Russians in the NHL. Russian hockey stars. Russian players in NHL club camps Russian NHL players

Alexander Ovechkin is one of the most productive Russian NHL players, but his goal or pass is too expensive for Washington. The efficiency rating is headed by Mikhail Sergachev, Alexander Ovechkin is only twelfth

The 2017/18 NHL season was a triumph for hockey players from Russia. The point is not only that one of the most gifted and famous athletes modern times, Alexander Ovechkin (along with other Russian Washington Capitals players Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov) won the long-awaited Stanley Cup.

This season, the new hockey stars who have settled into the North American league have really caught fire. We are talking primarily about the players of the winner of the NHL Eastern Conference, the Tampa Bay Lightning club. In it, as in Washington, the Russian trio gathered - defender Mikhail Sergachev, forward Nikita Kucherov and goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevsky. The result of success in the league was that in the first round of the draft (June 2018), NHL clubs began to fight for immigrants from Russia - they selected four players at once. This is the second case in 10 years.

Talented youth is vital to clubs because of salary caps ($79.5 million in 2018-19) and small contracts for rookies ($925,000 a year, league cap). Having guessed right with the newcomer, the club will receive the goals and assists it needs for almost nothing. You don’t have to look far for an example: in the 2017/18 season, the leader in the ratio of effective actions (goal or pass) and salary was Tampa Bay defender Mikhail Sergachev, who was only in his second season in the league. His successful participation in a goal alone costs the club a measly $20,100. And stars such as Ovechkin or Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin receive almost $90,000 for the same work. Forbes calculated which Russian players’ goals and assists cost clubs the least.

In the 2018/19 season, the number of Russian representation in the NHL will remain virtually unchanged. In the off-season, 9 Russians left the KHL for North America. The most high-profile transfers: the transfer of Ilya Kovalchuk from SKA to the Los Angeles Kings (three-year agreement with an annual salary of $6.25 million) and the return of Valery Nichushkin from CSKA to the Dallas Stars (2 years, $2.95 million per season) . Of the young hockey players selected in the draft, Alexander Alekseev (for 3 years with the Washington Capitals) and Andrei Svechnikov (for 3 years with the Carolina Hurricanes) signed rookie contracts in the NHL. At the same time, 9 Russian players returned from the NHL to KHL clubs. Thus, defender Alexey Emelin continues his career in Omsk Avangard, Nikolai Kulemin managed to get serious injury in Metallurg (Magnitogorsk), and Nail Yakupov scores for St. Petersburg SKA.

The NHL regular championship started on October 3, the next Stanley Cup winner will be known by the beginning of summer 2019.

The National Hockey League is a professional association of clubs in Canada and the United States. appeared in 1917 and became one of the first in the world professional league, which united 4 teams. IN North America it stands alongside the major sports leagues of other disciplines: NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS. In the 2017–18 season, 31 teams representing 30 cities in the United States and Canada competed for the Stanley Cup.

According to the results of the Stanley Cup of the 2017/18 season, only two Russians were listed in the ranking of the best NHL players: Alexander Radulov, Evgeniy Kuznetsov did not reach the rating by several points.

Alexander Ovechkin, according to TSN, became 22nd in the ranking. The hockey player dropped significantly on the list of the best players in the NHL, scoring only 70 points and 49 goals in the season, and the playoff series was completely mediocre. It’s not easy to admit it, but Alexander is heading towards the middle peasants. Let's trust that the sniper will recover from his state of professional degradation, otherwise we will lose him.

In the first half of the NHL season, Alexander Ovechkin was behind Vladimir Tarasenko in shots on target. Ovi also shared the championship with the number of goals scored, and one cannot fail to mention the hockey player’s 3 hat-tricks.

Alexander Radulov demonstrated not the best top scores in the regular season, which is why he ended up at the bottom of the rankings, but he showed himself well in the team and had a pretty good playoff performance. Radulov is growing in direct proportion to how expectations for his game grow.

Evgeny Kuznetsov lacked a few points to get into the final ranking.

