i remember back in the '92 season the jets got three guys midseason, ulanov, davydov, and tkachuk. at first i thought tkachuk was russian too, because of the ukrainean last name, and i was like, ulanov and tkachuk those guys don't seem like these cowardly russian guys don cherry is always complaining about.
that summer, the jets drafted another physical russian dman, sergei bautin, who i thought would be in the league a long time. big, strong, fast, and mean. kind of a less spectacular version of another guy i had my eye on at the time, mikhail tatarinov. that mike smith model UN team was a weird blend of styles: selanne, zhamnov, and davydov up front, plus speedy luciano borsato, who when fernando pisani happened i felt like was the reincarnation of borsato. ulanov and bautin, both good skaters for such big guys, on the back end, and tkachuk emerging as the leader. none of them had played 60 games in the NHL. and then midway through the year, also picking up tie domi, who also was in his first season as an everyday player.
but here's to all the physical soviet dmen with various degrees of offensive upside i enjoyed from that period: bautin, tatarinov, konstantinov, yushkevich, zhitnik when he put his mind to it. and also kaspar, though he had zero offensive upside. i kind of feel like danny markov, even though he came much later, was the last guy of that ilk.
