Valery Kharlamov

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Position Forward
Shot Left
Pro Clubs CSKA Moscow
Nationality Flag of Russia Russia
Born January 14, 1948,
Moscow, RUS
Died August 27, 1981,
St. Petersburg, RUS
Pro Career 1967 – 1981
Hall of Fame 2005

Valery Borisovich Kharlamov (Russian: Валерий Борисович Харламов; January 14, 1948 - August 27, 1981) was a star ice hockey player from the Soviet Union. He is considered by many to have been the greatest player to have been produced by the Soviet Union.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Born in Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia), Valery Kharlamov, despite being relatively small in size, is regarded by many as one of the greatest masters of the game. He combined speed, rapid acceleration, and superb stick handling ability together with creative and unpredictable moves that kept the opposition perpetually off balance.

Kharlamov began systematic training to play hockey as a boy, and at the age of twenty he was invited to the Soviet Union's national team to compete on the world stage. In 1971, playing in the Soviet Union Elite League for CSKA Moscow, his goal scoring earned him his first "Best Sniper Award" and he was voted to the national All Star team. The following year, Kharlamov gained international recognition when he led his national team to the Gold Medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics. He capped off the remarkable season by winning the scoring competition and being given the first of his two consecutive Soviet Union MVP Awards.

However, it was during the 1972 Summit Series that Valery Kharlamov, along with teammate Vladislav Tretiak, became the star of the hockey world. At Montreal, Canada, in game one of the eight game international series against the best professionals from Canada, a virtually unknown Valery Kharlamov astonished Canadian fans and their star hockey team with his explosive speed, agility, and goal scoring prowess. Kharlamov was voted the game's MVP after he scored two goals while leading his team to an upset victory that shook the foundations of North American professional ice hockey to the core. In game six of the fiercely fought series, Canada's Bobby Clarke, of the Philadelphia Flyers, slashed Kharlamov on his left ankle. Although he bravely continued in game six, he was unable to play in game seven and was ineffective in the final game. Some observers believe that this injury was a crucial incident which turned the tide of the series in Canada's favour. Some believe that constant slashing of Kharlamov was retaliation for the goals that he scored. He was the most penalized Soviet player in the series, his minutes exceeded only by Clarke and J.P. Parise, who had an altercation with an official. Years later, John Ferguson, Sr., an assistant coach with Team Canada, was quoted as saying "I called Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.' I didn't think twice about it. It was Us versus Them. And Kharlamov was killing us. I mean, somebody had to do it."

By the end of the series, National Hockey League scouts were drooling at the thought of recruiting Kharlamov, but during this Cold War era, no Soviet Union player was allowed to leave the country. The respect for Kharlamov's skills was so high that at the time many Canadian children named him as one of their favorite players, and in the Soviet Union he was a national hero and an inspiration for youngsters playing the game.

In 1973, playing with the Red Army team of the Soviet Union's premier league, Kharlamov remained a star and was a key part of the Soviet national team that won the World Championship for the next three years. At the 1976 Winter Olympics, he scored the game winning goal in the final game to earn his second Olympic gold medal. Later that spring, he was seriously injured in a car accident and for a time, his hockey career seemed in doubt. He was a part of the Soviet Union team that lost to the "Miracle on Ice" US team in the semi finals at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, but won the silver medal. While he recovered sufficiently to play top level hockey again, another automobile accident in 1981 took his life at the age of thirty-three. Valery Kharlamov is interred in the Kuntsevskoe Cemetery in Moscow.

In 1998, Valery Kharlamov was posthumously inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame.

In November 2005, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame along with Cam Neely and former Hockey Canada president Murray Costello.

[edit] Awards

Olympic medal record
Men's Ice Hockey
Gold 1972 Sapporo Team
Gold 1976 Innsbruck Team
Silver 1980 Lake Placid Team

Career Highlights - Personal:

  • National Awards:
    • MVP USSR League 1972, 1973
    • USSR All Stars 1971-1976, 1978
    • Scoring Champion (Goals) 1971
    • Scoring Champion (Points) 1972
  • International Awards:
    • Voted "Best Forward" at the 1976 World Championships
    • IIHF All Star : 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Anatoli Firsov		 Soviet MVP
1972, 1973		 Succeeded by:
Vladislav Tretiak
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