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National Hockey League (NHL) -  The Florida Panthers have traded forwards Evgeni Dadonov and A.J. Jenks to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for forwards Jonathan Matsumoto and Mattias Lindstrom. (TSN article) READ MORE

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  20-years-old Dmitry Orlov (Washington Capitals) scored his first NHL goal on January 15th as the Caps defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1. It wasn't only Orlov's first NHL goal, but it was also the game-winning goal as the Hurricanes didn't manage to get back on track after the blueliner's goal. Early in the second period another Russian scored the first goal for the Washington team, Alexander Semin (Washington Capitals), with a great wristshot after passes by Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals). Orlov so far scored seven points in 25 games.

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U20 World Junior Championships -  Top Russian hockey prospect Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis Blues) has been traded from Sibir Novosibirsk to SKA St. Petersburg on the KHL trade deadline. This means that now Tarasenko will have a chance to prove himself in one of the KHL top teams, go far during the playoffs. Vladimir signed a contract which will run out on April 30th, then his KHL rights will be noved back to Sibir, a move that most likely means that he's going to join the Blues this summer. Tarasenko's new game with SKA will be on January 15th against Vityaz Chekhov.

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  Most likely Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis Blues) will be traded to Dynamo Moscow before the KHL Trade Deadline, then he will go to the St. Louis Blues this summer. In the meantime Russianprospects.com offers you the most recent interview pubblished in Russia, appeared on the hotice.ru website. In this interview, Tarasenko talks about the WJC, the NHL Entry Draft and his ties with his father. (HotIce.ru interview translated by Alessandro Seren Rosso) READ MORE

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis Blues)'s agent Alexei Dementiev discusses possible trade, move to NHL. READ MORE

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  Posting a 4-0 shutout against the potent Chicago Blackhawks, Semen Varlamov (Colorado Avalanche) definitely proved his worth as net minder of the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, over the previous three games Varly has played in he has proved that he has the potential to become the next great goaltender in hockey. With his stellar play, Varlamov has Avs fans reminiscing about Patrick Roy. Avalanche fans also hope the same holds true with Varly that happened with Roy’s first year; a Stanley Cup Championship. (AP article by Barry Gutierrez) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  Lorne Molleken and the Saskatoon Blades tried their very hardest not to miss an appearance by Team Canada at the 2012 world junior hockey tournament. That included last week's heartbreaking 6-5 semifinal loss against the fiery Russian squad at Calgary's Scotiabank Saddledome. But, of course, their interests were also invested considering their No. 1 goalie - Andrei Makarov - was thrown in to save the day against the Canadians, who were down 6-1 at one point.(Calgary Herald article by Kristen Odland) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  SARNIA, ONT.— Nail Yakupov ’s return to the Sarnia Sting is on hold after he suffered a knee injury at the world junior hockey championship. The player expected to be taken first overall in the upcoming NHL draft will have an MRI exam this weekend, according to agent Igor Larionov. READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  A monstruous 57-save performance by goalie Andrei Makarov wasn't enough for Russia as the forwards simply didn't manage to put the puck on the net and Sweden deservedly grabbed the Gold Medal with a 1-0, OT win over Team Russia thanks to a goal by Islanders top prospect Mika Zabinejad. "It would have been not honest if we won the game", admitted after the game Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington Capitals), who was awarded with MVP, Best Forward and Tournament's All-Star Team honors. In spite of Sweden's dominance during the whole game, the game's top chance was probably a late third period rush by Team Russia: Kuznetsov danced through the rink with the puck on his blade just to feed the rushing Nikita Gusev with a great pass, but the Red Army players' one-timer was stopped by goalie Johan Gustafsson with a monumental save. Team Russia will have a chance to get revenge at home next year, as 2013 WJC will be held in Ufa, Russia.

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U20 World Junior Championships -  CALGARY – Yevgeni Kuznetsov had three goals and an assist to lead Russia to a stunning 6-5 victory over the home Canadians to earn a date with Sweden in the gold-medal game. Russia will try to repeat as champions for the first time since 2003-04 while Sweden hopes to win for the first time since 1981. Canada will play Finland for the bronze medal. Both games are on Thursday. The Russian win ends an incredible run of ten straight appearances by Canada in the gold-medal game. The last final game without Canada was 2001 when the Czechs beat Finland, 2-1. (IIHF.com article by Andrew Podnieks) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  Team Russia had to struggle a lot to defeat a hard-fighting Team Czech Republic led by goalie Petr Mrazek, who was instrumental in his team's performance with 43 saves. But Team Russia could count on a stellar Andrei Vasilevsky: the 2012 draft eligible goalie stopped 38 out of 39 shots and got yet another W for the Mother Land in this tournament.
The highly touted forward line didn't deliver much in this game as all the big guns were left out of the score sheet. Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington Capitals) did have some good rushes, including an one-on-one situation in the first period which sensationally wasn't a goal as his shot, after deking out Mrazek, hit the post and flew outside of the rink. Also Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) didn't show much special, but he managed to make himself forgiven for his late third period penalty setting up the game winning goal by defenseman Grigory Zheldakov. The first goal for Team Russia was scored by Daniil Apalkov in the second period, with assists coming from Sergey Barbashev and blue liner Zakhar Arzamastsev , among the best defensemen of the game with Nikita Nesterov (Tampa Bay Lightning). Team Russia will now face Canada in the semifinals. The more quoted guys have to step up and use their finishing ability. In particular Nail Yakupov should try and finally score a goal as he's still got a zero in the goals scored cell on the stats, something unexpected for a player who might go first overall in the next NHL draft. Most likely Mikhail Grigorenko will have to sit out the game.

