Earlier this month, the Hockey Hall of Fame inducted its 2024 class of honorees, including former Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk. The prodigiously-skilled Datsyuk, known as “the Magic Man” for his puck-handling abilities, became the tenth Russian or Soviet player to be named to the Hall of Fame, and the eleventh Russian or Soviet overall (famed coach Anatoly Tarasov is a Hall of Fame inductee in the Builders category). That may not sound like a large number of Hall-of-Famers, given the tremendous history of Russian hockey, and indeed it is not. So I would like to take a couple of articles here to talk about some of the Russian and Soviet players whose names – in my opinion only, of course – should be under consideration by the Hall of Fame’s selection committee when it comes time to pick the 2025 class. We will start with four individuals this time, and look at five (including a Builder) next time out.
***********
Alexander Mogilny with the Sabres in the early 1990s. (Image Source)
It is hardly a hot take to say that Alexander Mogilny should be in the Hall of Fame; the only controversy is that he isn’t there already. Mogilny was a point-per-game forward over 1000 games in the NHL, with most of those games coming in the dark depths of the “Dead Puck Era.” Mogilny’s 76 goals for the Buffalo Sabres in 1992-93 have him tied with Phil Esposito and Teemu Selanne for the fifth-best NHL goal-scoring season of all time; only Wayne Gretzky (twice), Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull have bettered that mark. He and Pavel Bure were the superstar standard-bearers of the first generation of Russian players to play the bulk of their careers in North America, and it is a real puzzle why the Hall of Fame’s selection committee has not yet seen fit to give Mogilny a call.
Vladimir Krutov scores against Canada at the 1982 World Championship. (Image Source)
If Mogilny is an obvious candidate for induction to the Hall of Fame, the same cannot be said of the late Vladimir Krutov. Or at least, his induction into the Hall of Fame might raise some eyebrows among those who remember only the fat, unhappy, homesick, shell of a player who laboured through one miserable season with the Vancouver Canucks in 1989-90. But to focus on Krutov’s brief and unsuccessful NHL career is to do a disservice to how good a forward he was during the 1980s, as a member of famed KLM line at CSKA Moscow and the Soviet National Team. Playing alongside Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, both of whom are already in the Hall, Krutov was the leading goalscorer in the Soviet Championship three times. He also won five World Championship gold medals, two Olympic golds, and the 1981 Canada Cup. Of particular note on his international resume is the 1987 World Championship, when he scored 11 goals in 10 games, although the Soviets on that occasion could only come away with a silver medal. Anyway – draw the veil over that season in Vancouver; Krutov in his prime was a spectacular player, and easily worthy of Hall of Fame consideration.
Anatoly Firsov. (Image Source)
It may be one of the great international hockey what-if questions: what if the Soviet national team had brought forward Anatoly Firsov to the Summit Series in 1972? He was judged too old in the fall of ‘72, at the age of only 31, and we must wonder whether Hall of Fame coach Anatoly Tarasov would have left Firsov off the roster had he still been in charge of the national team. In any case, Firsov was a gold medalist at either the Olympics or the World Championship for an incredible nine consecutive seasons between 1964 and 1972, and he led four of those tournaments in both goals and points. His finest hour may have come at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, and Firsov led all scorers with 16 points. His 12 goals (in seven games) at that event were twice as many as anybody else scored, and included two tallies in the USSR’s gold-medal-clinching 5-0 win over Canada. And when not starring on the international stage, he was busy being named MVP of the Soviet Championship three times. Firsov’s absence from the Summit Series means that many North American fans may not know who he was, but he was arguably the greatest Russian player prior to the generation that included Valery Kharlamov, Alexander Yakushev, and Vladislav Tretiak, all of whom have plaques at the Hall of Fame. Firsov deserves one too.
Viktor Konovalenko playing for Torpedo Gorky in the early 1960s. (Image Source)
While Firsov was providing the scoring for the Soviet national team through most of the decade of the 1960s, the goaltending was mostly in the hands of Viktor Konovalenko, another player whose name may be unfamiliar to North American fans but whose play should earn him some consideration from the Hall of Fame. The most amazing thing about Konovalenko – and in this he is almost alone in the annals of hockey in the USSR – is that he was a longtime mainstay of the national team without ever playing his club hockey for one of the giant Moscow sides (CSKA, Spartak, Dynamo, or Krylya Sovetov). Instead, he played his entire Soviet Championship career for his hometown team, Torpedo Gorky (now Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod). And in 1960-61, Torpedo finished second in the Championship, behind only mighty CSKA Moscow, and became the first team from outside the capital to finish in the top three. And Konovalenko’s international career was distinguished as well – he won six World Championship and two Olympic gold medals before ceding the USSR’s starting-goalie job to his young protégé, Vladislav Tretiak, in the early 1970s. To be sure, Konovalenko would be a bold choice for the Hall of Fame, but he would not at all be an undeserving one.
Next time, more Russian and Soviet players who should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame… in my humble opinion, of course!
Patrick Conway is a writer based in Peterborough, Ontario. He previously covered Russian hockey at the Conway’s Russian Hockey blog, and he still keeps an eye on goings-on in that area.
Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Then remember to tune in each week to get all the latest news in the world of hockey. For more hockey news, different takes or if you want to chat about anything hockey give us a follow on YouTube, at https://twoguysandhockeytalk.com/ for all things hockey.
