622Russian players have a long and successful history with the National Hockey League (NHL), some having overcome some fairly significant political difficulties.
With the NHL season suspended, the NHL draft in question, and really no solid news if and when the game might resume, the only ice hockey still attracting any interest of sports betting operators is the rapid-fire short hockey of the Russian Liga Pro.
This interest shouldn’t come as any surprise, as Russia hosts what is widely regarded as the second-best ice hockey league outside of the NHL. In fact, Russia has contributed some of the best players in the history of the game.
In no particular order, here are some of the best NHL players to come out of Russia.
Alex Ovechkin
No list of the best Russian NHL players would be complete without mentioning Alex Ovechkin. Considered by most to be the greatest Russian player of all time, Ovechkin has racked up 1,035 points in his career at the Washington Capitals with 558 goals and 477 assists and is still going strong.
Ovechkin is a record-setter and is the only Russian player to have scored more than 500 goals in the NHL. He is also has won the Hart Trophy as league MVP three times, and is of the youngest players ever to win back-to-back in 2008 and 2009.
Evgeni Malkin
Affectionately known as ‘Geno’, the Evgeni Malkin has spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being drafted 2nd overall in the 2004 NHL Draft. Malkin was initially hesitant to make the jump to North America. He had seen much success playing for Metallurg and had concerns about leaving his parents.
“It was very hard. I did not want to leave my family in a difficult situation, and I was not sure then if I could ever go home again. But my dream was to play in the NHL. I love my home (Magnitogorsk), but in my heart I wanted to be in Pittsburgh playing against the best hockey players.” ~ Evegeni Malkin
NHL fans should be glad he did. Malkin has seen incredible success in the NHL and is tied with Sergei Federov and Igor Larionov for most Stanley Cups (three). He’s only 33-years-old and is likely finishes 2nd on the all-time Russian scoring list by the time he retires.
Sergei Fedorov
Currently, the 2nd highest scoring Russian player of all-time, Federov played 1,248 games for four different NHL teams and is the only player in NHL history to win both the Selke and Hart trophies in the same year (1994).
An incredible skater, Federov was once described as by former Red Wing Steve Yzerman as the “best skater he’d ever seen”.
Prior to playing in the NHL, Fedorov played in the Soviet Union for CSKA Moscow on with Alexander Mogilny and Pavel Bure. Federov was drafted in the 4th round of the 1989 NHL Draft and defected from the Soviet Union 1990.
Ilya Kovalchuk
Considered by many to be one of the best offensive players in NHL history, Ilya Kovalchuk came up through the Spartak Moscow youth system before coming to the US. At the 2001 NHL Draft in Sunrise, Florida, Kovalchuk became the first Russia born player to be taken 1st overall.
Kovalchuk scored 29 goals in 65 games during his rookie season and finished second to linemate Dany Heatley in Calder Trophy voting for the top rookie in the NHL. He went on to score 38 goals in his second season, before racking up six straight seasons of 40 or more goals for Atlanta and New Jersey. His 443 career goals rank him 4th in goals by Russian players behind Federov and Alexander Mogilny.
Pavel Datsyuk
Pavel Datsyuk, better known as the Magic Man by the fans, got his start in ice hockey with Dynamo Yekaterinburg. Ironically, Datsyuk initially excelled at soccer instead of hockey and was moving towards a career in football before Olympic trainer Vladimir Krikunov took him under his wing.
After being noticed by Detroit Red Wings Director of European Scouting Håkan Andersson, Datsyuk was drafted in the 6th round in 1998. Datsyuk would play the entirety of his fourteen season career with the Red Wings, scoring up 918 points over 953 games.
Datsyuk also picked up a fair amount of hardware during his career, winning the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy four times, the Selke Trophy three times, two Stanley Cups, and a single gold medal at the 2012 World Championships. This led the Bleacher Report to name him as the “Best Player in the NHL” in 2011.
On his retirement from the NHL in 2016, Datsyuk moved back to Russia to play for the SKA Saint Petersburg and was named Male Athlete of the Year by the Ministry of Sport of Russia during his time there.
Pavel Bure
Before Ovechkin came along, “The Russian Rocket” was the most dynamic Russian player ever. The Vancouver Canucks Selected Bure in the 6th round, 113th overall in the 1989 NHL Draft with some controversy. Many teams had tagged him as ineligible, however, the Canucks discovered Bure had played in enough exhibition and international games to make him eligible as a late-round draft choice a year early.
It would be two years before Bure would play in the NHL. In 1991 Bure left Moscow with his father and brother and began his NHL career he began his NHL career in the 1991–92 season. That year he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s best rookie and went on to play 12 more injury-plagued seasons in the NHL, ending with 437 goals in just 702 games.
Alexander Mogilny
Mogilny grew up in the USSR and started his playing career with CSKA Moscow, which was both an ice hockey team and a functioning division of the Soviet Army.
Having helped the Soviet Union win the 1989 World Ice Hockey Championships, Mogilny sacrificed his life in Russia to achieve his NHL dreams by boarding a plane in Stockholm and defecting to North America.
Drafted in the 3rd round, 89th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, Mogilny wore #89 on his sweater upon his arrival and would wear it for the rest of his playing career. He would leave Sabres in 1995 and the team would struggle to regain the form they had with him in the lineup.
In a career that spanned 16 seasons, Mogilny scored 473 goals over 990 games and got 559 assists. He remains the holder of the highest single-season goal total for a Russian player. Upon his retirement, Mogilny returned to Russia and, according to the Buffalo News now acts as the president of his hometown team, Amur Khabarovsk, who played in the well regarded Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Sergei Makarov
Sergei Makarov might not have had the longest playing career in the NHL, playing for only seven seasons, but he was one of the first to follow in Alexander Mogilny’s shoes and move over to the U.S. to play, where he was snapped up by the Calgary Flames.
He did win the Calder Memorial Trophy while in the NHL, but he is probably better remembered for his victories outside of the league, having won two Olympic gold medals and an amazing eight World Championships.
