Tragic deaths in Soviet/Russian hockey over the years

[Robert Gordon Orr]

While doing research on Soviet and/or Russian hockey players I came across a number of tragic deaths among some of the players. Maybe someone will find this topic interesting, so I’ll post it here. (I have not included those who only played in lower competitions)

1950 - On January 7, 1950, a plane crashed in Sverdlovsk with the entire Air Force team (VVS) perishing, nine players in total, plus three other team members. Legendary Victor Shuvalov (injured) and Vsevolod Bobrov (overslept) were not on the plane.

Those who died included: Ivan Novikov, Zdenek Zigmund, Yuri Tarasov, Evgeny Voronin, , Vasili Volodin, Harijs Mellups, Roberts Šūlmanis, Yuri Zhiburtovich, Victor Isaev, Alexander Moiseev, Mikhail Alperin (doctor), Alex Galkin (masseur), Boris Bocharnikov (coach)

1950 crash site


1967 – Nikolai Koksharov [1934-1967] – Former Soviet league goalie (Avangard Chelyabinsk and Spartak Omsk), and later coach Nikolai Koksharov went out on a fishing trip and never came back as he disappeared. He had finished fourth in the league twice, which for many years was the best finish ever for Chelyabinsk.

Koksharov


1968 - Viktor Blinov [1945-1968] - Regarded as one of the most talented Soviet defensemen of his generation. He won an Olympic gold in 1968 at Grenoble. He had heart issues and later that year he collapsed while playing basketball at the Spartak training ground on Vorovsky Street. A doctor on site tried to resuscitate him but he died before the ambulance arrived.
The official verdict was acute heart failure, although some said that blood was coming out of his nose and ears. Blinov was known to have been an excessive drinker in his days and had been exposed to alcohol since childhood. Reputedly according to teammates he was able to absorb more alcohol than anyone they had ever seen. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Blinov


1972 – Evgeny Babich [1921-1972] – Legendary national team player. He hanged himself in his bathroom at the age of 51. The suicide came as a total surprise to those who knew him. He had been a celebrated athlete and a linemate of Vsevolod Bobrov for many years. But his career after hockey wasn’t as successful and his depression got the best of him in the end. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Babich


1973 - Aleksandr Sakeev [1945-1973] – He was most likely thrown off a train, if it was a suicide, accident or murder was never found out, despite an investigation launched by legendary soccer/football goalkeeper Lev Yashin. Sakeev, a technical and speedy player represented the Soviet national team and scored 73 goals in 242 league games.

Sakeev


1977 – Vladislav Naidenov [1954-1977] – Was a first year player with the strong Spartak Moscow team alongside players like Aleksandr Yakushev, Viktor Shalimov, Vladimir Shadrin and Aleksandr Kozhevnikov. A couple of months into the 1977/78 season he was found dead in the entrance of his own house, strangled to death. The murder or murderers were never caught.

Spartak Moscow 1977/78


1979 – Vyacheslav Solodukhin [1950-1979] – Solodukhin played in the classic 1972 Summit Series. He also participated in the world championships. He scored 147 goals in 432 league games and was regarded as a top player for several years. In late 1979 he decided to end his life and was found dead in his car by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Solodukhin


1981 – Oleg Volodyayev [1945-1981] – He guarded the net for SKA Leningrad for almost a decade in the 1960s and early 70s. He was known for never being late for trainings and always behaving impeccable. His downfall started during a trip to Finland when he was caught smuggling foreign currency at the customs, something that was a big no-no in the communist regime. He got a life suspension from hockey. At the same time his parents died. He quickly spiraled into depression and began to drink. He tried to commit suicide a couple of times and eventually hanged himself.

Oleg Volodyayev in the front row. Fifth from right (dark helmet). Aleksandr Novozhilov is far right in the second row (civilian clothes). Oleg Churashov is fourth from left in the second row. Evgeny Fedoseyev (fourth from right back row). Vitaly Kustov is second from left (second row). Oleg Ivanov (eight from left back row). Yuri Glazov (second from right back row). Valentin Panyukhin (Third from left in the back row)


1981 – Vladimir Korzhenko [1961-1981] – Talented player who was just on the brink of making the strong CSKA Moscow squad. He was a very good skater for a player of his size which was close to 6’6 (198 cm). In juniors he played on a line with Andrei Khomutov.
He had just played one game for CSKA when tragedy struck. He shot a puck in training at national team goalie Aleksandr Tyzhnykh who saved the shot and triumphantly threw up his hands. His stick accidentally caught Korzhenko in the face, and as he was falling to the ice he hit his head against the edge of the boards. He damaged his cervical vertebrae, got paralyzed and despite two operations succumbed to his injuries in a military hospital one month later because of a blood clot.

Korzhenko


1981 – Valeri Kharlamov [1948-1981] – Was killed in a car accident at the outskirts of Moscow on the Leningrad highway. His wife Irina was at the wheel when their car skidded on a slippery road and veered into the path of an oncoming truck. Her brother was in the back seat. All three died. It was not the first time Kharlamov was involved in a car accident. In 1976 he broke both ankles and a couple of ribs. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Kharlamov's car


1981 - Boris Chuchin [1955-1981] – Was European junior champion and two time world junior champion. Chuchin shared the tournament scoring lead at the 1975 world junior championships. He played some seasons for SKA Leningrad, but had disciplinary problems which shortened his playing career. He jumped out of a window at the age of 26.

Chuchin third player from left top row

1982 – Konstantin Klimov [1951-1982] – Killed in a car accident in Moscow.
Klimov represented his country on numerous occasions, one of them being the 1974 WHA Summit Series. He was a two time league champion and a two time European Junior Champion.

Klimov


1982 – Mikhail Kovalev [1954-1982] – He was a talented, powerful and strong, although a bit unpolished defenseman who died under unknown circumstances. Some said that he just vanished and that nobody knows what happened. Others have said that he was murdered, stabbed to death. He was a world junior champion in 1973.

Kovalev


1985 – Anatoli “Tolya” Fetisov [1967-1985] – The younger brother of Vyacheslav “Slava” Fetisov was killed in a car accident near the Red Army club sports complex. The car was driven on the slippery road by Slava Fetisov himself who escaped near death when it crashed into a lamppost. The younger Fetisov was seen as a bright prospect and was slated to play at the 1986 world junior championships. He was also projected to be selected in the 1986 NHL entry draft. Fetisov was described as a player with great skills, speed and good hands. The death has always burdened Slava Fetisov who of course was involved in another near fatal car accident 1997.

