Milos Riha: SKA was desperate to sign Radulov, but it wasn’t mean to be

SKA St. Petersburg under-fire coach Milos Riha commented on the performances of the club’s rising stars Victor Tikhonov and Vladimir Tarasenko this season and admitted he dreamt of signing Alexander Radulov.

“With Tikhonov, at the beginning he lacked confidence, but soon he became one of the leaders, even in the national side. And so did Tarasenko, after we tried to get him to his best shape by the time the playoffs arrived. If we get a few decent trades this summer, we can be a real force next season.”

“How many players do you need to sign?”

“I think SKA needs one more defenseman, one winger and one centre. We had a deficit of centres this season.”

“There was a lot of speculation about the possible arrival of Alexander Radulov…”

“Radulov is a dream of mine! He would be indispensible to us – he is a leader on and off the ice, and I really feel that he is a kindred spirit to me, in terms of character and emotions. There were a lot of rumours that we are close to bringing him to St. Pete’s, but sadly we didn’t get our chance,” the Czech coach told Sport-Express.