On November 19,1999,
the seventh Canadian export made his debut in the Russian hockey championships. The name
of the forward is Shawn Allard. He put on the jersey of SKA Khabarovsk.
It seems this year will become an absolutely record-breaking one in the
history of Soviet and Russian hockey championships. The first export in Russia, Mike
Meller, appeared seven years ago. He played a season for the famed Dynamo Moscow. Mike
Nemirovsky became the first export who merged into post-Soviet hockey, playing for Spartak
Moscow for two seasons running. Craig Shepard was playing for Dynamo Moscow and won the
championship as did Meller. Both of them didn't get the gold because they didn't play in
enough games to qualify. There was also a representative of Yugoslavia playing for CSKA
which was governed by Tikhonov.
Summing up the stats of the four exports for three seasons running one
wouldn’t be greatly impressed by it. 41 games played, 2 goals and even assists. For
the next two seasons there were any exports in Russia.
In the 1997-98 season SKA St. Petersburg acquired two Swedish players,
Loakim Mussaka and Raine Raukhala, but only one of them managed to get accustomed to
Russian hockey life. It was Ioakim Mussaka who played all the games of the championship
except two. The next year he left St.Petersburg.
This year at the start of the season, two Swedes visited the training
camp of HC CSKA governed by Tikhonov. Goaltender Mike Turnquist and defensemen Rikhard
Ekbum. Unfortunately, they turned out to be unsuitable for the team. As for Canadians,
many of them are appropriate for Russian clubs.
What distinguishes the exports from Russian players is that they are
more reliable and possess an inborn professional attitude to the play. This concerns
especially defensemen and goaltenders.
So it gives cause for hope to see more good exports in the Russian
teams.
Stats on September 8- November 5,1999.
