During the off-season, the Minsk club changed head coaches: Dmitry Kvartalnov was replaced by another Russian specialist, Sergei Brylin. The team saw forwards Vitaly Pinchuk, Vadim Moroz, Yegor Borikov, Vadim Shipachyov, and Andrei Stas leave, along with defensemen Darren Dietz, Rob Hamilton, and Kristian Henkel. The roster was bolstered by forwards Chris Tierney, Rhett Gardner, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Sergei Kalinin, and Arseny Chukhraev, as well as defensemen Jake Bischoff, Daniil Bokun, and Dmitry Kuzmin.

The Bisons’ first opponent in the 2026/27 regular championship will be HC Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. Over the summer, the capital club played seven matches, winning five of them. Dinamo finished third in the Minsk Cup and second in the Moscow Mayor’s Cup. Torpedo lost five of six games in August, but started the new season with a victory: on 5 September, HC Torpedo narrowly defeated HC Spartak on the road (1-0).

«It’s always nice to open the championship at home. There will be a great atmosphere, we’ve been waiting to meet the fans for a long time. We want to energize the supporters and set the right tone for the entire season right from the start,» said Dinamo defenseman Xavier Ouellet. «We are ready for the start, the new coach has explained in detail what he wants from us. I am sure the match will be very competitive from the first minutes. Torpedo has already played one game, while we are only starting, so it’s important for us to get into the game right away and try to set our own pace.»

In the previous regular season, the teams from Minsk and Nizhny Novgorod met four times, with Dinamo winning all four encounters. The opening face-off in the Bisons vs Torpedo match is scheduled for 19:10, with a pre-game show also set to take place at the Minsk Arena.