Bratash, Oleg Vladimirovich

Like most boys of that time, Oleg played football and hockey. Since the family lived near the Wings of the Soviets School of Sports, the choice of the team was a foregone conclusion. At first, Oleg played in the attack, but when the group needed a goalkeeper with the advent of winter and a change of coach, Oleg got into the goal. Although he played in attack in football as part of Setun, his fate was a foregone conclusion in hockey - the goalkeeper. Since the “wings” did not have special goalkeeper trainers, the experienced goalkeeper from the main team, Boris Zapryagaev and Evgeny Poleev, helped the young goalkeeper with advice.

In the winter of 1984, when Oleg was only 18, I.E. Dmitriev invited him to the main team of “ Wings of the Soviets ”. The debut took place in a friendly match against Crystal from Elektrostal. That fight “Wings” won, the young goalkeeper played reliably. In 1984, Bratash played excellently for the youth team of the USSR, becoming the European champion in the German Garmisch-Partenkirchen . From the beginning of the 1984/85 season, after Alexander Sidelnikov left the sport, Oleg Bratash became the main goalkeeper.

At the Youth World Championships in 1985, Oleg won bronze. Since the beginning of the 1985/86 season, Bratash has been a member of CSKA . But in two seasons he only went out on ice 9 times. In 1986 he became the world champion among youth. During performances for CSKA, Bratash also made his debut in the adult USSR team at the international tournament “Prize of the News”

In 1987, Oleg returned to Wings of the Soviets , where for seven seasons he reliably defended the goal. The team won the bronze medals of the USSR and MHL championships three times, took the League 89 Cup, and Oleg Bratash himself was recognized as the best goalkeeper of the USSR for the 1988/89 season.

In 1990, the goalkeeper along with Wings took part in the Super Series against NHL teams. And in the team, his career did not work out. Mostly Bratash played friendly matches, while others went to championships and Olympics. The only official tournament in the national team, except for the "News Prize", for the goalkeeper was the Goodwill Games in Seattle.

In 1994, he went overseas. The reason was the financial situation of Wings of the Soviets. So Oleg became the goalkeeper of the St. Thomas Uyldcat club from the Colonial Hockey League , where he spent the end of the 1993/94 season, became the silver medalist and attracted the attention of two clubs from the AHL. But Oleg Bratash chose the Slovenian club Acroni Jesenice , who was then headed by Russian specialist Dmitry Borisov, to continue his career.

Before the 1996/97 season, Oleg Bratash received an invitation to the Yaroslavl Torpedo , which was then headed by P.I. Vorobiev . Oleg made a significant contribution to the future championship of Yaroslavl. But I couldn’t finish that season to the end in the form of “car makers”, because for family reasons I returned to Moscow.

The following season, Oleg completed his playing career in the form of his native club Krylia Sovetov .

Oleg Bratash began coaching young men in Novo-Peredelkino. The next step was the placement in the school “Wings of the Soviets”. In 2003, Oleg and his pupils moved to the main team. His pupils were Andrei Stepanov , Rafael Batyrshin , Mikhail Yunkov .

In 2007, Bratash became an assistant to Yuri Leonov in St. Petersburg SKA .

And again Oleg returned to his native “Wings” to work with the guys born in 1993. Among them, he discovered many talented guys who are already performing in the KHL and the MHL - these are defenders Evgeny Kulik , Ilya Nekolenko and Fedor Belyakov , forward Denis Blokhin .

In January 2011, Oleg Vladimirovich headed the youth team of Spartak .

In August 2012, Oleg Bratash became vice president of Spartak , but at the same time continued to oversee the youth team and deal with selection issues. On July 8, 2013, after the defeat of Spartak MHC in the final of the Kharlamov Cup against Omsk Hawks, Bratash was again appointed to train the team. After winning the Kharlamov Cup, he was recognized as the best coach in the MHL following the results of the 2013/14 season.

In May 2014, Bratash for the second time in his career accepted an invitation from Yaroslavl: he headed the Loko MCC. The season for the Yaroslavl youth team ended successfully. Loko confidently won the regular season at the Western Conference. And in the playoffs of the Kharlamov Cup, Bratash’s wards reached the semifinals, where they lost only to the future champion - the Nizhny Novgorod Seagull . Thus, Loko for the first time in history won the MHL medals - bronze.

Since the KHL season 2015/16, assistant coach at Lokomotiv . He also worked with the youth team of Russia, which brought silver from the World Cup. Headed the team of all the MHL Stars.

Since 2016 he is the head coach of the Russian Olympic team (the closest reserve to the main team)

In addition to coaching, Oleg Vladimirovich is also a well-known television commentator on the Russia-2 television channel. As an expert, he worked on broadcasts of matches of the KHL championship, Olympic Games and World Championship.

Oleg Vladimirovich’s son, Dmitry, also played hockey: he began to train under the guidance of his father, and during his stay in Slovenia he even played in the same five with Andrzej Kopitar in the children's team. In Russia, he played as a striker for the clubs of the Higher and First League. But in 2007, at the age of 21, he completed his career.

• Oleg Bratash - statistics on Eliteprospects.com (English)
• Oleg Bratash