Astana Barys goaltender Andrei Shutov has been named the Kontinental Hockey League's (KHL) best goaltender for October for the first time in his career. In October, he won five of seven matches and saved 94.57% of shots. In two games, Shutov kept his net clean. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
In October, 221 shots were taken on Shutov's goal, averaging 31.6 per match. He saved 94.57% of shots and conceded an average of 1.7 goals per game. In the match against Sibir, he won 1:0, and in the game against Minsk Dynamo also 1:0, keeping a clean sheet both times. In the match against Spartak, Shutov helped Barys win the shootout series 4:3.
Shutov became the second Barys goaltender to be recognized by the KHL as the best of the month. The first was Henrik Karlsson in December 2018.
The best defenseman of October was Ioannis Kaldis from Severstal: he scored 10 (2+8) points in 13 matches, with a plus-minus rating of "+11". The best forward was Nathan Todd from Metallurg, who scored 12 (5+7) points in 12 matches, "+7". In the match against Avtomobilist (4:3), he scored the winning goal. The best rookie was Maxim Zagrebin from Salavat Yulaev: 7 (3+4) points in 11 matches, "+4", and in the game against Neftekhimik (4:3) he also scored the winning goal. For all four, this is the first such title in their careers.
The laureates are determined by the KHL Central Information Bureau's statistics commission and analytical evaluation of matches. In October, 120 matches were played, involving 611 hockey players (50 goaltenders, 199 defensemen, and 362 forwards). The average scoring for the month was 4.88 goals per match. Players born in 2005 and younger who have played no more than 20 matches in the KHL in previous seasons are eligible for the best rookie title.