Fetisov

1987 – Aleksandr Novozhilov [1950-1987] – Defenseman who spent a decade playing for SKA Leningrad in the Soviet league. Novozhilov represented his country at the 1968 European Junior Championships. His excessive drinking eventually cost him his life as he died of cirrhosis of the liver.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Far right in the second row (civilian clothes)


1988 – Andrei Zemko [1961-1988] – Won a bronze medal at the 1981 world junior championships. Zemko played in the highest Soviet league for Sokol Kiev and was a member of Torpedo Togliatti in the second division when he collapsed of a heart attack during a summer cross road training session in grueling heat.

Sokol Kiev


1989 - Aleksandr Andreev [1953-1989] – Eurpean junior champion and also represented the Soviet national team as a senior. Highly skilled and even the legendary Vsevolod Bobrov had high praise for him. Andreev passed away from leukemia.

Aleksandr Andreev third from right (front row) and Mikhail Kropotov second from left (front row)


1990 – Anatoli Motovilov [1946-1990] - He scored 176 goals in 471 league games.
His teams finished among the top three clubs in the league ten times. He represented Soviet Union in the late 1960s. He had been diagnosed with cancer and was preparing to get treatment abroad for it, when he and his wife were killed in a car accident near the capital airport Sheremetyevo.

Motovilov


1990 – Vladimirs Durdins [1956-1990] – Also killed in a car accident while heading home to Latvia from his team in Finland. He was a passenger and the driver probably fell asleep behind the wheel and hit a tree near Siguld, Latvia. At the time of his death he held the record for most penalty minutes by a defenseman in Soviet hockey league history. His 590 games for Dinamo Riga was a club record.

Durdins


1990 – Valentin Grigoriev [1939-1990] – He spent a decade playing in the Soviet league, mostly for Dynamo Moscow and Kristall Saratov. He was a three time league runner-up.
He became a successful coach later on. In the summer of 1990 he was coaching Kristall Elektrostal. While on his way to meet the team, he never showed up. He was found dead under a train platform in Moscow with a severed leg. He had been stripped of his rings and money. People had heard shouts from the platform after midnight as he was waiting for the night train. He was robbed, beaten and thrown down on the tracks.

Grigoriev


1990 - Vasili Pozdnyakov [1952 – 1990] – He was a small, fearless and positionally strong defenseman who played almost 200 games for SKA Leningrad. He scored a total of 58 goals in 562 career games. He battled cancer for some time and finally succumbed to the disease.

Pozdnyakov


1991 – Kirill Tarasov [1973-1991] – He was killed instantly when his car collided with a bus in Moscow. With him in the car was future NHL’er Vyacheslav Kozlov who was seriously injured but eventually recovered fully. Tarasov was a bright prospect and had represented Soviet Union at the 1991 European U-18 junior championships.

In the lineup with # 5 during his last season (wrong birth year given as 1971)


1992 - Artem Kopot [1972-1992] – Promising defenseman who was a world junior champion with the CIS team and drafted in the NHL by Pittsburgh in 1992. He was killed in the middle of the night in a one-car accident near his home in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Kopot was driving alone when he was killed. The weather was good and he probably fell asleep behind the wheel and his Lada hit a steel post. His teammates, the future and late NHL’er Valeri Karpov and future NHL draft pick Andrei Sapozhnikov drove in a car behind Kopot at the time of the accident. They pulled Kopot out of the car and rushed him to hospital, but he died on the way there.

Kopot


1992 – Vladimir Korshakevich [1949-1992] – One of the better goaltenders of Soviet hockey in the 1960s and 70s. He served as a backup to Vladislav Tretiak in CSKA Moscow 1972/73. He also played for Traktor Chelyabinsk and Avtomobilist Sverdlovsk in the Soviet league. Unfortunately he battled alcohol addiction and died at the age of 42.

Korshakevich


1992 – Sergei Bushmelev [1966-1992] – Spartak Moscow player who had represented the senior national team in 1990/91. He was gunned down in a restaurant outside a crowded street in Ufa, shot in the heart.

Bushmelev


1992 - Mikhail Kropotov [1953-1992] - Represented Soviet Union at the European junior championships and scored 133 points (76+57) in 334 league games He died of a heart attack in the middle of a street.

See photo Andreev 1989. Second from left (front row)


1992 – Nikolai Shorin [1949-1992] – A fast skating penalty killing specialist who played a total of 485 games for Traktor Chelyabinsk, scoring 284 points (159+125). He was a teammate of Sergei Makarov.Represented the Soviet B national team. Retired in 1989 and served as an assistant coach when he mysteriously went missing without a trace in December 1992

Shorin


1992 - Oleg Churashov [1945-1992] – Longtime member of the SKA Leningrad team who played 483 league games for them between 1964 and 1979.Represented Soviet Union in 1969/70. He gained a lot of weight in later years. He died in his sleep, cause of death unknown, but probably heart failure.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Fourth from left in the second row.


1994 – Aleksandr Smagin [1967-1994] – He encountered exactly the same fate as Andrei Zemko had done six years earlier (see 1988). Smagin collapsed of a heart attack during a summer cross road training session in grueling heat. He had played for SKA Leningrad/SKA St.Petersburg previously, but at the time of his death he was a member of Tyumen Rubin.

SKA Leningrad with Smagin


1994 - Valentin Panyukhin [1944-1994] – By many called the brain of the SKA leningrad team of the 1960s and 70s.Played 455 league games, scoring 255 points (181+87). He died of a heart attack.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Third from left in the back row.


1994 - Viktors Hatuļevs (Khatulev) [1955-1994] – He was a two time world junior champion and the first ever NHL-drafted Soviet player. This Latvian player had been in trouble several times and got suspended for five years in both 1975 and 1979 both times the suspensions were lifted. However a third incident saw him getting banned from hockey for life in 1981. His entire life declined rapidly after that. He lost his wife in an auto accident, leaving him to raise a baby daughter, and his father died of a heart attack at a game in Riga. Later on he served time in prison for dealing drugs. He also battled with alcoholism.
At the age of 39 he collapsed in the street of a heart failure, although rumours at the time were that the circumstances of his death had been mysterious.

Hatulevs (Khatulev)


1995 - Sergei Korotkov [1951-1995]- Defenseman for Spartak Moscow who scored 61 goals in 380 games for them. He also represented the national team. He was found dead in his apartment under unknown circumstances. He was only 44 at the time of his death.

Korotkov


1995 - Arkady Rudakov [1946-1995] - Spent more than a decade playing in the Soviet league for clubs Avtomobilist Sverdlovsk and Sparta Moscow. He scored 159 goals in 344 league games. He was killed in his own apartment under unknown circumstances.

