Former OHL students affected by the fall of Dinamo Moscow
You’ve no doubt seen the news sprinkled across newspapers, sports networks, and the web. They compare it to the fall of the Montreal Canadiens or the New York Yankees. Dynamo Moscow is no more. Established in 1946, the Dynamo was the dominant team in Russian hockey, winning 9 national titles and several international awards. The league does not rely on gate receipts to make money and is financed almost entirely by sponsors. Apparently, those companies that sponsored Dynamo no longer saw it as a good investment.
Some of the more recent stars produced by the Dynamo system are Alex Kovalev of the Senators, Alexei Yashin who had an underperforming NHL career and currently plays in the KHL, and of course Alex Ovechkin.
Three Ontario Hockey League graduates played with the team this season and will be looking for a new home next season. Alexei Semenov played three seasons in the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves from 1998-99 to 2000-01. In his final season with the Wolves, he was honored with the Max Kaminsky Trophy for best defenseman in the league. Selected in the second round of the Edmonton Oilers in the 1999 draft, Semenov would go on to a modest 211-game NHL career with the Oilers, Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks. Alexei was in his first season in the KHL this year after leaving the NHL.
Vitaly Yachmenev played for the OHL’s North Bay Centennials for two seasons, 1993-94 and 1994-95. Yachmenev received the Emms Family Award in 1993-94 as the best freshman player in the OHL. His 61 goals and 113 points, as well as an additional 32 playoff points, helped the Centennials win their only J. Ross Robertson Cup and the Hamilton Spectator Trophy. His second season was not bad either with 53 goals and 105 points.
Yachmenev played in 487 NHL games between 1995-95 and 2002-03 with the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators. He returned to Russia for the 2003-04 season and has played in his homeland ever since. This was Vitaly’s third season with the Dynamo.
It would take a very loyal fan of Sarnia Sting to remember the third player. Andrei Plekhanov played just two OHL games during the 2004-05 season, both with Sarnia. A third-round pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2004, Plekhanov has wandered from Russia to the North American minors and back to Russia. This was his first season with the Dynamo.
It’s sad to see a great team like this go and it’s hard not to wonder what, if any, consequences it will have for the KHL as a whole. What this does is reduce the CF Lesque league to just two teams called Dynamo (Dinamo), which may help clear up some confusion for North Americans trying to follow the Russian Super League.