KHL captain was former Avs prospect
A former player of the Avalanche organization is one of the best and biggest leaders in the Kontinental Hockey League.Yuri
Ivanovich Babenko, 34, was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 in 51st place in the second round.
Before joining the farm team, Hershey
Bears, he played in the juniors in North America. During his three seasons
with the Bears he did not reach more than 45 points in any single season.
Babenko, the Russian centre, played only three games
for the Colorado Avalanche. All of them came in the winning season 2000/01. Babenko
did not get a point and his era in Denver would close after one more year in
the AHL.
He had played in the Russian top league since 2002 and
would continue in the newly founded KHL. Babenko has appeared in six different
teams. He was a member of the Dynamo
Moscow for his first three years back in Russia. He re-joined the Dynamo in
2010, where he remains today. He gained only 13 points in 40 games last season,
and now has six points from 11 games in the current season.
Babenko does not collect the highest number of points
but is still a respected player and captain. Alexander Ovechkin also recognized his skills, in a recent
interview. I visited the KHL game between HC
Slovan Bratislava and Dynamo on 7th October and saw Babenko in
action. He had very solid game, but did not get a point.
My photos of Babenko:
David Puchovsky, Slovakia, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
09/10/2012 - 11:00