Rudakov


1995 – Sergei Kapustin [1953-1995] – One of the most talented players of his generation. Was a longtime member of the Soviet national team, winning world championships, Olympic tournaments and Canada Cups. He too had a tragic ending. He officially died of an heart attack at the age of 42, but former teammate Aleksandr Kozhevnikov maintained that Kapustin was beaten to death in hospital. He had been admitted to hospital while being drunk to treat an infection in his elbow. Doctors suspected gangrene. A scuffle ensued in the hospital and he was beaten/choked to death. No autopsy was made and the matter was covered up according to Kozhevnikov. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Kapustin


1995 – Nikolai Drozdetsky [1957-1995] – World, Olympic and Canada Cup champion. Gifted player who was part of the strong Soviet teams uin the 1980s.Tragically died in his apartment in St.Petersburg when he ran out on insulin, sending his mother to get some more.His mother spent hours looking for insulin and when she finally found some and got home he was already dead (Hypoglycemic coma). He had been diagnosed with diabetes only three years earlier.Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Drozdetsky


1995 – Aleksei Nikitushkin [1952-1995] - A three time Soviet junior league champion and a one time senior league champion. He also won the European Junior Championships in 1971. Nikutishkin played for CSKA and Spartak Moscow together with many of the Soviet greats of the 1970s. He died in Moscow 1995 at the age of 43.

Nikitushkin


1995 - Vladimir Shepovalov [1948-1995] - Emerged as an incredibly talented goaltender for Metallurg Novokuznetsk and eventually played for the Soviet national team, backing up Vladislav Tretiak for several years. Unfortunately he was fond of the bottle. His life ended tragically on a cold December day 1995 in Novokuznetsk, when he was found on the street at a bus stop, in a snow drift with an empty bottle of vodka beside him, frozen to death.

Shepovalov


1995 - Oleg Ivanov [1952-1995] – Great stickhandler. Two time European champion with the Soviet Union. He played seven seasons and 187 games with SKA Leningrad before being dropped from the team due to his excessive drinking and banned from life. He went on to work as a butcher and eventually died of alcohol poisoning.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Eight from left (back row).


1996 – Sergei Lapshin [1959-1996] – Played for Traktor Chelyabinsk and SKA Leningrad where he picked up 210 points (134+76) in 433 games. Died at the age of 36.

Lapshin


1996 - Igor Grigoriev [1947-1996] - Played a decade for SKA Leningrad, scoring 158 points (104+54) in 253 league games.Represented Soviet Union on numerous occasions in the late 1960s. After his playing career he worked in the SKA organization. Unfortunately he battled alcohol addiction and died from poisoning of poor-quality vodka.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Third from left (second row).


1996 - Aleksandr Osadchy [1975-1996] - A Ukrainian born defenseman that in 1993 was drafted by San José. He was a 1994 world junior championship bronze medalist and played a season in the IHL. He was found dead the day after he had returned back home from a Euroleague game in Prague. The circumstance of his death was sketchy and some believed that he had been robbed and killed in his home. Some sources said that the police later questionably ruled it as a suicide. Other sources say that the official verdict was a heart attack.

Osadchy

End of part 1...

Click to read more...

 

[Killion]

My God..... Didnt expect all of that. Just kept scrolling down & down with one heartbreaking story after another after another. Wow. And just "Part 1"?! .... on second thought ya, must be, as I can think of several more more recent. Like Tikhonovs son for example... That 1950 crash.... the team was run by Joseph Stalins son Vasiliy, and fearing repercussions the accident & deaths were not reported with replacement players quickly found to replace those who died..... I noted Yuri Tarasov one of the victims, and later on, a Kirill Tarasov, to the best of my knowledge neither one any relation to Anatoli Tarasov or.... were they? Brother, Cousin or Son perhaps? Common name? Couldnt find anything on-line so I'm assuming no relation.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Part 2...

1996 – Dmitri Rozhkov [1967-1996] – A solid defenseman for Spartak Moscow who once represented Soviet Union at the Winter University Games. He was stabbed in the carotid artery by his drunk father-in-law during a domestic dispute that also involved his wife.

Rozhkov

1998 ca – Yuri Chichurin [1947-1998 ca] – He was Aleksandr Maltsev’s linemate and best friend. Chichurin scored 124 goals in 312 league games. He also represented Soviet Union. Had great humour and was always full of funny stories. Unfortunately his life was ruined by alcohol. His father-in-law always brought alcohol home from work and Chichurin drank it like water. He died in the late 1990s and sadly only seven players attended his funeral, one of them being his old linemate Aleksandr Maltsev.

Chichurin


1999 - Oleg Kostrikov [1971-1999] – He was a member of the second league “Sputnik” Nizhny Tagil team when he died during a game. Autopsy later revealed that he died from a hemorrhage in the brain. Eyewitnesses said that he suddenly collapsed in the neutral zone far away from the puck or any physical contact. Since 2000 there’s a yearly youth hockey tournament played in his honour.

Oleg Kostrikov memorial


1999 – Vladimir Zhashkov [1973-1999] – He died on the highway near Yaroslavl in a car crash. The car bumped off another car, flew over to the oncoming lane and hit a tree. Zhashkov the driver was killed instantly while another hockey player, Evgeny Khatsei got a concussion, broken nose and injured his leg. Zhashkov played for CSKA Moscow and Torpedo Yaroslavl. He scored 143 points (71+72) in 312 league games.

Zhashkov


1999 - Sergei Solodukhin [1949-1999] – He scored 123 goals in 322 league games. He represented Soviet Union both as a junior and senior. He passed away of lung cancer and was buried at the Novo-Volkovsky cemetery next to his brother Vyacheslav (see 1979). Sergei Solodukhin named his son after his brother, and the son is playing in the KHL today.

Solodukhin


1999 – Evgeny Belosheikin [1966-1999] – Hailed as Vladislav Tretiaks successor, and regarded as the most talented goaltender ever to come out of Russia. He was a World junior, World and Olympic champion. Belosheikin was drafted by Edmonton in 1991 and was in Edmonton for six months training but never made the Oilers. Unfortunately he was a very troubled young man as he battled with alcohol addiction and depression. When his father was murdered it got even worse. Belosheikin was found hanged with his own belt in his apartment in St.Petersburg. He had tried to commit suicide a few years earlier, trying to drown himself. He was inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Belosheikin


1999 – Valentin Markov [1947-1999] – He represented Soviet Union both as a junior and senior. He was a steady defenseman who split his 14 years between Dynamo and Spartak Moscow. At the age of 52 he was stabbed to death in a robbery.

Markov


1999 - Dmitri Tertyshny [1976-1999] - Was a promising defenseman with the Philadelphia Flyers when he died on Lake Okanagan, British Columbia. Together with a couple of teammates he rented a boat. He was kneeling in the front of the boat when he lost his balance from a wave. He fell into the water and was cut by the propeller. He received wounds to his neck, arm and several veins and arteries were severed. He bled to death.

Tertyshny


2000 - Vyacheslav Lavrov [1958-2000]- Longtime forward of SKA Leningrad/St. Petersburg who represented his country on numerous occasions. He was part of the 1987 Soviet Rendez-Vous team against the NHL. His car was hit head on by a truck that was speeding along the Zhdanovskaya embankment. He died instantly in the collision.

