10 Of The Best – Kunlun Red Star

18 March 2023

The Dragons’ 2022/23 campaign fell short of the playoffs. However, there were some big highlights along the way as our guys produced a clutch of individual and team achievements. Let’s take a look at some of the best of them.

High-scoring seasons

The headline-grabbing performances came from Brandon Yip and Zac Leslie, both of whom set individual scoring records for a single season. Yip consolidated his position as our club’s all-time leading scorer with 42 (21+21) points, beating the previous record of 40 set by Chad Rau in 2016/17. And don’t assume that was just down to playing a longer season this time: Yipper played 59 games against 60 for Chad in our debut campaign. On defense, Leslie had 39 (8+31) points in his first KHL season. That’s the best-ever return for a blue-liner and ties for third in the Dragons’ history with Sean Collins’ haul in our inaugural campaign.

Yipper vs Jagr

Among Brandon’s scoring feats, he managed to wrest some KHL records away from the legendary Jaromir Jagr. The ageless Czech star played for Avangard from 2008-11 and established several records for veteran players aged 37 and over. This season, Yipper took some of those honors. On Oct. 16 his goal late in our loss against Severstal extended his scoring streak to six games, overtaking Jagr’s mark of five. That formed part of an eight-game productive streak. Later in the campaign, Yip hit a hat-trick in a 7-4 win against Neftekhimik, becoming the first over-37 player to do that since Oct. 2009 when Jagr scored three on Barys.

Iron man Luke

Although many of our club records currently belong to Brandon Yip, our captain does not hold the all-time appearance record. Luke Lockhart reached a new level this season when he played his 300^th game for the club. He’s the first man to reach that landmark, which came on Jan. 17. Unfortunately, that game ended in a 0-3 loss to Lokomotiv; game 301 was much more fun as we beat Sochi 5-1 with Luke among the scorers. By the end of the season, Lockhart had 311 games. His 83 (39+44) points place him fifth in KRS all-time scoring.

First wins in Yaroslavl

Throughout Red Star’s history, Yaroslavl had been an impregnable fortress. The historic city beside the Volga had been the scene of loss after loss for the visiting Dragons. That all changed this season, with KRS winning not one, but two games at Lokomotiv. First came a shoot-out…