Greatest players ever from lesser former soviet hockey republics?

[TheNomad]

For Kyrgyzstan, the most accomplished player that I found is Pavel Sazonov who played 173 games in the Russian 2nd division, but he's from Nizhnekamsk and clearly an ethnic Russian.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=170463

As far as an actual Kyrgyz player from the Soviet era, there is Anvarbek Omorkanov, but he falls in the same category as Jeiranashvili that I was scolded for .

http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=186214

 

[jekoh]

He played in the Georgian League in 2012-13. What he did before then, who knows?

I'm sure he played in an elite league for years and simply went unreported

He most probably never played in any league of note. If he did, it would reported in the links that you provided.

He's certainly old enough to have played for the Soviet Union being 44 years old and presumably had some training in a Soviet hockey school.

He's old enough but was never even remotely good enough.

And he presumably had some training in a Soviet hockey school... but then so too did tens of thousands of other players. No matter which way you slice it he does not fit the bill.

 

[TheNomad]

Fair enough, but I was merely answering the question of who could be considered the greatest player from a particular republic. Since he's scored their only goal in the IIHF and led their league in scoring, while also being a Soviet trained player...I would go with him. Although, I did put a question mark in the original post as I'm not expert on Georgian hockey players. In other categories, yes he doesn't fit the bill, and I think it's safe to say no Georgian, Turkmenistani, etc. truly qualify as hockey just isn't developed in those countries.