Lavrov


2000 - Aleksei Stepanov [1972-2000] – He represented Russia and won the league, cup and the Euroleague with Magnitogorsk. He went on a fishing trip with two friends in Snezhinsk. All three of them disappeared. After three weeks of searching, divers found their bodies at the bottom of the lake. It is believed that their boat overturned during a hurricane that hit the area.

Aleksei Stepanov


2000 - Maxim Stepanov [1976-2000] – Scored 126 points (71+55) in 286 games for Spartak Moscow. He was killed in a car accident when his Jeep was hit by another car from an oncoming lane. The Jeep turned over and was hit by another car in full speed.

Maksim Stepanov


2000 - Aleksandr Frolov [1952-2000] – Played almost a decade for Torpedo Gorky (later Nizhny Novgorod). He died of a heart attack during a pre-season training camp held in Belek, Turkey.

Frolov


2000 - Vitaly Kustov [1941-2000] - Played 14 seasons with SKA Leningrad, scoring 100 goals in 427 games. He battled alcohol addiction and died of acute alcohol poisoning.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Second from left (second row).


2000 - Denis Vinokurov [1972-2000] - Highly talented as a junior and already managed to play for the Army team CSKA Moscow at the age of 16, no small feat in those days.
He was a world junior champion in 1992 on a team that had 11 future NHL’ers and where 18 out of the 22 players were drafted by an NHL team. He played for CSKA Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg in the Russian league. Tragically enough he got hooked on drugs and died of a heroin overdose.

Vinokurov standing far right


2001 - Sergei Zemchenok [1976-2001] - Two robbers waited for him in the building complex where he lived on Trud Street in Magnitogorsk. When Zemchenok left an elevator he was shot in the back of the head by the killers who used a gas pistol that had been modified to fire live ammunition. They initially wanted to rob him in his apartment but changed their plans when they saw him. The two killers who were drug addicts were caught and were sentenced to 10 respectively 20 years in prison. Zemchenok represented Russia as a junior and also became the league and cup champion of Russia, won the European Super Cup and the Euroleague.

Zemchenok


2001 – Sergei Ageykin [1963-2001] – World junior and senior champion with the Soviet national team in the 1980s. He was still an active player when he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2000. He died two weeks before his 38th birthday.

Ageykin



2001 – Vyacheslav Bezukladnikov [1968-2001] – Represented Russia at the 1994 Olympics and world championships. He was a longtime player of Lada Togliatti. He collapsed during cross-country training in Sandanski, Bulgaria while Lada Togliatti had a training camp there. He didn’t feel well and was rushed to a local hospital. At first doctors were unable to diagnose what was wrong with him. He fell into a coma and subsequently died after a few days. Cause of death was acute cirrhosis of the liver and renal failure.

Bezukladnikov


2001 - Evgeny Fedoseyev [1949-2001] – Speedy defenseman who spent seven seasons playing for SKA Leningrad. He also represented Soviet Union at the 1968 European Junior Championships. He battled alcohol addiction and eventually died of heart failure.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Fourth from right (back row).


2001 – Viktor Yakushev [1937-2001] – Russian Hockey Hall of Famer who was a five time world champion as well as an Olympic champion. He played his entire career with the Lokomotiv club in Moscow, scoring 151 goals. He was beaten to death by a bunch of thugs on the streets of Moscow. He died at the hospital and his killers were never found.

Yakushev


2002 – Boris Aleksandrov [1955-2002] – World junior and Olympic champions who played for both CSKA and Spartak Moscow. Born and raised in Kazakhstan he even represented Kazakhstan in the mid 1990s. He scored 157 goals in 322 league games.

Aleksandrov


2002 - Aleksei Yegorov [1975-2002] – Former NHL’er (San José) died tragically as a result of drugs. His drug addiction began in North America during the winter of 1999. He tried to get away from it all by playing in Germany. While there he attended some drug rehab meetings. Unfortunately he had a relapse when he returned to Russia and soon owned money to local drug dealers. They seized his passport as collateral. When Yegorov was unable to come up with any money, four drug dealing thugs beat him up. During the beating Yegorov fell down a flight of stairs, and in a desperate attempt to escape his assailants he jumped from the 7th to the 3rd floor, unable to bear the pain he then made a fatal jump out of a window. The thugs then threw his passport beside his body.

Yegorov


2002 - Boris Zelenko [1975-2002] – He was a 1994 NHL draft pick by Pittsburgh who spent a couple of seasons in North America. He played for CSKA and Dynamo Moscow. The cause of death was skin cancer that started with a birthmark on his foot. He tore up the birthmark by accident. Metastases were formed and his body was soon full of cancer cells. It is said that he showed extraordinary willpower during his last months of fighting the disease.

Zelenko


2002 - Aleksandr Krevsun [1980-2002] – He was a Nashville NHL draft pick in 1999 who spent a season in North America. While training with CSK VVS Samara, Krevsun collapsed during a 10 km (6,2 mi) cross country run that took place at more than 30-degree (86 F) heat. He lost consciousness and was hospitalized, passing away the following day. The cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage. It was a well-known fact that Krevsun often felt very ill after heavy training doses. A couple of years earlier he had represented Kazakhstan at the world junior championships. He also played for Lada Togliatti and CSK VVS Samara in the Russian league.

Krevsun grave


2003 - Aleksei Traseukh [1968-2003] – He had been a key member of the Torpedo Yaroslavl team in the Russian league for almost a decade. At the time of his death he was working as an assistant coach for the team. He was found mortally wounded from a gunshot in his apartment. He was rushed to hospital, but died during the operation. The investigation established that he had shot himself with a gun. Everyone who knew him refused to accept that version

Traseukh


2003 – Roman Lyashenko [1979-2003] – Represented Russia at the 2002 world championships. Played 139 games in the NHL.While on vacation in Antalya, Turkey together with his sister and mother he committed suicide in his hotel room. He left a suicide note. The Turkish confirmed that Lyashenko had left a suicide note, and said that he had attempted to cut his arms and wrists before hanging himself. In the suicide note Lyashenko apologized for killing himself and referred to an incurable disease. Nothing was however discovered at the autopsy

Lyashenko


2003 – Aleksandr Sidelnikov [1950-2003] – Was a backup to Vladislav Tretiak on the national team in the 1970s. Sidelnikov was a brash, aggressive, strong and persistent performer. He died of heart failure while on holiday in the Arkhangelsk region at the age of 52. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Sidelnikov


2003 - Oleg Vevsherenko [1968-2003] – Realiable defenseman who played in the Russian league for both Khabarovsk and Omsk. He worked his way up after playing many years in the Russian second and third divisions. He scored 91 goals in 509 games for Khabarovsk. The last years he battled concussion symptoms. His life ended tragically when he stood on his balcony and slipped, falling from the 9th floor, killing him instantly. He was drunk at the time.

