The Kharlamov Trophy is an

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 ...

award given to the best

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 ...

n player of the previous season. The current winner, for the 2018–19 season is

Nikita Kucherov Nikita Igorevich Kucherov (; born 17 June 1993) is a Russian professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL). Regarded as one of the best players in the world, Kucherov ...

History

The Trophy was established by

Sovetsky Sport ''Sovetsky Sport'' (; English: Soviet Sports) is a Russian national daily sports newspaper. Until 19 March 1946 the newspaper was called ''Red Sports'' (Russian: Красный спорт), it was not printed between 1928 and 1932. History Fo ...

in 2002, and is named after the legendary

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

Valeri Kharlamov Valeri Borisovich Kharlamov (, ; 14 January 1948 – 27 August 1981) was a Russian ice hockey forward who played for CSKA Moscow in the Soviet League from 1967 until his death in 1981. Kharlamov was a speedy, intelligent, skilled and domina ...

. Presentation of the award and the ceremony are held by

every summer in Moscow.

2002–2015: Best Russian Player in the NHL

Between 2002 and 2015 only players from the

NHL 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 ...

were eligible for the award. Voting took place at the conclusion of each season. Every Russian player, who'd played at least one game in the NHL during that season, would be allowed to name his top 3 candidates in a 1st-2nd-3rd format. Players could not vote for themselves. The award was a ''de facto,'' Best Russian NHL player award.

2016–present: Best Russian Player in the World

Starting with the 2016 award, the voting participation as well as eligibility rules were greatly modified. Eligibility was expanded, to any Russian player from 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 ...

or the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; ) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs based in Russia (20), Belarus (1), Kazakhstan (1), and China (1) for a total of 23 clubs. It was considered in ...

. As the KHL is a predominantly Russian league, the number of potential contenders for the award is now in the hundreds. With the number of candidates heavily increased, the voting process was revamped as well. With the 2016 award onward, a shortlist of the 20 best players from the NHL and KHL is compiled. It is then voted on by a selection committee composed of five groups of experts, each consisting of 13 individuals, plus the past award winners.

Voting membership

# Committee of the Russian Hall of Fame # Russian hockey veterans/legends # Group of KHL general managers # Russian hockey press/writers # Television commentators # Past winners of the award

List of winners

References