Biography of Kasatonov hockey player

Born on October 14 in Leningrad now St. Petersburg. Soviet and Russian hockey player, defender. Two-time Olympic champion, five-time world champion,, the holder of the Canadian Cup Honored Master of Sports of the USSR Alexei Kasatonov was born on October 14 in Leningrad now St. Petersburg. The younger brother is Anton Kasatonov. The family lived on Novoimailovsky Prospekt in Leningrad. From an early age, he was engaged in swimming.

However, then the sports school was transferred to another area, where it was far from driving. He was going to go to the school of the district team of the meat processing plant, which conducted a set of young athletes at the coated skate of SKA. However, by mistake, he did not come to the rink, but to the athletics stadium SKA, where he saw an announcement of a recruitment to SKA hockey school.

And he decided to sign up there. The first coach is Oleg Konstantinovich Sivkov. At first, Kasatonov did not add up skating, but as a result of hard training, this problem was eliminated. In years he played for an adult SKA Leningrad, spent 42 matches, scored 4 goals and made 7 assists. Then they began to attract him to the youth team of the country, with which he became the world champion and years.

In the army team, he was fixed with difficulty - the loads of Tikhonov were too large. With the latter, he played in pairs in the first years in CSKA. At the Canada Cup, he was set in pair of Vyacheslav Fetisov. Alexey Kasatonov said: “It was a unique situation. They managed to gather our five together when we were young, and we had a decade, almost ten years to play. Today it is very difficult to repeat, to collect five stars of such a high level and keep them together for such a long period.

” As part of the USSR national team, he won the Olympics and years, and also became the world champion five times. At these tournaments, he played 97 matches and scored 25 goals. In the tournaments of the Canada Cup played 27 matches, abandoned 3 goals. At the end of the 10ths, when the conflict arose between the head coach of the national team and CSKA Viktor Tikhonov and some players led by Larionov and Fetisov, who were dissatisfied with the authoritarianism of Tikhonov, Kasatonov was the only one who took the side of the coach, and the teammates accused him of betrayal.

The conflict with Fetisov, with whom he was closely friends turned out to be especially difficult. Fetisov himself said about that situation: “He condemned me at communist meetings, accused me of trying to get permission to play in the United States. He was my best friend, and he put a knife in my back. " Later, Kasatonov explained that at that time he could not imagine that the Soviet Union would fall apart, considered it pointless to try to challenge the system, believed that this could only lead to the fact that a person would be crushed.

And, according to him, he understood Tikhonov’s arguments: “Tikhonov wanted to extend this time as much as possible. He thought a lot about the next generation, which was supposed to replace and which he would raise. And I must note that I did not quite understand that the changes concerned not only our team and myself, but the whole country and the political system.

I could not understand that it would all be so serious. Larionov and Fetisov talked a lot with other people who understood what changes were coming. They understood more than me. " But former friends became enemies. They again played in the same five, but did not talk to each other. Only after 10 years did they resumed communication. The first time is there. Not because of the hockey itself, but because of the circumstances and the situation in which I was.

Absolutely everything has changed, lifestyle, habits - all. Plus, at that time, we had a difficult relationship with fame. It really was a gloomy period. Especially given that we had to play together again. It was incredibly difficult, purely psychologically. ” When he left for the NHL, he quit the army with the rank of major. In years, he played for New Jersey Devils, who chose him back in the year.

Exchanged from the Anaheim to Saint-Louis Blues on March 21 of the year. Having the status of a free agent signed a contract with Boston Bruins on June 22. Member of the match of the "All Stars" of the NHL of the year. In the last season, he was the team captain and playing coach. I played 38 games for CSKA 3 goals, 20 programs, 68 minutes of a fine. From April to May - the manager of the Russian team, he was responsible for the invitation to the official tournaments of Russian players from the NHL.

At the same time, he constantly lived in New Jersey. In the year, he opened his international children's hockey school in New York. The official name "International Hockey Academy of Kasatonov", "informal" name - "Red Penguins". Along with this, he played for New Jersey veterans in charitable matches. In August, on the recommendation of Viktor Tikhonov, he was appointed to the post of general manager in the NHL direction.

A year stayed at the post, until Tikhonov was fired from the national team. In December, he took part in a hockey match on Red Square. From May to July, the head coach of the Kryli Soviets hockey club Moscow.Since May, he was the general manager of the Russian national team up to a year. Fired due to unsatisfactory speeches by the Russian national team at the Sochi Olympics. In the position of general director, he will take up the implementation of the league development strategy, interaction with sports federations and relevant ministries, as well as an increase in the efficiency of projects in the field of the popularization of hockey in Russia.

Our country has a rich experience in the development of mass sports, and I am very glad that today these traditions are reviving. In recent years, the NHL has made a lot to popularize and develop amateur hockey, and I intend to apply all my experience, all knowledge accumulated over many years in order to further reveal the inexhaustible potential of the Russian folk sport itself, ”Alexey Kasatonov commented on his purpose.

The growth of Alexei Kasatonov: centimeters. They met in Yalta at the beginning of x. They got married in the year. In the year, the couple had a son Leonid.