In the first half of the season, Andrei Vasilevsky from the Tampa Bay team showed his worth. The goalkeeper has 26 wins, 2.04 goals per match and 93.5% of shots saved.

Nikita Kucherov from the same Tampa became best player first half of the 2017/18 NHL season. His goals and points average per game were pleasantly surprising. The hockey player has distinguished himself and shows great promise. Kucherov has a positive influence on the team and played well with Steven Stamkos during the season. Obviously, Nikita Kucherov is the most productive player of the regular season.

Russian NHL players 2017/18 (snipers, regular season)

Russian goalkeepers NHL 2017/18 (regular season)

2017/18 NHL playoff series statistics

Other athletes can hardly boast of such popularity as the players of the hockey team had in the Soviet Union, and later in Russia.

Famous Russian hockey players become practically national heroes, whom everyone knows - from schoolchildren to pensioners. Their biographies sports achivments, their personal lives are discussed in companies, covered in the press, and their overseas successes are closely followed. If in the USSR information about players was not particularly disseminated among the population of a huge country (many hockey players were considered military personnel), then in our time it is not difficult to find out everything about your idol.

Heroes of our time

It is difficult to fit into one article everyone who deserves the title “the most famous hockey players in Russia,” but I would like to remember several particularly successful players separately.

One of these celebrities Russian hockey is Evgeni Malkin, who, despite a number of frankly unsuccessful seasons, still proved himself to be a true leader of the team. Participation in three world championships and two in 2010) speaks of high skill and the performance of this hockey player. My sports career Evgeniy started in Magnitogorsk, where his father, who himself played hockey in his youth, put his son on skates from the age of three.

Among Evgeni Malkin’s trophies there is the title of “best rookie of the season” (2004), and the Golden Helmet prize, which is awarded to the best striker, awards from the Russian and world championships, that’s just olympic gold did not submit. Like many other famous Russian hockey players, Evgeniy also performed successfully overseas. hockey league.

NHL stars

With the fall of the Iron Curtain Soviet hockey players a unique opportunity arose to try your hand at the most titled and famous hockey league, which gathered the “cream” of world hockey in its teams. Famous hockey players of the USSR and Russia showed themselves in the NHL in different ways. For some this was the beginning dizzying career(Pavel Bure, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Fedorov), and someone got lost in the harsh world of the NHL, where the strongest survive (Viktor Nechaev, Sergei Mylnikov,

Famous Russian hockey players ended up in the clubs of the national overseas league in different ways: some simply fled the country (Sergei Fedorov), others were looking for an opportunity to officially leave their native walls (Sergei Pryakhin, Sergei Starikov, Vyacheslav Fetisov). Today, such detective stories seem unrealistic to young and promising athletes: to get into the NHL, your own talent and perseverance are enough.

Modern stars of Russian hockey in the NHL

Today, Russian hockey players have a large representation in the overseas hockey league. They successfully play in various American and Canadian clubs, earning the respect and honor of local fans. Nikita Soshnikov, Dmitry Orlov, Mikhail Grigorenko - famous Russian hockey players spend a lot of effort and energy to defend their right to play in the main rosters of NHL teams.

Many of the legionnaires are regularly called up to the Russian national team to participate in the European and World Championships, as well as Olympic tournaments. It is difficult to imagine the Russian national team without such NHL stars as Alexander Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Nikolai Kulemin.

NHL Hockey Hall of Fame

The first representative in this hall was our famous goalkeeper, later he was joined by Valery Kharlamov and Vyacheslav Fetisov. Only the most outstanding players from all over the world get into this hall. Igor Larionov was also awarded this honor for his great contribution to the development of world hockey.

There is also a coach of the USSR hockey team in this room - Anatoly Tarasov. Despite his ambiguous and not always simple relationships with both players and party functionaries, without whom not a single sport in the former Soviet Union could do, he was highly appreciated by overseas experts, especially after a series of matches with representatives of the NHL star team.