Vevsherenko


2004 - Yuri Glazov [1943-2004] – Spent 12 seasons in the Soviet league playing for several clubs. He scored 168 points in 346 games. Glazov was known to often argue with his coaches and standing up for his rights. He died of a heart attack.

See photo Volodyayev 1981. Second from right (back row).



2004 - Anatoli Ustyugov [1977-2004] – A smallish winger who was a Detroit Red Wings draft pick in 1995. He was an 11 season veteran in the Russian league and was a member of Sparta Moscow when he was attacked and beaten late at night during a robbery. He was robbed of his cell phone. Ustyugov sustained severe head injuries and died three days later in hospital. The murderers were found and convicted.

Ustyugov


2004 - Sergejs Žoltoks (Zholtok) – Talented Latvian player who won a gold-medal at the world junior championships.Played almost 600 NHL games. He had been diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia earlier on. During a league the game he collapsed, dying in the arms of teammate, former NHL’er Darby Hendrickson. Doctors tried for over an hour to save him. An autopsy determined heart failure as the cause of death.

Žoltoks (Zholtok)


2005 – Vyacheslav Grigoriev [1963-2005] – A native of Kirovo-Chepetsk, the same place where Aleksandr Maltsev was born. He was a European Junior Champion in 1981.
Grigoriev spent a few seasons playing for Khimik Voskresensk in the Russian league.


2007 – Maksim Popov [1983-2007] – A small forward that mostly played in the Russian second and third divisions. He had a brief spell with SKA St. Petersburg in the Russian league. He died under unknown circumstances.


2007 - Aleksei Savin [1986-2007] – Russian born player who represented Belarus in world junior and senior championships. Three time Belarus league champion. Savin was regarded as one of the most talented players in the country. He was killed in a road accident when his bicycle was hit by a drunk driver.

Savin


2008 - Igor Antosik [1987-2008] – Good sized forward who represented Russia at the 2005 world under 18 championships. He played a few games in the Russian league for both Khimik Mytishchi and Dynamo Moscow. Antosik lost consciousness during dryland (cross-country) training with his hockey team. He was rushed to a hospital in Podolsk where he was unconscious in intensive care for two days before he died. It is believed that Antosik died of an aneurysm.

Antosik


2008 – Aleksei Cherepanov [1989-2008] – Talented player and a first round draft pick in the NHL 2007. He collapsed on the bench near the end of a league game, and could not be resuscitated. He was pronounced dead later that day in hospital at the age of 19. His cause of death was attributed to heart failure.

Cherepanov


2008 – Igor Evdokimov [1962-2008] – Played 383 league games with SKA Leningrad/St.Petersburg in the 1980s and 90s. Evdokimov represented Soviet Union in the 1980s. He died of a heart attack although some said that the death was alcohol related.

Evdokimov


2008 - Denis Martyniuk [1979-2008] – He was the son of Aleksandr Martyniuk, a two time world champion in the 1970s. Denis Martyniuk (also spelled Martynyuk) was drafted by Vancouver in 1997 and played in the AHL for a while. He played in the Russian league for CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow and Amur Khabarovsk. He sustained a serious spinal injury while playing in Belarus. While trying to get back to hockey he collapsed one day while stepping out of an elevator. The cause of death was a heart attack.

Martyniuk


2009 - Igor Stelnov [1963-2009] – Very solid defenseman who was often paired with Sergei Starikov. He was a two time Olympic champion as well as a world champion in 1986.
Also played in the memorable Canada Cup 1987 (and 1984). Stelnov was a good team player who never got the chance to play offensively the way he wanted. Coach Tikhonov forced him to be defensively oriented both in CSKA and on the national team. Stelnov battled depression and personal demons, and the situation didn’t improve when he got fired from his position as an assistant coach in the KHL a few months before he died. The official verdict was that he passed away after a „brief illness“. Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame.

Stelnov


2009 - Igor Vyazmikin [1966-2009] – A two time world junior champion. Legendary player Boris Mikhailov once described Vyazmikin as being a “tank” that could crush anybody.
He came up through the ranks of the Army club, CSKA Moscow. Vyazmikin was eventually drafted by Edmonton Oilers in 1987 and played four games in the NHL.
Unfortunately he got addicted to all form of pills, including Seduxen and Phenazepam, these eventually claimed his life at the age of 43.

Vyazmikin


2010 - Igor Misko [1986-2010] – He was a forward with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL.
It was a hot day during the summer when Misko suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his car. The car slammed into a tree. With him in the car were both his girlfriend and his best buddy. According to them Misko complained about his vision just seconds before falling to the side.

Misko

End of part 2...

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Part 3...

2011 - The entire Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team was wiped out in a plane crash during takeoff.
The players that perished, included: Vitaly Anikeyenko, Mikhail Balandin, Gennady Churilov, Pavol Demitra (Slovakia), Robert Dietrich (Germany), Aleksandr Galimov, Marat Kalimulin, Aleksandr Kalyanin, Andrei Kiryukhin, Nikita Klyukin, Stefan Liv (Sweden), Jan Marek (Czech Republic), Sergei Ostapchuk (Belarus), Karel Rachunek (Czech Republic), Ruslan Salei (Belarus), Maksim Shuvalov, Karlis Skrastins (Latvia), Pavel Snurnitsyn, Daniil Sobchenko, Ivan Tkachenko, Pavel Trakhanov, Yuri Urychev, Josef Vasícek (Czech Republic), Aleksandr Vasyunov, Aleksandr Vyukhin (Ukraine), Artem Yarchuk, Aleksandr Karpovtsev, Igor Korolev, Brad McCrimmon (Canada)

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2011


2012 – Remir Khaidarov [1977-2012] - He heroically tried to save his son and his friend in fire at his dacha near Kazan. During the fire Khaidarov rushed to the second floor of the house in order to save his 15-year-old son and his friend. Unfortunately the roof collapsed and all three died. His wife and daughter survived thanks to the fact hat they slept on the first floor. Khaidarov finished as a runner-up to the Russian league title twice with Ak Bars Kazan.

Khaidarov


2012 - Nikolai Fedyasev [1983-2012] – Spent most of his career in the second Russian division but played some games in the elite league with Mechel Chelyabinsk. He was killed in a brawl at a nighclub.

Fedyasev


2013 - Dmitri Uchaykin [1980-2013] – Longtime player with Amur Khabarovsk who played in the KHL suffered fatal head injuries in a playoff game while playing for Ertis Pavlodar in the Kazakh league.

Uchaykin


2014 – Valeri Karpov [1971-2014] - Creative player and speedy player with soft hands who played in the NHL for Anaheim. He also was a world champion in 1993. He was killed in his house after a brawl. Karpov was hit in the head with a bottle and fell down the stairs. He was in a coma at the hospital and underwent two trepanning surgeries, but never regained consciousness and died.

