Victor Nechayev (born January 28, 1955) is a Russian former professional

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 ...

player who played three games for the

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

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 ...

. He was the first player from 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 ...

to play in the NHL, as well as the first to score a goal. A native of

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, 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, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. In April 1982, Nechayev was granted permission to join his wife in the United States. In the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, 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 New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

on October 17, 1982.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{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