The future of Russian hockey

Despite a number of failures that the Russian hockey team suffered at the last Olympic tournaments, fans do not lose hope that their idols will still manage to become the best team in the world. Such glory as the team had Soviet Union, no one just gets it. To truly become champions, star names alone are not enough. Daily hard work, loyalty and dedication to your chosen profession are the constant components of success.

The lists of all Russian hockey players (famous and aspiring players) are replenished every year with new names that the country can rightfully be proud of. Perhaps it is the new generation of hockey players who have replaced the “old guard” that will be able to restore the former glory and respect that the players of the USSR national team were rightfully proud of. And they will also dedicate songs to our contemporaries, just as they did to their titled predecessors.

Russians in the camps of NHL clubs. Who will start the season in the starting lineup?

Only five teams avoid Russians.

Capital Division

Washington Capitals: Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Dmitry Zaitsev.

Carolina Hurricanes: Valentin Zykov, Sergei Tolchinsky.

Columbus Blue Jackets: Sergei Bobrovsky, Vitaly Abramov, Artemy Panarin.

New Jersey Devils: Nikita Popugaev, Yaroslav Dyblenko.

New York Islanders: Nikolay Kulemin.

New York Rangers: Pavel Buchnevich, Alexey Bereglazov, Sergey Zborovsky, Alexander Georgiev.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Evgeniy Malkin.

Philadelphia Flyers: Ivan Provorov, Radel Fazleev, German Rubtsov, Mikhail Vorobyov, Ivan Kosorenkov.

To Malkin or Shipachev? Five NHL teams for Danis Zaripov

“Chicago” is also considering whether to take another Russian striker.

Every club in the Capital Division has at least one Russian player, and most of them have a place in the first team. Of course, Buchnevich, Bereglazov and Kulemin will play for the teams from New York. In Washington, Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov will take to the ice. Chances Dmitry Zaitsev get into the base small. In Pittsburgh, without a doubt, Evgeni Malkin will continue to rock, in Columbus - Sergei Bobrovsky and newcomer Artemi Panarin.

One of the main intrigues is whether he will be able to get into main team Blue Jackets forward Vitaly Abramov. According to him, he is already ready to play. There are now five young Russian hockey players in Philadelphia, and if Ivan Provorov is an iron player of the base, then nothing is guaranteed for the rest.

One of the main intrigues is whether forward Vitaly Abramov will be able to get into the Blue Jackets main team. According to him, he is already ready to play.

The most difficult games for the Russians will be in New Jersey and Carolina. Chances Nikita Popugaev to start playing in the next season is not very big, but Yaroslav Dyblenko Most likely he will start the championship in the AHL and will be waiting for a chance to play for the main team. In Carolina, Tolchinsky and Zykov have been trying to get their chance for many years now, and new season could be a turning point for them.

Atlantic Division

Buffalo Sabers: Vasily Glotov, Victor Antipin.

Boston Bruins: Anton Khudobin.

Detroit Red Wings: Evgeny Svechnikov.

Montreal Canadiens: Nikita Shcherbak.

Tampa Bay Lightning: Mikhail Sergachev, Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Andrey Vasilevsky, Alexey Lipanov, Alexander Volkov, Oleg Sosunov.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Nikita Zaitsev, Nikita Soshnikov, Rinat Valiev.

Florida Panthers: Evgeny Dadonov, Maxim Mamin, Nikolai Belov.

The two most Russian teams The Atlantic Division consists of Tampa and Toronto. The southerners invited seven Russian hockey players to their training camp, three of whom are first-team players, and one more Mikhail Sergachev- has an excellent chance to become the team's main defender. Alexander Volkov And Oleg Sosunov with a high degree of probability they will play in the AHL or a league lower, but Alexey Lipanov will have to go to the OHL's Barry Colts.

Five hockey players began training in Toronto, but Vladimir Bobylev And Nikita Korostelev have already left for the AHL team. Zaitsev and Soshnikov will play for the main team, and Valiev, as in previous seasons, will balance between the AHL and the AHL. Vasily Glotov It is unlikely that he will play for the Buffalo team, unlike newcomer Viktor Antipin. Anton Khudobin will continue to play the role of Tuukka Rask's replacement, and Shcherbak will be able to play from time to time for Montreal, which is no longer Russian.

