Valeri Ivanovich Vasiliev (russian: Валерий Иванович Васильев; August 3, 1949 – April 19, 2012) was a Soviet and Russian

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 hock ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

, who competed for the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. An eight-time Soviet all-star, Vasiliev was captain of the national team, for which he played 13 years. Born in Gorky,

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, he played for

HC Dynamo Moscow HC Dynamo Moscow () is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Moscow. It is a member of the Tarasov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League. Dynamo has won the Gagarin Cup twice, in 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons, and have won th ...

. Vasiliev played on nine Soviet gold medal teams at the

IIHF World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

. He was named the tournament's best defenceman in 1973, 1977, and 1979 and was a five-time all-star. He was on the gold medal team at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

Winter Olympics, as well as at the

1981 Canada Cup The 1981 Labatt Canada Cup was the second best-on-best ice hockey world championship and involved the world's top six hockey nations. Tournament games were held in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. The Soviet Union national ice hockey team ...

, where he captained the winning team. He also played in the 1972 Summit Series,

1976 Canada Cup The 1976 Canada Cup was an international ice hockey tournament held September 2 to 15, 1976, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Quebec City in Canada as well as in Philadelphia, in the United States. It was the first of five Canada Cup to ...

, and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

Winter Olympics. He coined the phrase "kiss the ice" after winning in

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Europe ...

. In 1978 Vasiliev was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

. Vasiliev, who had won the 1978 world championship not long after he had suffered a heart attack, died from heart failure in 2012.

Career statistics

Regular season

International

References

External links

*
Valery Vasiliev at CCCP International

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasiliev, Valeri 1949 births 2012 deaths Dynamo sports society athletes HC Dynamo Moscow players Ice hockey players at the 1972 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1976 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic ice hockey players of the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Sportspeople from Nizhny Novgorod Soviet expatriate ice hockey players Soviet ice hockey defencemen Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod players Újpesti TE (ice hockey) players Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics Russian ice hockey defencemen Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery