SergeiMakarovStyle
Registered User
- Oct 12, 2011
- 119
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It was the greatest line ever, so why didnt they play on the same team and same line in the first season they joined NHL?
It was the greatest line ever, so why didnt they play on the same team and same line in the first season they joined NHL?
By the end of the Cold War when it became obvious some soviet players could come over to the NHL they'd be drafted by NHL teams mostly in later rounds. So they couldn't go to one team unless drafted by one team or traded. Larionov was for example drafted by the Canucks in 1985. He later played with Makarov for the Sharks after his rights were traded to the Sharks during his stint back in Europe.
Fetisov and Kasatonov played for the same team in NHL and in same line as in CSKA first year in NHL, so why couldnt Krutov-Larionov-Makarov play on the same line in another nhl team? One NHL team could trade all the three players?
By the end of the Cold War when it became obvious some soviet players could come over to the NHL they'd be drafted by NHL teams mostly in later rounds. So they couldn't go to one team unless drafted by one team or traded. Larionov was for example drafted by the Canucks in 1985. He later played with Makarov for the Sharks after his rights were traded to the Sharks during his stint back in Europe.
Larionov and Krutov played together in Vancouver immediately after leaving the USSR.
I used an example to show both the drafting and trading impact. In the end you have to put it that way: in North America maybe only one coach was aware of what soviet hockey was all about. They couldn't break through their NA philosophy of individual stars. Pretty much nobody would even have an idea to trade for a whole line of Russians. In NA they basically never understood what the worth of those players was, they just tried to pressure them into their system and got dissapointed with the result.
That is why I strongly hope the KHL will develop and more and more players will stay at home where nobody starts inventing weird stories about them just because they are Russians. And one day we will have our brand of hockey back instead of the useless copying every BS from abroad. Including the small rink.
As to your other thought, so many really talented and motivated Russian players somehow get jettisoned on the rocks in NA. A good case in point is Dmitri Orlov from Novokuznetsk. He was brought up to Washington for a couple of days this week, then immediately sent back down to the AHL. He is a great skater and puck handler, and he has a blistering shot. He should be in the NHL or the KHL, better the KHL in my view, rather than languishing away down in the minors. He should get to the KHL as soon as possible.