Many players are famous for their powerful throws-"clicks" in the North American NHL (National Hockey League) and the Russian-European KHL (Continental Hockey League). But to identify the owner of the strongest throw, only a special device and competitions in the All-Star Games, held once a year, allow. The current record holders, each of whom is proudly called "world", are the Slovak Zdeno Hara and the Russian Alexander Ryazantsev.
"Star" competition
All-star matches in their current format appeared in 1948. The birthplace of such show fights was North America, the NHL. Since 1990, the game of the national teams of two conferences of the National Hockey League, "West" and "East", began to be diluted with various individual competitions. Including the strongest throw, the champion of which is determined by a special device. The first winner was Al Iafraty, an American defender from the Toronto Maple Leafs of Canada, who launched the puck at 96 mph (154.49 kilometers per hour).
Three years later, Ayefrati set a record that lasted 17 years - 169, 3 km / h. This result was improved only by the current sole leader - the captain of the "Boston Bruins" defender Zdeno Hara, who won five competitions in a row (2010-2014). The latest achievement of the Slovakian defender with a height of 206 centimeters was a throw in the 2012 All-Star Game. The result of Khara, shown by the device - 175, 1 km / h - was recognized by the NHL as a new world record.
The first “star weekend” of the Kontinental Hockey League took place in 2009 on Red Square in Moscow. And the league's debut competition of masters of the most powerful click took place next season in Minsk. It ended with the victory of the defender of the Moscow "Dynamo" and the Czech national team Karel Rakhunek, who threw the puck at a speed of 165, 28 km / h. A year and a half later, Rakhunek died in a plane crash along with other players from Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, who were flying to the game just in Minsk …
High-speed "motorist"
For the last four seasons, the leaders of the KHL in terms of throwing power are two Russian defenders - Denis Kulyash and Alexander Ryazantsev. Formally, this correspondence rivalry is still a draw, since Kulyash won the ice competitions in 2011 and 2014, and Ryazantsev excelled in 2012 and 2013. But the record shot, which, despite protests from the NHL, is also considered a world achievement, belongs to the latter.
It happened in the All-Star Game, which took place on January 21, 2012, when a player of the Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist in an additional attempt threw the puck at a speed of 183.67 km / h. Alexander Ryazantsev, who had already moved to Severstal in Cherepovets by that time, won the victory next season with a much lower result. The device recorded the flight speed of his puck at around 170.67 km / h. Throws of Denis Kulyash, who played, respectively, for Kazan "Ak Bars" and Omsk "Avangard": 2011 - 177, 58 km / h; 2014 - 162, 2.
According to experts, the fact that defenders are the owners of the most powerful shots in the history of world hockey cannot be called an accident. Being usually behind the main attacking line and often, unlike forwards, without receiving active physical resistance, Kulyash, Ryazantsev and others have the opportunity to calmly choose a position and aim. Then they hit the puck as hard as possible, with a mighty swing, trying not to touch the ice.
However, historians and statisticians of North American hockey and the NHL argue that the strongest shot in the world was made by the striker many years ago. We are talking about the legendary striker "Chicago Black Hawks" and the Canadian national team of the 1960s and 70s Bobby Halle, who somehow sent the puck into the goal at a speed of 190.4 km / h. But since this did not happen in the All-Star Game, it is not a fixed record either. And Hull himself did not insist on another title either.
Muscovite Ryazantsev
Unlike Canadian Bobby Hull, who played 1182 matches in the NHL, Alexander Ryazantsev, who was born on March 15, 1980 in Moscow, did not spend a single minute in the strongest league in the world. Although he was once considered one of the most promising young defenders of Russian and world hockey, in 1998 he was selected in the Colorado Avalanche draft. After that, trying to get into the main team of Colorado, he played for several seasons in the North American teams of the lower leagues.
The titles of the first "stick" of Ryazantsev's planet are also worthy of respect, such as the bronze medalist of the 2005 World Championship in the Russian national team, the winner of the 1999 World Youth Championship, the best defender and the silver medalist of the same 2000 tournament, the 2006 European Champions Cup winner. Having started his playing career in 1996 in Moscow "Spartak", Alexander later played in 13 more clubs, ten of which were Russian. His last team is Neftekhimik from Nizhnekamsk.