Antipin: follow Malkin's path? For starters, I just want to play in the NHL

The decision to leave for the NHL, wishes from Znark, the “Zaripov case” and a career in Metallurg - in an interview with defenseman Viktor Antipin.

Main question, will Evgeniy Svechnikov be able to start the season in Detroit? Or does he still need to play in the AHL after winning the Calder Cup? It will be interesting to watch how the forward adapts again Evgeniy Dadonov and how will the adaptation go? Maxima Mamina. Both hockey players will play in the new season for Florida.

Central Division

Winnipeg Jets: Dmitry Kulikov.

Dallas Stars: Alexander Radulov, Denis Guryanov.

Colorado Avalanche: Andrey Mironov, Semyon Varlamov, Nail Yakupov, Nikita Zadorov, Sergey Boykov.

Minnesota Wild: Dmitry Sokolov.

Nashville Predators: Alexey Emelin, Pavel Koltygin, Yakov Trenin.

St. Louis Blues: Alexey Toropchenko, Dmitry Sergeev, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev, Klim Kostin.

Chicago Blackhawks: Artyom Anisimov.

Only there will be no Russians in Minnesota. "Savages" invited a striker to the training camp Dmitry Sokolov, but he was already sent to the junior league. “Chicago” and “Winnipeg” have only one Russian hockey player each, from whom they will expect confident and reliable play. Colorado could have four Russians starting at once; it will be interesting to see how they adapt to this hockey Andrey Mironov, and here Sergey Boykov will probably play in the AHL.

All attention in Dallas will be focused on star newcomer Alexander Radulov, but Denis Guryanov also has a good chance to play a dozen matches in the coming season.

All eyes in Dallas will be on star newcomer Alexander Radulov, but Denis Guryanov there is a good chance to play a dozen matches in the coming season. In Nashville and Yakov Trenin will make another attempt to get into the main team. There are five Russian hockey players in the St. Louis training camp. Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev will play for the main team, and the future Klima Kostina will be determined in the coming weeks.

The main favorite for the 2018/19 season in the NHL, according to bookmakers, are the Lightning hockey players. There is nothing surprising in this: unexpectedly for everyone, Steve Yzerman, who left the post of general manager of the club a month before the start of the regular season, did a tremendous job, gathering in Florida a team consisting of young talents and already formed stars of the first magnitude.

The highest level of individual skill of the leaders - forwards Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, defensemen Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh and goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky, multiplied by the decent depth of the roster, gives Tampa Bay fans every reason to expect to win the second Stanley Cup in the history of the organization.

The Lightning were good last season when they won record number victories in the regular season (54 in 82 matches), and should add more. Russian defender Mikhail Sergachev, who was fired from Montreal after the trade, and Canadian forward Brayden Point, who scored 32 goals, for example, are still working out their standard rookie contracts and have not yet had time to unleash their full potential.

Yes, in the person of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who signed the most high-status free agent of the 2018 off-season, John Tavares, John Cooper’s charges probably have an even more serious competitor than last year’s Washington. But unless something supernatural happens like an injury to captain Stamkos, who has a voluminous medical record, Kucherov and company should, like last year, again become first in the Eastern Conference and receive home-court advantage until the later stages of the playoffs.

However, despite the fact that most of the key players in the Tampa Bay club are still quite young and just entering the peak of their careers, the team’s so-called championship window will not be open forever. The fact is that now it has enough hockey players whose fees are significantly lower than their real market value.

In addition to Sergachev and Point, these include Vasilevsky, who earns $3.5 million per year, modest by the standards of a Vezina Trophy contender, and who finished the last regular season with the team’s best utility score of “+36,” as well as forward Yanni Gourde with his purely symbolic salary of $1 million.

