Viktors Hatuļevs (, ''Viktor Viktorovich Khatulev''; 17 February 1955 – 7 October 1994) was a Soviet Latvian

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenseman 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 l ...

and

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

who played for

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga () is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It most recently was a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LBTU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a D ...

in the Soviet Hockey League. He was the first

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

player drafted into the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) Amateur Draft but never played for a North American team.

Playing career

Hatuļevs played for

in the 1970s. In Latvia, then a part of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, ice hockey was the number one sport. Riga's Dinamo, under Viktor Tikhonov, rocketed into the big league and competed with

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

teams as an equal. Hatuļevs played in the first World Junior Championships in Leningrad and the second World Junior Championships in Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba. The two unofficial tournaments helped set the stage for the first official World Juniors in 1977. He was the best player in the World Youth Hockey Championship in 1974/75, and in 1973/74 he was the best goal scorer. At the age of 20, Hatuļevs became the first Soviet-born and trained player ever drafted by an NHL team. The

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

made the historic selection at the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft in the ninth round, 160th overall, even though there was no chance of getting him out of the USSR. Hatuļevs was also selected by the

Cleveland Crusaders The Cleveland Crusaders were a professional ice hockey team from Cleveland. They played in the World Hockey Association from 1972–73 WHA season, 1972 to 1975–76 WHA season, 1976. Their home ice was the Cleveland Arena from 1972 to 1974, and t ...

in the ninth round, 116th overall, of the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft. But instead of being allowed to play in North America, he was banned for life in 1979 for hitting a referee during a fight with another player, though the ban was later lifted and he returned to hockey after one year. Hatuļevs himself learned that he had been drafted only in 1978. He also played 6 games for Team USSR in 1977-1978 in the Izvestia Cup in Moscow. He turned down an offer to move to Moscow and play for the USSR Central Red Army hockey club, instead preferring to remain in his native

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

. (It should be mentioned that in Soviet times most of the best players were transferred to the Central Red Army club.) In 1981 Hatuļevs was banned for life from the Soviet Hockey League.

Banishment and death

After he was banned for life from the Soviet Hockey League in 1981, Hatuļevs became a taxi driver. He later worked in a warehouse and struggled with alcoholism. Hatuļevs was found dead in the street in mysterious circumstances at age 39 on 7 October 1994.

Awards

*World Junior Championships — Gold (

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

) (Unofficial Tournament) *World Junior Championships Points Leader (1974) *World Junior Championships — Gold (

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

) (Unofficial Tournament) *World Junior Championships Best Forward (1975) *World Junior Championships All-Star First Team (1975)

Career statistics

''GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes;''

Super Series statistics

The Super Series were exhibition games between an NHL team and Soviet teams (usually a club from the

Soviet Championship League The Soviet Hockey Championship () was the highest level ice hockey league in the Soviet Union, running from 1946 to 1992. Before the 1940s the game of ice hockey was not cultivated in Russia, instead the more popular form of hockey was bandy. Foll ...

). Khatulev competed in one such series.

External links

*
Victor Khatulev - Player Profile on Arthur Chidlovski site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatulevs, Viktors 1955 births 1994 deaths Cleveland Crusaders draft picks Dinamo Riga players Ice hockey people from Riga Latvian ice hockey left wingers Philadelphia Flyers draft picks Soviet ice hockey defencemen