Aleksey Morozov was born on 16 February 1977 in
Moscow, Russia and is a professional ice hockey
player. He currently plays for Ak-Bars Kazan of the
Kontinental Hockey League.
Aleksey Morozov was drafted in the first round, 24th
overall, by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1995 NHL
Entry Draft. After being drafted, he remained in
Russia and didn't join the Penguins until the
1997-98 NHL season. Aleksey began his career much
like Pittsburgh legend Mario Lemieux, scoring on his
first shot on his first shift of his first game as a
Penguin. He played seven seasons for the Penguins
totalling 451 games, 84 goals, and 219 points. In
his seven year NHL career, Morozov earned the
nickname "The Devil Killer" for his notorious
success against the New Jersey Devils. In fact, New
Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur in an interview
before a Penguins/Devils game on Fox Sports Net
jokingly stated that he had nightmares of Morozov
each night before his club would play the Penguins.
He also won an Olympic Silver Medal on the 1998
Russian Olympic Team during his rookie year with the
Penguins. Despite these successes, Morozov never
fully developed into the player he had the potential
to be as he played a majority of his first few
seasons in the NHL on the third and fourth lines due
to the tremendous depth of a talent laden Penguins
team. He finally got his chance on the starting line
during the 2002-2003 season and the KLM line of
Kovalev, Lemieux, and Morozov lead the Penguins to a
top 3 record in the conference the first third of
the season before being dismantled by injuries and
trades. After bursting onto the scene with 25 points
in 27 games, Morozov suffered a fractured wrist by a
crushing hit that ended his season and Lemieux
became bogged down by back problems which forced him
to call it a year while Kovalev was later traded at
the NHL trade deadline.
The next season saw Morozov off to a slow start,
mainly due to the lack of talent on a young Penguins
team, however down the stretch of the 2003-2004
season, Morozov was instrumental to the Penguins
late season success, leading the team with five
game-winning goals including two in the final three
games of the season. During the 2004-05 NHL lockout,
he went back to Russia to hone his skills and play
for the Ak-Bars Kazan of the Russian Super League.
After a successful 2004-2005 season with Ak-Bars and
with the NHL's future up in the air, he opted to
remain in the RSL for one more season in hope of
winning a championship. The 2005-2006 season proved
a great one for Morozov where he finished the
regular season leading the league in goals (23) and
being second in points (49) after Sergei Mozyakin
(52) while leading Ak-Bars to its first championship
win in nearly ten years. He was instrumental in his
teams long playoff run, amassing an unbelievable 26
points (13 goals, 13 assists) in just 13 games en
route to Playoff MVP. He was also qualified for six
other RSL league awards, two of which he won. As the
2006 NHL Free Agency period began, Morozov was one
of the most sought after free agents. The choice was
a very difficult one for Morozov as he wanted to
join his compatriots Evgeni Malkin and Alexander
Semin in the NHL but he also had a great
relationship and close ties with Ak-Bars. However,
in the end Morozov chose to sign an undisclosed
contract to stay with his Russian club in hopes of
winning back-to-back championships.
During the IIHF European Championship Cup (ECC) in
January 2007, Morozov earned the titles of best
forward and MVP as he led Ak-Bars to the
championship, reaffirming Russian dominance at the
tournament. When the regular season ended, Morozov
lead the league and established new Super League
record in points (83) as Ak-Bars Kazan had a league
leading 119 points and well on the way to an
unprecedented second straight championship. He
became the first player in the history of the RSL to
top the eighty points in a season and his 83 points
broke the old record of 79 held by Sergei Makarov.
This is a record that will stand the test of time as
in just two more years the RSL would be replaced by
a greater league spanning four countries. After
quickly dispatching of Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the
opening round in three games, Ak-Bars then defeated
Khimik Moscow Oblast and HC CSKA Moscow in four
games each to advance to the finals to face
Metallurg Magnitogorsk. In a final decisive game
five, Ak-Bars would come up short losing the final
game by the score of 2-1. Despite not matching his
stellar numbers of the 2005-2006 season, Morozov
finished the playoffs with a league leading 15
assists in 14 games.
Shortly after the 2006-2007 RSL season ended,
Morozov was chosen to represent Russia as an
alternate captain at the International Hockey World
Cup (IHWC). Despite missing two games to a minor
knee injury, in just seven games he finished first
in goals with eight while finishing second in points
as well as capturing the title of best forward at
the tournament. The following and final RSL season
proved another successful one for Morozov as he
continued his dominance of the league by finishing
in the tops in scoring and leading Ak-Bars to the
playoffs once again but would come up one game and
one goal short of the finals in another
heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Salavat Yulaev Ufa. The
2007-2008 RSL season would be the last in the
league's history as it would be replaced by the
newly formed Kontinental Hockey League at the start
of the 2008-2009 season. The KHL be comprised of the
20 current teams from the RSL, Avtomobilist
Ekaterinburg from Russia of the Vysshaya Liga, Barys
Astana from Kazakhstan, Dynamo Minsk from Belarus,
as well as a team from Latvia based in Riga known as
Dinamo Riga.
