96 years since the birth of Nikolai Puchkov

Nikolai Puchkov, a true legend of SKA Saint Petersburg, was born on 30 January 1930.

During his hugely successful career, the former goalkeeper won the Olympic Games, earned World Championship gold on two occasions and became a European champion six times. 

He spent his concluding season as a player with SKA, before subsequently turning his hand to coaching with our club. Overall, Nikolai spent 15 campaign as a coach with SKA, helping our team win the bronze medal of the 1971 USSR Championship, twice reach the final of the USSR Cup and twice become winners of the Spengler Cup.

Nikolai was inducted into the SKA Hall of Fame on 20 September 2003. Furthermore, he also later became a member of the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame on 6 April 2004.

He sadly passed away in August of 2005.