Karpov


2015 - Andrei Troshchinsky [1978-2015] – he scored a hat trick for Kazakhstan against Canada at the 1998 world junior championships. Scouts were so impressed that St.Louis Blues drafted him later that summer, one spot ahead of Pavel Datsyuk. He played two seasons in the AHL. Internationally Troshchinsky represented Kazakhstan in numerous world championships as well as the Olympics. He died of a heart attack 37 years old.

Troshchinsky


2016 - Pyotr Devyatkin [1977-2016] – Originally from Kazakhstan, a country he represented at the 1998 Olympics and in the 1999 world championships. He won a Russian league title with Dynamo Moscow in 1995. He was found hanged in his apartment and left behind him a suicide note, in which he explained his choice by saying that he could no longer live with debts.

Devyatkin


There are more that I surely forgot, so feel free to fill in the blanks.

 

[Killion]

Yowza. A lot of heart attacks, aneurysms... but so too suicides, deaths by misadventure involving alcohol or not, accidents, and worst of all, homicides, manslaughter. Those in particular pretty hard to read. Now, where on earth did you come up with the source material for all of these deaths RGO? Did you cull through old newspaper accounts & so on?... Certainly a very sobering exercise let alone read.... Very nicely & respectfully done too I must say.

Vasily Tikhonov (1958~2013)... Victors' son, also a Coach starting with Dinamo Riga Youth Hockey in the 80's. He Coached in the pro's as well, here in NA as an Assistant with the Sharks, Minors, pro in Europe etc. Apparently fell to his death from his apartment window in Moscow while repairing a screen... his Son, Victor, playing this past season in the KHL after stints in the NHL with Chicago & Arizona.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

A member sent me a PM regarding the death of Aleksei Yegorov, who used to play for San José Sharks in the mid 1990s. The person wanted to know my source for his death that I wrote about in one of the posts above.

His death was not covered anywhere in North America, all that was said years later was that he died of drug related causes.

Well, there was a good article about his life in the Russian sports newspaper "Sovetsky Sport", that was published about seven months after his death in 2002. I do not speak Russian, but I tried to make a half-assed attempt at a translation via Google Translate. Hopefully this article will shed a light on Yegorov and his tragic life. The people interviewed for the article was his older brother, his mother and teammates.


White trash burned Aleksei Yegorov

October 23, 2002 for Sovetsky Sport
Author: Alexander Lukyanov

St. Petersburg forward Aleksei Yegorov was considered as one of the most talented players of the SKA (St.Petersburg) in the early 90s. Together with him, the current players of the Russian national team Maksim Sokolov and Maksim Sushinsky played on the army team. Yegorov only got to play for the national team on three occasions. The main reason for this are the drugs that killed the St. Petersburg hockey star.

ADOPTION OF A SINGLE PUPIL

Aleksei was born into a rather wealthy Soviet family (by Soviet standards). His mother, Antonina Viktorovna, worked as a technical editor at a secret military factory, and his father, Yuri Ivanovich, was a subway driver. At the age of 28, tragedy struck as Yegorov Sr., the father of the future hockey player fell in his basement at home, leaving him paralyzed. For 30 years, the disability kept Yuri Ivanovich confined to his bed.

“Aleksei was seven months old, weighed only 1,4 kilos (ca 3 Ibs), 40 centimeters (ca 15,7 inches) in height,” recalls Antonina Viktorovna. – “Doctors even told me that the child will not survive. However, we weathered the storm. Aleks ate a lot during his childhood, which is probably why he grew up as a normal guy.”

The fact that Aleksei could become a professional hockey player was noticed by his relatives when he was five years old. Yegorov’s older brother, Nikolai, who grew up along him all his life, and supported him as best he could, always passed the local hockey rink in winter on his way home.

“Every time I passed the rink, I heard that painfully familiar children's voice. I always went over there, and on it Lech (nickname of Aleksei Yegorov) and a bunch of guys, two times his senior, played hockey, but they could not keep up with him. Despite the fact that he was a novice on skates,” recalls Nikolai.

Two years later, Aleks played on the children's team of SKA (Atom level?). His first coach was Aleksandr Balaev - according to his relatives, he was the only mentor who could understand Yegorov as a person and who gave him the opportunity to uncover his talent. Since childhood, he played hockey with older boys and always looked better than them on the ice. He had unique hands and eyes on the back of his head.
At his position, center forward Yegorov was considered untouchable at his age bracket.

In life, Aleksei was always a very kind person. He studied at the 383rd school, which was opposite his home on Avant-garde Street. When one of his classmates, a boy named Maksim was left orphaned after his mother died, Yegorov came home with the words: “Mom, Maksim will be handed over to an orphanage. We cannot allow this, you must adopt him.”

“It was impossible to refuse my son,” says Antonina Viktorovna. – “For half a year I went to various authorities, trying to arrange an adoption, and in the end we managed to adopt Maksim. He became like a son to me, and Lech like a brother to him. We lived together for 10 years, until I got married.”

Teachers in school dreaded Yegorov. He always did what he thought was necessary. For example, at one time a shepherd dog died, Aleksei gathered almost the entire school and led them to the dog’s funeral. The teachers did not even know how to react. It became a day off at school. Aleksei somehow got away with a lot in school. But if he got away with a lot in school, then in hockey his undisciplined behaviour did not work in his favour. Yegorov constantly had disagreements with his hockey coaches, which is why he in many respects never really fully reached his potential.

NATASHA and NIKITA

The family life of Yegorov began very early. At age 17 he had a son, Nikita. He was in a relationship with his sons mother Natasha for a few years. She grew up next to Aleksei in a dysfunctional family, and Aleksei's parents were not exactly thrilled about their relationship, actually being right out against it.

“But the wife for my brother always remained his greatest love,” says Aleksei’s brother Nikolai. – “He could not live without her. When he left to play (Hockey) in another city, he always took her with him. And if Natasha had problems with a visa for example, Aleksei called me and said that if she didn’t join him within two weeks, he would drop everything, quit and return.

Despite all this, unfortunately, the wife did not support Yegorov in life. They quarreled and often lived apart in St. Petersburg. Their son Nikita was often looked after by Aleksei’s mother Antonina Viktorovna.

Aleksei Yegorov’s first professional team was his native SKA. He played on a very promising line together with Maksim Sushinsky and Pavel Evstigneev.

“It was a brilliant troika. The guys really worked well together on the ice,” recalls the best goalkeeper of the 2002 World Championships, Maksim Sokolov, who played on the same team as Yegorov. – “The leader was Aleks. He never scored any ugly goals. If it wasn’t a picture perfect goal in the makings, he rather passed the puck to his linemate and let him distinguish himself.”

