Alexei Ponikarovsky

Alexey Ponikarovsky is a forward who is a product of Sokol Kiev's hockey school. His professional career got started with playing for Dynamo Moscow's reserve team as well as for Krylya Sovetov and THK. In the 1999/2000 season he won the Russian championship playing with Dynamo Moscow. At the 1998 NHL Draft he was chosen by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he spent nine seasons with the Canadians beginning in 2000. When there was a lockout in the NHL in the 2004/2005 season, Alexey returned to Russia to play for Khimik. In 2010 he became a Pittsburgh Penguins man, but just in the summer of that year he switched to the Los Angeles Kings. 12 months later he was again on the move, this time to the Carolina Hurricanes. The transfers didn't stop there, and in 2012 he started playing for the New Jersey Devils and with that team he made it to the Stanley Cup final. He then joined the Winnipeg Jets in Canada in the summer of 2012, and during the lockout of the 2012/2013 season he represented Donbass Donetsk in the KHL. In August 2013 he signed a contract with SKA, and in 2015 he became a Russian championship silver medalist and Gagarin Cup champion. He represented the Ukrainian national team at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and he has taken part in further qualifying tournaments with the Ukrainian team.