Belarus Quarter-Century Teams Unveiled: Kostitsyns, Grabovski, Salei...
In the spirit of the NHL announcing quarter-century teams for each of its 30 franchises that have played since 2000, I thought I’d try a similar exercise by country – first and second teams. It’s not limited to NHL performance, although that carries a lot of weight. International play for the country also weighs heavily. To be eligible, a player needn’t have necessarily played for the country at a major tournament, but he had (or has) to be eligible.
Countries chosen have to have played in at least four major international tournaments (Olympic games, top-division IIHF World Championships or World Cups of Hockey) since 2000. Based on that arbitrary number, 20 countries qualify. Great Britain barely makes the cut with four top-level World Championships, while Hungary with three, South Korea and Poland each with two, and China with one do not.
I’m revealing them alphabetically starting with Austria, although the four teams in the 4 Nations Face-Off will be held back until the end, just before the start of the tournament.
Scroll down for links to other teams published so far.
BELARUS
First Team
F: Mikhail Grabovski
F: Andrei Kostitsyn
F: Sergei Kostitsyn
D: Ruslan Salei
D: Dmitri Korobov
G: Andrei Mezin
Second Team
F: Yegor Sharangovich
F: Alexei Kalyuzhny
F: Vladimir Tsyplakov
D: Vladislav Kolyachonok
D: Oleg Khmyl
G: Vitali Koval
The first team is a veteran one, led by Mikhail Grabovski, the Kostitsyn brothers, the late Ruslan Salei and Dmitri Korobov, who played three games for the Tampa Bay Lightning but was an important part of the Belarus defense up until 2021. At 35, he could probably still play for the national team.
Of course, Belarus has not played in a major international event since 2021 but there are still Belarusian hockey players in various North American and European leagues. Among them are Alexei Kalyuzhny and Vladislav Koyachonok of the Calgary Flames and Utah HC, respectively, who both made the second team. Calgary prospect Ilya Solovyov was considered but he lost out to Oleg Kmyl, whose best years were in the 90s but was captain of Belarus in the early 2000s and was an important member of the 2002 Olympic team that finished fourth.
Goaltending isn’t a strength of this team but Andrei Mezin and Vitali Koval were really the only two starting goalies of the national team actually born in Belarus.
Canadian born Kevin Lalande and Danny Taylor also started in goal for Belarus and are technically eligible but, as they were really only given passports so they could qualify for the national team, the judges were not anxious to vote for them. Likewise, Geoff Platt and the handful of other North American-born forwards and defensemen who played for Belarus didn’t gain significant consideration.
Agree or disagree with the selections? Comment below and check back daily as more international quarter-century teams are revealed.
PUBLISHED QUARTER-CENTURY TEAMS