At the time (legendary) Boris Mikhailov supervised the SKA. Boris Petrovich was known as a dictator, and Yegorov had a hard time getting along with the iconic Mikhailov. At one of the training sessions in 1994, Yegorov got into an argument with Mikhailov, screaming at him. The reaction of Mikhailov was immediate and to the point.

“Ok, collect your things. You are free to leave”, - Mikhailov said. Aleksei did just that, and left Sochi (where SKA trained).

After the conflict, Yegorov saw only one way how to continue his career. He was invited to attend the San José Sharks training camp in 1995.

“In fact, I don’t recollect him having any particular desire to play in America,” recalls Maksim Sokolov. – “He wanted to play only in Russia. His overseas problems began from the get go with the coaches. San José was led by Kevin Constantine, who disliked Europeans, especially Russians. Lech spent three years in farm clubs, practically not playing for the main team. Although in the first season he received a prize as the best newcomer in the IHL, and then he was invited to play in the All-Star game.

When Aleksei was given a chance to prove himself in the NHL, he used it brilliantly. In the first game he had an assist, and in the second - a hat-trick. The St. Petersburger got to play on the same unit with such stars as Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Sandis Ozolins. However, Constantine, to everyone’s great surprise, sent Yegorov back to the farm club.

RETURN TO ST.PETERSBURG

Having played three years in America, Yegorov decided to return back to Russia in the summer of 1998.

“In our country, they began to offer good contracts, Aleks wanted to spend one or two seasons in Russia, earn a spot on the national team, and, if possible, sign a major contract in the NHL,” says his brother Nikolai. – “A lucrative offer came from Torpedo Yaroslavl. The team was headed by Peter Vorobiev, and at first everything went smoothly. Aleksei had the highest salary in Torpedo. He went there to play as a future leader, especially since he was in great shape after his return from America. But in August 1998, there was a snag. For three months that Lech performed at Torpedo, he was paid almost nothing. The most annoying thing for him though was the playing philosophy of coach Vorobiev. Peter Ilyich was strictly implementing defensive hockey. Aleks could not stand this type of hockey. Yaroslavl just killed a hockey player. In the end Aleks collected his things and returned back to St.Petersburg.”

Sokolov, who played in SKA at the time, learned that his friend was in the city. He told the St.Petersburg head coach, Nikolay Maslov, who invited Aleksei back to the army club. And it was at that time, that all the real problems for Yegorov began, ultimately leading to his death.

MACHINE WITHOUT PETROL

In St. Petersburg, Aleksei still lived in his old neighborhood next to his childhood friends.
They unfortunately dragged Yegorov into bad company. In the winter of 1999, Yegorov began taking drugs.

“These people, whom he almost worshiped, turned out to be excellent psychologists,” says Nikolai. – “Unlike his coaches, they managed to find a way to reach him. For his friends, Aleksei was ready to do anything. He bought them drinks, food, clothes, drove them around to casinos and discos. They frankly sucked him out of his money. He had a friend named “Dlinny”, who when Lech was not in town, told the other guys: “Soon Yegorov will come, and I will be “fat” again. When I tried to explain it to my brother, he told me: “Dlinny – is not that kind of guy, he’s not a bastard. The thing is, he (Dlinny) has been malnourished since childhood. I remember how he ran up to me and asked for 15 kopecks for a loaf of bread, because he hadn’t eaten for two days. I now want to show him how people live.”

At first, none of my relatives knew that Aleksei was taking heroin. Only Sokolov had his suspicions as he saw the guy was playing worse and worse every day. Two months later, Yegorov himself came to his brother and told everything.

“Hell began,” Nikolai recalls. – “All the money went for drug treatment, but even more - for drugs.
In our hospitals, while some are being treated, others immediately offer to buy this stuff (Methadone?).
In addition, Dlinny himself brought heroin to Lech. When my brother left the hospital and didn’t take anything for a month, he would come up to me and say: “I’m like a car without gasoline, and I don’t go anywhere. Without drugs, everything is black for me, I don’t see anything good. ”

To save Yegorov, it was necessary to send him abroad. In September 1999, he went to America, and the following season to Germany, where he was able to get in shape and began to play again at a relatively decent level. However, he was still drawn to his old neighborhood. Although his body was clean from all the drugs, the brain always remembered about the heroin. When Yegorov returned home in March 2000, he immediately fell into his old habits again. The German club Schwenningen became Yegorov’s last team.

“I was shocked and did not know what to do,” says Antonina Viktorovna. “I never thought about drugs at all. And here, in front of my eyes, my son was slowly but surely dying ..."

DEATH

“The last months of his life – was a complete darkness. To fight against his drug addiction was useless.
In addition, almost everyone turned away from Aleksei, as he didn’t have any money anymore, no one needed him,” recalls Nikolai.

When the money ran out, Yegorov began to buy drugs on credit. Once he had to give his passport as collateral. When it was time to pay, he came to Nikolai.

“At that time, Aleks had actually been cleen for a month, but I was afraid that if I gave him money, he would go, and instead of getting his passport back, he would buy heroin. He began to scream at me, accusing me for not believing him. I offered to go with him so that we could get his passport back together, but he refused.”

In the end Yegorov decided to get his passport back by force and went to the drug dealers on General Simonyak Street all alone. However, it was impossible for him to stand up against four men. He was severely beaten at an apartment complex, and rolled down the stairs from the seventh to the third floor. And then Aleks, unable to bear the pain, jumped out through a window. The scum then threw the passport at his dead body. It happened on March 2, 2002.

Aleksei Yegorov was buried on International Women's Day at the Southern Cemetery of St. Petersburg. There were practically no people from the hockey world attending his funeral. Relatives did not want to listen to the hypocritical words of those who turned away from Aleksei when he needed them most.

The best thing that the St. Petersburg hockey player left behind is his ten-year-old son. Nikita wants to play hockey, and, according to Sokolov, he is a prospect.

“I and Maksim Sushinsky periodically donate money to Antonina Viktorovna, because Aleksei did not leave any savings, only debts. But I would like this family to be remembered and helped by all the people who knew Aleksei,” Sokolov says.

 

[Fantomas]

The 1990s were brutal. Many people died because of widespread privatization and austerity policies.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Vladimir Krutov who died in 2012 was very said.

He used to drink at the same bar I did in vancouver. He was a mess

 

[Kshahdoo]

Viktor Tikhonov, who was on bad terms with Makarov, considered Fetisov jr as Makarov's replacement. Sergei didn't think, the kid was going to be as good as him, though.

 

[Sanf]

Yeah I remember reading article about the early 70´s SKA. I believe you have the players listed, but IIRC more than ten players had died under 50. That´s tragic.