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U20 World Junior Championships -  CALGARY – It’s on, baby! On Monday, Russia advanced to a World Junior semi-final clash with host Canada, defeating the Czech Republic 2-1 in a tense, tactical quarter-final. Grigori Zheldakov scored the overtime winner on a slapshot at 1:30 of overtime. "Their goalie [Petr Mrazek] played a great game, but he is human," said Zheldakov. "This is a very emotional win, and it’s very emotional to score a goal like this." (IIHF.com article by Lucas Aykroyd) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  CALGARY – Russian captain Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington Capitals) dazzled with three goals and six assists as Russia pulverized Latvia 14-0 for its third straight win. The defending champions tightened their grip on first place in Group A, while the Latvians head for the Relegation Round. (IIHF.com article by Lucas Aykroyd) READ MORE

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  In this interview by Igor Polaykov published on the Russian portal Younghockey.ru, defenseman Andrei Pedan (New York Islanders) talked about the WJC, explained the differences between Russia and Canada concerning practices and explained what are for him Russia and Canada. (Younghockey.ru interview translated by Alessandro Seren Rosso) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  After winning the first game against Switzerland, Team Russia kept staying perfect with a 3-1 win over Team Slovakia. Bragin's team opponents actually managed to go 1-0 with a late first period goal, but the Russians stroke back in the second period with a blue line slap shot by Igor Ozhiganov.
The third period was the key one: five minutes after its start Mikhail Naumenkov made it a 2-1 game with a nice wrister - again from the blue line - after Ignat Zemchenko won a faceoff in the offensive zone. "It was pleasant to score such an important goal. It was unexpected", Naumenkov declared after the game.
The Russians sealed the deal later on with a goal by Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning), who tipped in a beautiful pass from behind the net by Mikhail Grigorenko . Andrei Makarov earned a W with a 31-save performance. Team Russia will face Team Latvia on December 30th.

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U20 World Junior Championships -  CALGARY – There’s no Nureyev or Baryshnikov on the roster, but this year’s Russian World Junior team sure can dance. Russia opened its defence of its world title on Boxing Day, beating Switzerland 3-0 with three beautiful goals.
Alexander Khokhlachev, Nikita Gusev, and Mikhail Grigorenko scored for Russia, which features just one returning player from 2011: captain Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington Capitals). The talent level on the 2012 edition, however, may be even higher. (IIHF.com article by Lukas Aykroyd) READ MORE

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U20 World Junior Championships -  The reigning WJC champions, Team Russia is once again a contender for the Gold Medal in 2012. After last year's triumph, Russia will bring to Alberta a team which looks even better than last year's one on offense, but with bigger question marks between the pipes and on the blue line.
The Subway Super Series showed this as Valery Bragin's team appeared extremely good on offense, but not as much on defense and when it came to goaltending. Last year's squad could count on Igor Bobkov (Anaheim Mighty Ducks), but this year it doesn't seem to be present a goalie of this caliber and this, of course, can be a problem for a contending team. (Hockey's Future.com article by Alessandro Seren Rosso) READ MORE

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National Hockey League (NHL) -  nder the direction of general manager George McPhee the Capitals have been among the most Russian-friendly teams in the NHL. And there’s no sign of that ending soon, with two of the Capitals’ top prospects hailing from Russia. One of them, 20-year-old rookie defenseman Dmitry Orlov, appears to have landed a permanent home on the Capitals’ blue line. The other, 19-year-old right wing Evgeny Kuznetsov (Washington Capitals), recently told Sovietsky Sport that his agent plans on talking to the Capitals during the World Junior Championships later this month in Edmonton and Calgary. (cnnwashington.com article by Chuck Gormley ) READ MORE

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U18 World Championships -  The International Central Scouting service released their October prospects list for the 2012 NHL Draft. Nail Yakupov of the Sarnia Sting is the No. 1 name on virtually every prospects list. It is possible that Yakupov will become the third Russian ever to be selected first overall in an NHL entry draft. Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey Devils)(notes) was the first, and Alex Ovechkin(notes) was the second. Both Kovalchuk and Ovechkin were stars in Russia when they were drafted. Both played for the first teams in the old Superleague, not the juniors. Ovechkin even won the Superleague title with Dynamo Moscow in 2005 before coming to the NHL. Nail Yakupov is different. Hardly anyone knows him in Russia. He came to Canada from a Russian junior team with no Big League experience. It is even fair to say that more people in North America know about him than in his native country. READ MORE