Victor Nechayev (born January 28, 1955) is a Russian former professional
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 ...
player who played three games for the
Los Angeles Kings in the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
. He was the first player from the
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 ...
to play in the NHL, as well as the first to score a goal.
A native of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, Nechayev met Cheryl Haigler, an American citizen, in Switzerland in 1976, while he was playing for the
Red Army team. They married in 1980 in
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. In April 1982, Nechayev was granted permission to join his wife in the United States.
In the
1982 NHL Entry Draft
The 1982 NHL Entry Draft was the 20th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 252 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1981 ...
, Nechayev was picked 132nd overall by the Kings. Unlike other Soviet players, Nechayev was able to join the team immediately, since he was already living in North America at the time he was drafted.
He scored his only NHL goal against 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 ...
on October 17, 1982.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nechayev, Victor
1955 births
Düsseldorfer EG players
HC Sibir Novosibirsk players
Living people
Los Angeles Kings draft picks
Los Angeles Kings players
New Haven Nighthawks players
People from Belogorsk, Amur Oblast
Saginaw Gears players
SKA Saint Petersburg players
Soviet ice hockey forwards
Sportspeople from Amur Oblast