Consequently, soon those who continue Yzerman’s work will have to make painful decisions about parting with one of the truly important or even system-forming players.

It is impossible to deceive the hard salary cap, under which there will not be enough space for all current Lightning hockey players in the 2019/20 championship. Therefore, it is better for the team from Florida to hurry up in bringing their title ambitions to life, so as not to go down in the history of one of the strongest organizations, which for several years in a row was very close to the coveted trophy, but never managed to get it.

Nikita Kucherov signs an eight-year contract extension with @TBLightning.

He is coming off a career year in which he reached the 100-point mark for the first time (39-61-100), becoming the third player in franchise history to hit the milestone. https://t.co/UB2UGWTMbB #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/HyBRne0VeY

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) July 10, 2018

“Washington”: how long will the “championship hangover” of Ovechkin and Kuznetsov last?

The hackneyed expression that defending any title is much more difficult than winning it was not born out of nowhere - and the Capitals have every chance to confirm the time-tested thesis in the upcoming season. The team celebrated wildly historical success throughout the summer, will begin a new regular season with minimal changes in the lineup and at a certain stage will definitely experience problems with motivation.

The Metropolitan Division, in which Washington plays, cannot be called the most competitive in the league (both teams from New York and Carolina are at different stages of restructuring and big problems the leaders will most likely not get it), and therefore a ticket to the playoffs will not go anywhere from the “Great Eight”. But a decline in the debut or during the regular season is still inevitable, and the prerequisites for it are much more significant than the notorious “champion hangover.”

Firstly, the Capitals enter the season with a new coach: for the first time in a quarter century, the reigning Stanley Cup winner has made a castling on the coaching bridge, replacing Barry Trotz, who left for the Islanders, with his former assistant Todd Reirden. The 47-year-old specialist has been working at the headquarters of the capital’s team since 2014, but he will still need some time to get used to the role of the main man on the bench.

Secondly, power forward Tom Wilson, one of the shadow heroes of the last playoffs, faces a long disqualification for rough power move in a preseason match with the St. Louis Blues - and the striking trio formed during the last championship with him, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov in the lineup, at least at first, will be destroyed.

Therefore, treat Washington’s local failures (and there will certainly be some!) Russian fans the team as a whole follows more than with restraint. Especially after the opening 7-0 win over the Boston Bruins. The same Pittsburgh Penguins last fall allowed themselves to lose individual matches with a terrible score of 1:10, which did not prevent them from approaching the knockout matches in good shape. The Capitals will meet next spring fully armed, and what kind of hockey they will show from October to early December is a matter of opinion.

“Los Angeles”: Kovalchuk returned seriously and for a long time?

Perhaps the main intrigue of the NHL regular season is related to Russian hockey players, is the level of play of Ilya Kovalchuk. After all, the striker, at the very respectable age of 35 for an athlete, returned overseas for a reason, but for the only award separating him from entering the Triple Gold Club, and from the very beginning he did not hide the seriousness of his intentions to compete for the Stanley Cup.

Therefore, the requirements for him will be appropriate: the Kings, who have not even reached the second round of the playoffs since 2014, believe that such an experienced and high-quality sniper will begin to produce results from the very first official match. And they won’t forgive him for any slipping at the start.

There is not the slightest doubt - in the off-season, Kovalchuk did everything in his power to return to the strongest league on the planet in optimal condition. Otherwise, he simply would not have left SKA, which includes a forward, and annually qualify for the Gagarin Cup. But Ilya went to America solely to satisfy his own ambitions and with an actual reduction in salary (after deducting all taxes in Los Angeles, he will earn less than in St. Petersburg). Therefore, there are no problems with either dedication or motivation. Olympic champion Pyeongchang should not happen.

Another thing is that Kovalchuk will actually have to get used to the NHL calendar, which is full of matches and flights, which has not become significantly more favorable to the players in the five years the striker spent in Russia. For this reason, overseas experts agree that Los Angeles took a decent risk by concluding a contract with Ilya for three years at once. But if the Kings' bet ends up working, the team could really make a breakthrough. After all, one of the main problems of John Stevens’ team last season was the mediocre execution of the majority, and the Russian with an excellent shot can definitely solve it.

Another reason to get to Friday night’s game early? After playing five seasons in the KHL, Ilya Kovalchuk returns to the NHL as a member of the Kings. The 35-year-old has 417-399=816 in 816 career NHL games, the eighth-most points by a Russian player in League history. pic.twitter.com/08LHHKQZRd

— LAKingsPR (@LAKingsPR) 3. November 2018

“Carolina”: who is Svechnikov and how good is he?

There are enough Russian performers in the NHL who simply must take a step forward in the 2018/19 season. This is Vladimir Tarasenko, who already has star status, thanks to whom St. Louis is expected to return to the playoffs. And Valery Nichushkin, still considered promising, is making his second attempt to gain a foothold in the Dallas Stars. And Bogdan Kiselevich, who spent too much time in Russia, signed a contract with the Florida Panthers in the summer (but, unfortunately, had already suffered an unpleasant injury during pre-season training). Most attention, however, will be focused on the person of Andrei Svechnikov, a forward selected by the Hurricanes with the second overall pick in the latest draft, which suggests that the 18-year-old hockey player has true star potential.

In the first season professional career a native of Barnaul, who has been competing overseas since 2016 (and therefore, just six months ago, practically unknown to fans who are not interested in junior tournaments), is capable of making a loud statement about himself and joining the battle for the Calder Trophy - the prize best newcomer regular season. Svechnikov, whose older brother, Evgeniy, also plays in North America for the Detroit Red Wings, is actually very talented and is also physically ready for the NHL, which is quite a rare occurrence at his age.

Experts in the junior leagues of the USA and Canada call Andrei’s strongest quality the forward’s versatility, which makes him very difficult to neutralize even now. Carolina's Russian recruit is both a strong sniper and a smart playmaker; he can benefit the team both in converting power plays and in killing penalty time. In his person, the club, which had not played in the playoffs since 2009, received a real diamond, which should certainly shine in the hands of a competent coach.

Finally, the Hurricanes represent an excellent development platform - they are a young, growing organization where Svechnikov will likely be trusted from day one, without forcing him to go through the farm system and sink his teeth into a fourth-line spot.

Columbus: what will happen to Panarin and Bobrovsky?

The contract saga of Artemi Panarin, who scored 82 points in 81 NHL regular season games last season, appears to have come to an end. The striker is awaiting the opening of training camp and does not intend to break his earlier promise not to negotiate with the club's general manager Jarmo Kekalainen during the season. Considering that next summer one of the leaders and top scorer Columbus becomes an unrestricted free agent, and his trade is becoming more and more likely every day. Some insiders even claim that it will take place before 2019.

With his unwillingness to sign an eight-year agreement with the current club (and allegedly desire to move to a metropolis like New York, which overseas media have written about more than once), Panarin puts the Columbus management in an extremely difficult position. Kekalainen, like any other normal functionary, does not seek to part with his main asset of his own free will, but he will still have to do this in order to prevent the forward from leaving for another team without any compensation.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that Artemy’s value on the exchange market is falling every day. In nine months, under favorable circumstances, he can be acquired for free, but now the Blue Jackets will require significant compensation to stay afloat after parting with the striker.

Widely covered throughout the summer of 2018 in both domestic and international foreign press The rift between Columbus and Panarin was overshadowed by the fact that the club’s relationship with another eminent Russian, two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky, is developing in a similar way. His contract also expires at the end of the season, and so far the goalkeeper has not expressed any particular desire to sign a new one.

Kekalainen, according to rumors, hopes to convince his ward, and the relatively free payroll of the Blue Jackets, which can easily accommodate the eight-figure salary desired by one of the strongest goalkeepers on the planet, should help him with this. But a scenario in which both Russian stars of the team from Ohio will finish the regular season in different jerseys is quite likely. And neither the Finnish manager nor the team's head coach John Tortorella is happy about this, to put it mildly.