The Russian hockey school is famous all over the world for its outstanding world-class masters. Russian hockey players are role models for many novice hockey players both in our country and far beyond its borders.
In Russian hockey, there is clearly a continuity of generations. The outstanding masters of the Soviet Union were replaced by the skilled Larionov, Fedorov, Bure and others. Years later, Kovalchuk and Datsyuk shone on hockey rinks, and a few years later the world recognized Malkin and Ovechkin. It is especially gratifying to realize that new world-class stars are gradually growing in Russian hockey, some of whom are already on a large scale in the NHL. These players include twenty-one-year-old Moscow-born Nikita Kucherov.
Back in 2011, Nikita Kucherov was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning club. However, the right-wing striker began playing overseas only in 2012 in one of the Quebec leagues. The first season in the NHL for Nikita started in 2013. Kucherov played 52 games as part of the "lightning", gaining only 18 points on the goal + pass system (9 + 9). After the first season, Nikita stopped getting into the base of the NHL club and played in another overseas league.
In the current 2014-2015 season, Nikita Kucherov made his way to Tampa again. His appearance in one of the favorites of the East was not an accident, as evidenced by the statistics of the striker. This season Kucherov has become one of the leaders of the club, has become an integral part of the entire team. Kucherov has played all 48 matches of the regular season so far, spending an average of about 16 minutes on the court. This figure is very impressive for a young hockey player.
Nikita Kucherov's statistics are just as great. In 48 games, he scored 43 points (17 goals, 26 assists). At the time of the equator of the NHL regulatory season, Kucherov with such indicators shares the third place in the scorer race among Russian NHL sheep with Alexander Ovechkin himself (Ovi also has 43 points). Only Evgeny Malkin and Vladimir Tarasenko have scored more points at the moment in the season.
Such performance Kucherov led to the fact that the young Muscovite began to appear in the leading links of the “lightning”, often Nikita plays in the majority. The young hockey player's performance is especially striking when you consider the presence of another outstanding sniper in Tampa - Stephen Stamkos. It is gratifying to realize that with such an outstanding Canadian forward, the Russian young hockey player not only did not get lost, but also began to attract attention from the press, specialists and fans.
It is no coincidence that the head coach of Tampa predicts a great hockey future for Kucherov. Many experts already admire the talent of the young player. All this gives the Russian hockey fan every right to hope that Nikita Kucherov will soon become a real world-class hockey star.
