Aleksey Nikiforov (born 27 April 1957) is a Lithuanian
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
coach and former player for
Dinamo Riga.
He is the father of
Quad City Storm
The Quad City Storm is a professional minor league hockey team to begin play in the 2018–19 season as a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League. The team is based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa, with home games at the Vi ...
winger Vladimir Nikiforov.
He resides on
Long Island and coaches in
Hauppauge, New York
Hauppauge ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of Islip and Smithtown in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. The population was 20,882 at the time of the 2010 census.
Geography
Hauppauge is located at (40.818205, ...
.
Early life
Nikiforov was born in 1957 in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, Lithuania, to a military family. They later relocated to
Riga, Latvia,
and there he started playing ice hockey around the age of 7. Nikiforov's first ice hockey stick "consisted of two broken pieces his father scavenged from a local rink and screwed, then taped together."
His skates "were bought by his mother on the Soviet Union's black market."
During his time in Riga, Nikiforov played for
Dinamo Riga from the peewee age bracket up to the elite level. He eventually made the junior national team and played briefly at a professional level before recognizing that his future lay in coaching.
Coaching career
In 1980, Nikiforov moved back to Vilnius and took up a coaching position in the town of
Elektrėnai
Elektrėnai () is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Lithuania; since 2000 it has been the capital of the Elektrėnai Municipality. It is situated between the two largest cities in Lithuania – Vilnius and Kaunas.
History
Elektrėnai is one ...
.
During his time coaching in Lithuania, he was instrumental in the development of
Dainius Zubrus
Dainius Gintas Zubrus (born June 16, 1978) is a Lithuanian former professional ice hockey right winger and centre who played in the National Hockey League (NHL), the first Lithuanian to have played 1,000 games in the NHL. Drafted 15th overall in ...
and
Darius Kasparaitis
Darius Kasparaitis (russian: Дарюс Владович Каспарайтис, ''Daryus Vladovich Kasparaitis''; born October 16, 1972) is a Lithuanian-American former professional ice hockey defenceman. He mainly played in the National Hockey ...
, who would go on to play in the NHL.
In 1987, Nikiforov was invited to attend a coaching development program in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, which was led by ice hockey legend
Anatoly Tarasov
Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov (russian: Анато́лий Влади́мирович Тара́сов; 10 December 1918 – 23 June 1995) was a Russian ice hockey player and coach. Tarasov is considered "the father of Russian ice hockey" and e ...
.
By 1991, Nikiforov had immigrated to the United States, settling on Long Island with his wife, while his parents cared for his two young children in
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
.
He took construction work in Manhattan, until a short coaching stint with
Roger Neilson
Roger Paul Neilson, (June 16, 1934 – June 21, 2003) was a Canadian professional ice hockey coach, most notably in the NHL, where he served with eight teams in a checkered career. Known as Captain Video because of his technological contributi ...
of the
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...
,
after which he was offered a position at the Rinx, a large recreation complex on
Long Island in the town of
Hauppague, New York,
by
Gerry Hart, a former player for the
New York Islanders. He was initially employed as a handy man but eventually given the chance to run clinics for students on the ice each morning.
At the Rinx, Nikiforov coached a number of teams, including the PAL Jr. Islanders 16U AAA team and the
New York Bobcats
The New York Bobcats (also called New York Bobcats Royals) are a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier III junior ice hockey organization from Dix Hills, New York, at the Dix Hills Ice Arena. The team was most recently a member of the Eastern Hockey League ...
of the
Atlantic Junior Hockey League.
Nikiforov's work at PAL Ice Hockey included a stint as the skills and development coach for the organization. Nikiforov also runs ice hockey camp and clinics at the Rinx.
Although much of his time since the 1980s has been spent in the United States, Nikiforov has frequently returned to Lithuania,
and in 2017 and 2018 he was the head coach of the Lithuanian U18 National Team and the head coach of the U20 National Team in 2019.
Notable students
Over the years, Nikiforov has coached a number of notable ice hockey players:
References
External links
*
Coaching profileat Elite Prospects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikiforov, Aleksey
1957 births
Living people
Dinamo Riga players
Lithuanian ice hockey defencemen
People from Elektrėnai
Soviet ice hockey defencemen