Kucherov, Nikita Igorevich

The early years

Born in Maykop , then lived in Ashgabat , since 1994 - in Moscow . He began to play hockey with Gennady Kurdin in the Silver Sharks in Serebryany Bor in 1998, then he played for the Polar Bears at the municipal ice rink of the Umka Ice Palace ^[1] . A pupil of the Moscow Sports School "Polar Bears", where his coach was Gennady Kurdin.

He began his professional career in 2009 as part of the Moscow Red Army youth hockey club club. On January 24, 2011 he made his debut in the KHL for CSKA in the match against Dynamo Riga . He played for the junior team of Russia . At the 2011 World Junior Championships in April, he became a bronze medalist, gaining 21 points in 7 matches (11 goals, 10 assists; the best result of the tournament in goals and points, the most points for the tournament in their history), was recognized as the best forward of the tournament . Member of the Subway Super Series in November 2011. On December 23, 2011 he entered the final composition of the Russian youth team to participate in the 2012 World Youth Championships in Calgary and Edmonton , Canada for the New Year holidays ^[2] .

In the 2011 draft, Kucherov was selected in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning Club. At the same time, there was a rumor that Tampa general manager Steve Aizerman mixed up Nikita Kucherov and Nikita Nesterov (who was also chosen by Tampa in the 5th round as a result) ^[3] . But later in an interview, Aizerman himself denied this rumor, saying that he intentionally chose Kucherov in the 2nd round of the draft ^[4] .

During the KHL season 2011/12, Nikita suffered a shoulder injury. CSKA refused to take the costs of the operation and on May 1, 2012 he underwent surgery in Tampa ( Florida ) ^[5] . In July 2012, a 19-year-old player terminated the contract with CSKA ^[6] . Kucherov began the 2012/13 season at the Quebec Remparts club, which plays in the main junior hockey league in Quebec . In November 2012, he was exchanged for another club of this league, “ Rouen-Noranda Haskis ” ^[7] .

NHL

In November 2013, Kucherov was called up from the AHL to the Tampa main team, where Captain Stephen Stamkos was out of action due to a fracture. November 26 in the first shift of his first game against the “ New York Rangers ” Kucherov opened the scoring for his goals in the NHL ^[3] . He entrenched in the team, in subsequent matches he distinguished himself by the successful implementation of the shoot-outs. In total, in the first season, Nikita played 58 games for Tampa, gaining 18 points (9 + 9).

In October 2014, lightning trainer John Cooper put Kucherov in the top three with Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Chamber . The link immediately began to show excellent interaction and high performance, all three strikers ranked among the club and league leaders in terms of performance and usefulness ^{[8] [9]} . This link was called the Triplets in the NHL ^{[10] [11]} . On October 28, 2014, in the match against Arizona Coyotes , Kucherov made his first hat-trick in the NHL ^[12] . Kucherov finished the regular season with 65 points (29 + 36) and with a utility score of +38, sharing first place in the league with Max Pacioretti from Montreal Canadiens . In Tampa, Nikita shared the second or third place in goals with his three partner Johnson (second only to Stephen Stamkos ), and in third place (after the same Stamkos and Johnson). In the playoffs of 2015, Kucherov was not only one of the key Tampa players, thanks to whom the team reached the final, but also one of the most notable players in the draw ^{[13] [14]} . In 26 games, he scored 22 points (10 + 12), becoming the third goal scorer in the Stanley Cup and the second among the lightning players after his partner Johnson. Three times he scored victorious goals, and two of them in overtime ( extra time ). ^{[15] [16]}

In the 2015/16 season, Kucherov became the top scorer of the lightning, gaining 66 points (30 + 36). In the playoffs, Nikita became not only the best scorer of the team (19 points), but also the best sniper (11 goals) and the best in terms of utility (+13). In 6 of 17 Tampa matches, he scored at least 2 points. Kucherov became the third player in NHL history (after Jeremy Renik and Evgeni Malkin ), who managed to score at least 10 goals in the playoffs of two different seasons before reaching 23 years ^[17] .

