Vladimir Malakhov

[tombombadil]

This name came up in the fights section. Guy never lost a fight, and put up decent offensive numbers with the Habs and Islanders.

I took a break from hockey-watching in the mid-90's (his Hab years), and never bothered to tune into a Rangers game when he was there.

What was he like defensively? Did he hit? Anything else, please share?

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[Bear of Bad News]

He was a great two-way defenseman when he was at his best. But you never knew when that was going to be.

I think it's unfair to say that players just didn't feel like playing sometimes, but his biggest problems were between his ears.

 

[gifted88]

Not sure it's entirely fair, but every time I see his name or hear it I instantly think of his "knee injury".

http://www.canoe.ca/HockeyMontrealArchive/feb11_can.html

 

[Rhiessan71]

He was an enigma. Talented as all hell, big and strong like you wouldn't believe. Reporters with the Habs back in the day used to talk about him all the time, how he was an absolute monster. He looked like a body builder about to compete, toned muscle on top of muscle, he had legs the size of actual tree trunks.

As Taco alluded to already, he really didn't have an abundance of hockey sense though and as long as you didn't piss him off, you could count of him to play pretty soft for a big guy.
I can't remember exactly who it was and I can't find a video of it but some goon decided he was going to piss Vlad off one night. Odelein was trying to step in to protect him but Vlad kinda just threw Odie out of the way and beat the living snot out of the goon.

Here's a vid I did find of him. You can definitely see how freakishly strong the guy was though the way he moves grabs his own player out of the way and throws Barnaby around like a rag doll heh
Not very good quality unfortunately...

 

[tombombadil]

thanks for the replies. That's a good video.

 

[tombombadil]

He was an enigma. Talented as all hell, big and strong like you wouldn't believe. Reporters with the Habs back in the day used to talk about him all the time, how he was an absolute monster. He looked like a body builder about to compete, toned muscle on top of muscle, he had legs the size of actual tree trunks.

As Taco alluded to already, he really didn't have an abundance of hockey sense though and as long as you didn't piss him off, you could count of him to play pretty soft for a big guy.
I can't remember exactly who it was and I can't find a video of it but some goon decided he was going to piss Vlad off one night. Odelein was trying to step in to protect him but Vlad kinda just threw Odie out of the way and beat the living snot out of the goon.

Here's a vid I did find of him. You can definitely see how freakishly strong the guy was though the way he moves grabs his own player out of the way and throws Barnaby around like a rag doll heh
Not very good quality unfortunately...

I'm reading several accounts of a video-less fight where people at the game say he dropped Kocur. Was that the goon you were thinking of?

 

[Rhiessan71]

I'm reading several accounts of a video-less fight where people at the game say he dropped Kocur. Was that the goon you were thinking of?

The first name I thought of was Churla but it could have been Kocur.
Suffice to say, people knew not to poke the bear with Malakhov after that heh.


Another tidbit I just remembered was Red Fisher's nickname for him, "Malakhov the Magician". Due to how he would look like one of the best D-men in the League one week and completely disappear the next

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

As happens a lot with Russian players (Fedorov, Kovalev), he had that media-fed mystique about him and how good he 'could' be, if he just put it altogether. Like those other cases, the media of the day sometimes overrated his actual talent (he did not have Norris-calibre skills, no matter what) but he was still a pretty good defenseman.

As was mentioned, he was big, strong, great skater, and had a great point shot. One of those defenseman who had all the tools, was serviceable, but seemed like he could be a little better than he was.

I also recall a controversy in Montreal once when he was photographed skiing when he was on injured reserve. I think that may have been what precipitated the trade to New Jersey.

Actually, looking at his history on hockeyreference.com, he was involved in a few interesting trades:

Traded to Montreal by NY Islanders with Pierre Turgeon for Kirk Muller, Mathieu Schneider and Craig Darby, April 5, 1995- Obviously a big trade with big names going both ways.

Traded to New Jersey by Montreal for Sheldon Souray, Josh DeWolf and New Jersey's 2nd round choice- Brought Sheldon Souray to Montreal

Traded to Philadelphia by NY Rangers for Rick Kozak and Philadelphia's 2nd round choice (later traded to Atlanta - Atlanta selected Ondrej Pavelec)

Traded to San Jose by New Jersey with New Jersey's 1st round choice (later traded to St. Louis - St. Louis selected David Perron) in 2007 Entry Draft for Alexander Korolyuk and Jim Fahey