Melnikova was named as team captain of the Russian women's national team starting in 2017, succeeding Olympic teammate Aliya Mustafina. Melnikova started her season at the Russian National Championships in Kazan. Although she was expected to do well in the absence of Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina, as well as coming into the meet as the reigning national champion, she faltered throughout the competition on every event except vault, finishing 9th in the all-around. She also placed 3rd on vault and balance beam, falling on the latter. Despite her poor showing at nationals, Melnikova participated in the Stuttgart World Cup in March, placing second behind Germany's Tabea Alt and ahead of the USA's Morgan Hurd. She then competed at the City of Jesolo Trophy, where she received three bronze medals in the team all-around, vault, and floor exercise. Later she participated at the London World Cup. She competed poorly, falling on balance beam and floor exercise with major mistakes on uneven bars and vault. It was announced in April that she would attend the European Championships as part of the Russian team, along with 2016 Olympic teammate Maria Paseka, Elena Eremina, and Natalia Kapitonova. During qualification Melnikova fell on the balance beam and uneven bars and she did not qualify for the individual all-around final. However she qualified for the vault and floor exercise finals. During the vault final her form was not as good as the other gymnasts, resulting in her coming 8th. During the floor exercise final she performed a clean routine which resulted in her winning the gold medal ahead of British gymnast Ellie Downie and Eythora Thorsdottir from the Netherlands.