Nikita Kucherov is a famous Russian hockey player playing as a right-handed striker. At present, he is a player in the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning club .
Biography
Nikita Igorevich Kucherov was born in 1993 in the city of Maykop. When he was 5 years old, the future NHL player moved with his mother to Moscow.
Nikita got into the hockey section completely by accident. His mother was looking for work and took her son with her to all interviews. As a result, she got a job in one of the hockey arenas, and Kucherov began to study here at the school with the name "Silver Sharks".
But for a long time the boy did not stay here. Six months later, Nikita Kucherov goes to coach Gennady Kurdin at the Polar Bears youth sports school.
First professional steps
Kucherov’s first professional team could be the capital “Dynamo”. But when the former pupils of Polar Bears came to the scheduled meeting with the club management, they were not even allowed into the arena. Thus, Kucherov became a player in the Red Army.
In the very first season for CSKA, the 16-year-old striker managed to throw 29 goals into the opponents' goal, and a year later CSKA not only successfully performed in the MHL, but also became the winner in the Kharlamov Cup.
In 2011, Nikita Kucherov began playing in the KHL for the adult team of “army men”. But his career at CSKA was short-lived - in the summer of 2012, the contract was broken.
Career in the NHL
In the 2011/12 season, Kucherov seriously injured his shoulder, but the correct diagnosis was not immediately made. For a full recovery, the player had to make a serious and expensive operation, but CSKA refused to pay for it.
The NHL club from Tampa Bay rescued Nikita, which funded Kucherov’s treatment in the USA. After that, the striker had no doubts - he went to conquer the most prestigious tournament in North America.
Nikita Kucherov got to the NHL draft - 2011 under the general 58th number and was selected in the second round by Lightning from Tampa Bay. During the selection of new players, a rather funny incident happened: the Tampa manager got confused in Russian names and chose Kucherov instead of his namesake Nesterov.
Overseas striker did not start with the NHL. He was sent to the main junior hockey league of Quebec, where he played for Uwebek Remparts for six months, and later transferred to Haskis from Rouen Noranda for an exchange.
In the 2012/13 season, Nikita Kucherov showed himself as an extra class forward. In 27 games of the regular season he managed to score 26 goals, while assisting his teammates another 27 times. He also scored 24 (9 + 15) points in the playoff series.
The next season, Kucherov began in the second most prestigious hockey league in North America - the AHL. Here, as part of the Syracuse Crunch team, he spent 17 matches in which he scored 24 points.
November 2013 was the time of Nikita's debut in the NHL for Tampa Bay Lightnings. It took place due to the injury of the captain of "Lightning" Stephen Stamkos. November 26, the first time he went on the ice for his new club in the game against the “Rangers” from New York, Kucherov immediately managed to throw the puck. This helped him gain a foothold in the main team. In total, in the 2013/14 season, Nikita Kucherov played 58 games in which he scored 18 (9 + 9) points.
In the next regular season draw, the Russian striker enters the attacking line with Johnson and the House. From the very first matches, they began to show high performance and excellent mutual understanding on ice. In the NHL they received the nickname "triplets."
Kucherov finished the 2014/15 season with impressive results - 29 goals and 36 precision assists. In the playoff series, Nikita and his teammates’s great game allowed Tampa to make it to the Stanley Cup final.
Kucherov finished the next season with a new personal record - in the regular season he scored 66 (30 + 36) points. In October 2016, he signed a new 3-year contract with Lightning, according to which the Russian hockey player will earn almost $ 5 million a year.
National team games
Starting from the age of 18, Nikita Kucherov is a hockey player of the junior team of the Russian national team. At the World Championships in 2011, he and his comrades not only won bronze medals for his country, but also became the champion of the tournament by points earned. For 7 matches, he scored 11 goals and gave 10 accurate assists, gaining 21 points.
A year later, Nikita Kucherov was called up to the Russian youth team to participate in the world championship among the U-20 teams. Having scored 2 goals in 7 matches and given 5 assists, the striker helped his team win silver championship awards. A year later, the Russian team U-20 again fell into the top three at the World Cup, winning bronze medals.
Since 2016, Kucherov began to be involved in the national team. He has already managed to hold 4 matches in the World Cup, in which 2 times he lit a red light outside the gates of his opponents.