1. Well, he started the season as a top-pairing D and played himself to like #6 at this point so I'd say yes, the guy blew it big time. And with the entire old top-4 gone from the team, I'd say yes, it was him who was expected to reach new heights.
5. Big or not Voronkov's best career moments, last year's PO included, are tied to Galimov.
1.This is part of the long saga of defencemen at AkBars. The last 1D we had was Nikulin(and his departure is in iteslf a part of thesad story of our management). Since then the management tried different strategies to build the D. All of them more or less ineffective. First they started signing veterean russian D-men, who were once great. They all declined with us. Now it's the hunt for the foregin defenceman out of a different league who will miraculously be the superstar in the KHL. Every year a new try. This time around it's Kampfer. And he is not bad and he is leading defencemn in team scoring, but he is no Voynov. And that's the same every year. Before Kampfer there were Murphy and Wikstrand. Same kind of meh(while Kampfer still has time to adapt to the league and break out of course). So honestly AkBars does not have a 1D or a top pairing really. Just a bunch of guys who are okay. None of those is great though. Lyamkin fits in perfectly there. I had hopes for him myself, but it was years ago. Right now it is pretty obvious he has reached his ceiling and is going to be a servicable middle of the pack D-man in the KHL. So where he started the season on paper does not really matter. There is no pairing that stands out on AkBars. As for him playing himself into a #6 role, inconsistency has always been an issue with him. In the past he was getting the benefit of age with it. Now not so much anymore. Anyway, just watch him having some great stretches at some point during the season, then fall of the cliff again. I don't think anybody in the know expected him to take some huge steps. The D, as I mentioned already, was meant to have a top addition in Kampfer and then the still big part of the past core of Khenkel, Rukavishnikov, Lyamkin, Yudin and Zhuravlyov, who are as I pointed out all serviceable guys to eat up all the minutes. It's and adequate group, it just lacks a top guy or two. Then there is Adamchuk who is nothing noticeable so far.
5.There is such thing as inevitability. Voronkov just couldn't play with anybody else. In the past seasons they were both considered too young to give them bigger roles with more prominent linemantes, so they were the young line while the top line spots were occupied by vets who all were objectively better and more productive at the time. It's like saying for a guy who lived in say London all his life that his success is tied to London. Well, technically yes, but you have to look for other factors too and if that one factor outweighs the other factors. You could turn your argument and say that seemingly Galimov's success past and present is due to him playing with great linemates. Would be only partially true. That is by the way what outrages me about Kvartalnov. His Jeckyll&Hyde antics with line combinations. He acknowledges that Kagarlitskiy is the best he has and gives himall the time and space to do his thing, while I was fearing when we signed him that Kvartalnov might do something stupid and put Kagarlitskiy on some bottom six line(just as he does with Zaripov). The team lost a lot of good players(and in my book it's clearly on Kvartalnov. Players who like to play creative hockey just run from him), the youngsters are getting older, so why not giving Galimov a role? And it works just fine for now. And then with Voronkov he does a 180 and plugs him with the worst linemates imagineable to do what? Yes, Voronkov is a five tooler, but we don't have the talent we've had in the past to through a guy like Voronkov on the 4th line "to make it better". It's even more inexplicable because the same coach in the past would from time to time(or due to injuries) put the same, but even younger Voronkov even on the top line. I just don't get the logic of it. But yes, I adimit Voronkov is not helping himself by not producing ANYTHING.
Still in my book our Top 6 is as follows
Kagarlitskiy - Galimov - Voronkov/Kovalenko (While I would prefer Voronkov there)
Panyukov(an even better addition than Kaga, because of age) - Burmistrov(sigh.. he should be and he was a 3C on a good team)/Lindholm(so far he is not making me a believer) - Voronkov/Kovalenko/Petrov
That means our center depth plummeted compared to past rosters. That inevitably(see above) promotes Galimov.