Igor Aleksandrovich Kravchuk (; born September 13, 1966) is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

former

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 ...

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 l ...

, who spent several seasons in the Soviet League and then in 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 ...

and also competed internationally for the

Soviet Union 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 ...

, Unified Team, and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Playing career

Kravchuk started his NHL career in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

with the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

, who drafted him 71st overall in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. Kravchuk scored in his first NHL game. He would also spend time with the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. The Senators compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Di ...

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The ...

and

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team initially played it ...

. In all, Kravchuk played in 699 regular season games, scoring 64 goals and 210 assists for 274 points, collecting 251 penalty minutes. He also played in 51 playoff games, scoring 6 goals and 15 assists for 21 points, collecting 18 penalty minutes. Kravchuk was also a member of the Unified Team that won the gold medal at the

1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile '92''), were a winter multi-sport event held from 8 to 23 February 1992 in and aroun ...

. Two days after his 21st birthday Kravchuk was the lone defenceman facing a 3 on 1 in the final game of the 1987 Canada Cup.

Mario Lemieux Mario Lemieux (; ; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played parts of 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984–85 NHL season, 1984 and 2005–06 NHL se ...

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

, and Larry Murphy skated in on goaltender Sergei Mylnikov and Lemieux scored the game and series winning goal at 18:34 of the third period. In addition to his 1992 Olympic gold medal, Kravchuk also won gold with the Soviet team in 1988, and two medals (silver in 1998 and bronze in 2002) with Russia. He also won numerous world championship medals at all levels. Kravchuk has two sons; Ilya and Christopher.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kravchuk, Igor 1966 births Living people Calgary Flames players Chicago Blackhawks draft picks Chicago Blackhawks players Edmonton Oilers players Florida Panthers players HC CSKA Moscow players Ice hockey players at the 1988 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1992 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1998 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics National Hockey League All-Stars Olympic bronze medalists for Russia Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team Olympic ice hockey players for Russia Olympic ice hockey players for the Soviet Union Olympic ice hockey players for the Unified Team Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Russia Ottawa Senators players Russian ice hockey defencemen St. Louis Blues players Salavat Yulaev Ufa players Soviet ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Ufa