Sergei Zubov Leaves Dinamo Riga

Surprising news crossed European hockey early on Thursday morning. This time it was KHL’s Dinamo Riga that announced their head coach’s departure – Sergei Zubov was leaving the team for personal, family-related reasons.

The following is a statement from Dinamo Riga team:

Sergei Zubov has decided to not continue his employment relationship due to personal reasons related to his family. By respecting the coach’s decision the DINAMO RIGA management has terminated the contract of the Russian hockey specialist.

DINAMO RIGA respects the decision made by the coach. For every one family always comes first. In sports, these things happen from time to time and all sides have to be able to react in a manner that is both adequate and operative. The KHL season resumes and the goals of the team remain the same. In near future, Dinamo Riga management will make a decision on who the new coach will be.

The team’s assistant coach – Valerijs Kulibaba will take over in the interim.

Questions rose and many were wondering – who’s next? It’s unclear as there is conflicting information.

”There are so many candidates for the next coaching job that you would have to use fingers on both hands to make the count.” one source told FPC. ”They want a new coach and they want him fast” another one added. Both stated that amongst candidates there are Russian’s there are Finns and Latvians. The same information was confirmed by people close to the team

However, the chairman of the team’s board – Juris Savickis has gone out in media to say something different: ”Right now Kulibaba has taken over. What will happen next? We’ll see. We will figure things out with a calm mind. Right now we are not looking for a new head coach. If necessary we’ll discuss the next hire with Zubov because he’s a really, really good coach.”

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One thing we know for sure – either it’s Valerijs Kulibaba or a different bench boss – Riga will have a new head coach.

With the Dinamo Riga team, Zubov managed to earn eight victories in 20 games played, the team currently sits eight in the western conference standings.