave the team you’ve been loyal to for ten years. Why?
I hope that Avangard management and fans interpreted these words correctly. I didn’t have much progress during this past season, and I understood that. I also understood that I had a valid contract with substantial financial aid. I realized that my performance and my salary did not match. Whatever everyone says, you think about things like these and often come to realize you need to change something, whether it is your performance or the environment around you.

Interesting logic that you have got here. Money did not make you depraved, did it?
Let’s begin with the fact that any professional athlete – soccer player, hockey player, whatever – basically sells his health and wellbeing for money. Once they retire, no one needs them anymore. Look at Omsk hockey alumni like Maslyukov, Yelakov, Dyakiv. Where are they now? Only God knows. In the meantime they could actually be of great use coaching in hockey schools because they have tons of experience, but instead… And secondly, if one is offered a large lump of cash, will he refuse it to be paid less? Of course not, it’s just plain ridiculous!

But does it actually happen when you underperform because of how much money you get?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I believe you only go after money in the beginning of your career when you have to put food on family’s table. Once you know you did it for years to come, you are starting to realize that you need something more than just money, you need to win. Money is money, prestige is prestige, and wins are wins.

Is it true that despite big contracts there aren’t many rich men among hockey players?
It depends on what sport you compare with. If we take golf or tennis, then yes, hockey players have comparatively small contracts, but take any everyday profession like doctor or teacher, any hockey player with a small contract is Donald Trump compared to them. There’s nothing to complain about.

Is your salary in Traktor bigger than the one you had in Avangard?
Of course not, but it’s no secret. I may have lost some money, but the desire to have new hockey life has prevailed in the decision to sign with Traktor.

When did you realize you needed something new?
I think it was last year when I was accumulating one injury after another. You start to think what might be wrong, maybe it’s the preparation process, maybe something else. You have two options: sit tight or try to change something. I’m not the kind of guy who’d choose the former, so I chose the latter.

Did you negotiate a contract with some other team except Traktor?
There were not any negotiations. My agent and I made a phone call to Traktor’s management and asked if they needed me. Turned out they did. This was the moment the negotiations were over; it was the bureaucratic formalities that took a lot of time.

Were you shocked after Avangard’s nightmare playoff loss?
Of course I was. We had a good regular season, then snap! – we are out of the season with zero goals in three matches. Quite frankly, I don’t want to talk about this – Traktor was way better than Avangard.

Who’s more to blame for this loss – the coaching staff or the players?
Everyone involved is to blame.

Couple of words about Valery Belousov.
Every coach has their own way. Everyone chooses what they like. I like Traktor’s style, the team had great performance and results. Now that I’m here, I’m planning on winning the Cup with Traktor.

Do you feel prepared to end your vacations earlier and start preparing for the next season?
It’s often enough to have one-month vacation, but with today’s season system some teams end their season in February. That’s not exactly right in my mind. We have to think about how to make the season longer.

Do you like KHL’s idea of increasing the amount of regular season games to 68 after 2014 Winter Olympics?
Of course it’s better to play games than have training sessions. But it turns that now we have 70 percent of games squeezed in two months, and by the end of October you can’t even remember where you are playing next. The next three months is a different story – the schedule is ragged, national team, Eurohockey Tour etc. Before that, when I played for the national team, I didn’t notice that. Now that I’m not a regular fixture in the national team, I notice how these recesses impact your game rhythm. Our hockey authorities have to choose either the interests of our national team or a national championship with large amount of games.

What do you think was the reason behind team Russia’s failure in Helsinki and Stockholm?
One has to be a part of the team to know exactly what happened. Everyone understands what a whiff it was, but instead of bringing the team further down, the fans should unite and show some support. Bilyaletdinov is an experienced coach, and I think he will make necessary conclusions. All this mass hysteria about changing the coaching stuff once again shows the attitude of the fans: when the team wins, they are God, when they lose, they are dirt.

Do you think the fans in other countries praise their teams for their failures?
Maybe they don’t, but what do we do now? Change coaching staff every year? We have comfortably forgotten the time when we hadn’t been able to win the world championship gold for 15 years. Look at Canada – so many semifinal losses in recent memory. We have to understand that right now there are 5-6 teams that can win the Olympics, but in order to do that, so many factors should converge, including the support shown to the national team by media and fans, and team Russia is not an exception.