According to eliteprospects there is only 7 surviving members of 25 players that played on that team in 1973-1974. To compare only 4 of the Stanley Cup winners from that season has died. Yeah the very late 80´s and 90´s were brutal.

 

[Jumptheshark]

When talking about Russian hockey in the 60s and 70s we need to talk about politics. Which can be bad. All the players were in the army and there for fell under military law. There was very little they could do.

A book came out many years ago that gave great insight into the abuse the players were forced to put up with and the punishment given to them. There was a reason why so many had drink and drug problems.

 

[Filthy Dangles]

So many deaths due to aviation accidents and car crashes. Russia seems to be atop the world in aviation accidents. I would assume there's some politics involved in that and a very de-regulated industry of maintaining aircrafts and what not.

 

[Pasha71]

1994 - Viktors Hatuļevs (Khatulev) [1955-1994] – He was a two time world junior champion and the first ever NHL-drafted Soviet player. This Latvian player had been in trouble several times and got suspended for five years in both 1975 and 1979 both times the suspensions were lifted. However a third incident saw him getting banned from hockey for life in 1981.

I used to have a theory that he was banned because he might have expressed a desire to actually go to the NHL after being drafted, which was obviously a big no-no in the USSR. However, that might not be the case, because at one point, he was allowed to go to a North American tour with Soviet Wings team in late 70's -- so the authorities weren't afraid that he'd defect.

 

[Staniowski]

I remember watching Igor Vyazmikin at the 1986 WJC in Hamilton. He was one of the Soviets' best forwards in the tournament, along with Kamensky and Semak.

Loved watching Sergei Kapustin.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

So many deaths due to aviation accidents and car crashes. Russia seems to be atop the world in aviation accidents. I would assume there's some politics involved in that and a very de-regulated industry of maintaining aircrafts and what not.

Yeah Aeroflot has by far the largest number of fatalities of any airliner in the world, and the numbers are probably underreported due to a lot of them happening during the Soviet era within Russia

 

[Zine]

When talking about Russian hockey in the 60s and 70s we need to talk about politics. Which can be bad. All the players were in the army and there for fell under military law. There was very little they could do.

A book came out many years ago that gave great insight into the abuse the players were forced to put up with and the punishment given to them. There was a reason why so many had drink and drug problems.

Hmm maybe. Moreover, outside of the 90s when the entire country (not just hockey players) went down the toilet, these player's substance abuse problems likely stemmed from their lack of life skills and coping mechanisms.
When one's sole purpose in life is to train rigidly as a hockey player, it leaves little room to experience and gain wisdom from anything else life has to offer.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Hmm maybe. Moreover, outside of the 90s when the entire country (not just hockey players) went down the toilet, these player's substance abuse problems likely stemmed from their lack of life skills and coping mechanisms.
When one's sole purpose in life is to train rigidly as a hockey player, it leaves little room to experience and gain wisdom from anything else life has to offer.

1980s and 1990s USA was not going down the toilet but the NFL, NBA, MLB had serious alcohol, steriods and recreational drug issues.

 

[Zine]

1980s and 1990s USA was not going down the toilet but the NFL, NBA, MLB had serious alcohol, steriods and recreational drug issues.

It's my understanding that inner city America was in the toilet in the 1980s/1990s; more so than usual. A cursory internet search shows that violent crime rates peaked in 1991, the crack epidemic was out of control and gang violence was at an apex; so much so ESPN felt the need in the mid-90s to broadcast a special on gang membership in college football. It should be of no surprise, for obvious reasons, the NHL wasn't effected by any of this.
Athletes are not immune to being products of their environment.

 

[Albatros]

Downtown Detroit has never been anything like the whole picture though, I think that was one of the key differences to Russia back then (or China today).

 

[Fantomas]

When talking about Russian hockey in the 60s and 70s we need to talk about politics. Which can be bad. All the players were in the army and there for fell under military law. There was very little they could do.

A book came out many years ago that gave great insight into the abuse the players were forced to put up with and the punishment given to them. There was a reason why so many had drink and drug problems.

I don't see all that many deaths until the 1990s. That is when things really came apart. I mean, people die and that will happen.

But the 1990s were unique. People died and not because of some "punishments they were given". Rather they died because the state system collapsed. People lost their life savings and social security was gone.

I remember it well. You could have pretty good savings stashed up, but by the 1990s the ruble was devalued and most folks wound up with nothing. It was devastating ("luckily" my family had little to begin with).

The 1990s deaths were not really about hockey. Millions died in Russia, of whom some were hockey players. It had little to nothing to with bad treatment by the state or the military in the 60s/70s.

 

[Canadiens1958]

It's my understanding that inner city America was in the toilet in the 1980s/1990s; more so than usual. A cursory internet search shows that violent crime rates peaked in 1991, the crack epidemic was out of control and gang violence was at an apex; so much so ESPN felt the need in the mid-90s to broadcast a special on gang membership in college football. It should be of no surprise, for obvious reasons, the NHL wasn't effected by any of this.
Athletes are not immune to being products of their environment.

NFL, Gene Lipscomb overdosed on heroin in 1963:

Gene Lipscomb - Wikipedia

Well before the era in question. Steriods were not an inner city problem in the USA. Football and sport factory issue going back to the 1960s.

The situation in the Soviet Union from RGOs list seems to be hockey centric once heart issues are removed. Soviet basketball and other sports were not impacted to the same extent.

 

[Albatros]

In Soviet basketball there also were much fewer Russian players involved, mostly it was the Lithuanians that did the heavy lifting.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I don't see all that many deaths until the 1990s. That is when things really came apart. I mean, people die and that will happen.

But the 1990s were unique. People died and not because of some "punishments they were given". Rather they died because the state system collapsed. People lost their life savings and social security was gone.

I remember it well. You could have pretty good savings stashed up, but by the 1990s the ruble was devalued and most folks wound up with nothing. It was devastating ("luckily" my family had little to begin with).

The 1990s deaths were not really about hockey. Millions died in Russia, of whom some were hockey players. It had little to nothing to with bad treatment by the state or the military in the 60s/70s.

how many players died from drinking problems? the list of russian players who died from drinking related issues is shocking

 

[Fantomas]

how many players died from drinking problems? the list of russian players who died from drinking related issues is shocking

Rates of alcoholism rose in the 1990s, consistent with the economic downturn, among all Russians. Including hockey players.

In the above list, there are only a few references to alcoholism-related deaths pre-1990s. Which isn't to say that alcohol wasn't a problem in the Soviet Union. But much less so.

 

[Gurglesons]

Rates of alcoholism rose in the 1990s, consistent with the economic downturn, among all Russians. Including hockey players.

In the above list, there are only a few references to alcoholism-related deaths pre-1990s. Which isn't to say that alcohol wasn't a problem in the Soviet Union. But much less so.

Isn’t it true that beer was just recently acknowledged as being alcoholic in Russia?