On October 11, 2016, Kucherov entered into a new 3-year contract with Tampa in the amount of $ 4.766 million per season. ^[18]

In the 2016/17 season, after the Stamkos injury, Kucherov became the leader of Tampa Bay at the beginning of the season. “Bolts” until the end of the season fought for access to the playoffs, but remained 10th in the Eastern Conference . Despite the unsuccessful season for the team, Nikita became the 2nd championship sniper after Sydney Crosby and 5th in terms of points. In March he was recognized as the best player of the month in the NHL, in November he became the second star. Three times he was recognized as the first star of the week, and also became the sixth Russian player after Alexander Ovechkin , Evgeni Malkin , Ilya Kovalchuk , Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny , who scored 40 goals for the season at the age of 23 years or younger. ^[nineteen]

Kucherov started the 2017/18 season efficiently, scoring in the first 7 matches of the team in a row, Nikita became the second league player in the last 30 years and the sixth player since the 1943/1944 season , who managed to make such an achievement. ^[20] Previously, Mario Lemieux issued this series, scoring in 12 starting matches in a row in the 1992/93 season . ^{[21] [22] The} goal series ended in the match against Columbus Blue Jackets with Sergei Bobrovsky at the goal, but having made an effective pass to Mikhail Sergachev , Kucherov extended the effective series with scored points. The series was interrupted only in the 12th match against Anaheim Ducks (1: 4), and Nikita scored 19 points (12 + 7) in 11 matches. At the same time, Kucherov and Stemkos, whose productive series also amounted to 11 matches (21 points, 4 goals and 17 assists), repeated the Martin Tampa San Luis record for the length of the productive series from the beginning of the championship ^[23] . He was recognized as the second star of October, gaining 21 points (13 + 8) in 13 meetings (Stephen Stamkos with 24 points (6 + 18) was recognized as the first star), as well as the third star of December with 20 points (8 + 12). On January 28, 2018, he took part in the Tampa stars match , in which he scored three goals and became the second Russian player after Pavel Bure , who managed to make a hat-trick in the all-stars match ^[24] . On April 6, 2018, thanks to a goal and an assist in a match against Buffalo Sabers , for the first time in his career, he reached 100 points in the regular season ^[25] . In the playoffs, he became Tampa's top scorer, gaining 17 points, but Tampa lost 3-4 in the series of the Eastern Conference finals against the Washington Capitals . At the end of the season, Kucherov was included in the first national team of all stars ^[26] . In the vote for “ Hart Trophy ” took sixth place, although during the season was considered as one of the main contenders for this prize ^{[27] [28]} .

On July 10, 2018, he signed with Tampa a new 8-year contract for a total of $ 76 million. The contract will enter into force from the 2019/20 season ^[29] . On March 9, 2019, he scored a double in the match against Detroit (3: 2) and, having scored 110 points, set a new Tampa club record for points for the season, surpassing Vincent Lecavalier's achievement ^[30] . On April 6, 2019, he scored his 128th point of the season and set a new record for the number of points scored among Russian players in one regular NHL championship, one point ahead of the result of Alexander Mogilny in the 1992/93 season ^[31] . Kucherov also repeated the record of Jaromir Jagr in the number of assists in the regular season for extreme attackers (87) ^[32] . According to the results of the regular season, he won the “ Art Ross Trophy ”, a prize for the best scorer ^[33] . Also, at the end of the season, he became a laureate of “ Ted Lindsay World ” ^[34] , “ Hart Trophy ” ^[35] and was included in the first symbolic team of all stars ^[36] .

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Club career

Team

NHL All-Star Matches

• Player statistics (rus.) . r-hockey.ru. Date of treatment June 24, 2013. Archived June 27, 2013.