Valeri Ivanovich Vasiliev (; 3 August 1949 – 19 April 2012) was a Soviet

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 played for

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...

. Internationally he competed 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 ...

. An eight-time Soviet all-star, Vasiliev was captain of the national team, for which he played 13 years, and was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. He was born in Gorky,

Playing career

Vasiliev played on nine Soviet gold medal teams at the IIHF World Championships. 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, ...

and

1976 Events January * January 2 – 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 18 – Full diplomatic ...

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 defeated Canada in a s ...

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

1974 Summit Series The 1974 Summit Series was the second competition between Soviet and Canadian professional ice hockey players. It used the same format as the 1972 Summit Series, with four games across Canada and four in Moscow. The Soviet team won the 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 ...

, and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

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 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

. He played in 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 ...

from 1967 to 1984, playing more games than anyone else in the league's history. Vasiliev was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 1998. In 1978 Vasiliev was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

. 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

Bibliography

External links

*
Valery Vasiliev at CCCP International
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasiliev, Valeri 1949 births 2012 deaths Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Dynamo Sports Club sportspeople Expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Expatriate ice hockey players in Hungary HC Dynamo Moscow players Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Ice hockey people from Nizhny Novgorod 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 Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Members of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic ice hockey players for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union 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 Russian ice hockey defencemen Soviet expatriate ice hockey players Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Germany Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Soviet ice hockey defencemen Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod players Újpesti TE (ice hockey) players