Eurolanche

Valeri Kamenski to IIHF Hall of Fame

The International Ice Hockey Federation has announced its newest additions to the IIHF Hall of Fame.

Former players Peter Bondra, Sergei Fedorov, Valeri Kamenski, Ville Peltonen, and builders Pat Quinn and Ben Smith form the 2016 induction class.

Hungarian forward Gabor Ocskay is the recipient of the Richard “Bibi” Torriani Award, and Nikolai Ozerov has been given the Paul Loicq Award.

The 2016 IIHF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place in Moscow on 22 May, the final day of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. The venue will be the brand new Russian and Soviet Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.

Valeri Kamenski

By the time Triple Gold Club member Valeri Kamenski made his NHL debut with the Quebec Nordiques late in the 1991/92 season, his place in international hockey had already been well established. He had played in two World Junior Championships, winning a silver medal in 1985 and a gold in 1986. He also won gold at the World Championship three times, starting in 1986, just four days after his 20th birthday, a silver in 1987, gold again in 1989 and 1990, and a bronze in 1991.

As well, Kamenski claimed Olympic gold in 1988 in Calgary, the last time the old Soviet Union competed at the quadrennial event. He was drafted 129th overall by the Nordiques in 1988, even though the team knew full well one that of the country’s top young talents was not going to be allowed to leave the Communist Soviet Union.

To NHL fans, Kamenski first burst onto the scene a year earlier, during Rendez-vous ’87 in Quebec City. He scored twice and added an assist in the second of the two-game series, a 5-3 win which gave the Soviets a split in the memorable showdown. While Wayne Gretzky was named MVP for Team Canada, Kamenski was named the top Soviet player. He was still only 20 years old.

Just a few months later he was again front and centre at the 1987 Canada Cup. It was his goal with just 64 seconds left in the third period of game two that sent the game into overtime.

It took time, but the Nordiques negotiated successfully to get him into the NHL before the end of the 1991/92 season. Bad luck dogged him, though, and he broke his leg, thumb, and ankle during his first two seasons. In all, he played just 55 games and scored 22 goals during that time.

It wasn’t until 1993/94 that Nordiques fans had a true chance to see what Kamenski could do. That year, he scored 28 goals and showed flashes of genius with the puck for which he was famous.

The team moved to Colorado for the start of the ’95/‘96 season, by which time he had become an experienced NHL player. Healthy for the full season, Kamenski scored 38 goals and 85 points. He played all but one game in the season, and in the playoffs he was dominant, the team’s best player after goalie Patrick Roy and captain and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Joe Sakic.

The Avalanche swept the Florida Panthers in four games to win the franchise’s first Cup, and with the win Kamenski became only the fourth member of the Triple Gold Club.

In 1997, Kamenski scored a jaw-dropping goal. Playing for Colorado against Florida, he curled to the net as Avs teammate Alexei Gusarov brought the puck in over the blue line. Gusarov waited until Kamenski was in front of the goal and made a pass. Kamenski got the puck off balance, and as he spun in the air he back-handed the puck between the goalie’s pads. No more skillful goal has been captured on film.

-- by Andrew Podnieks for IIHF.com --