Valeri Viktorovich Kamensky

Before Kamensky left Moscow for the NHL's Quebec Nordiques, the team who had drafted him back in 1988, Kamensky's agent Paul Teophanos said, They are waiting for Valeri impatiently. Some say he will be one of the NHL's five superstars.

He did not make the top five, but he was not a disappointment either. He played for four years with the Nordiques in Quebec and another four years when he moved with the team from Quebec City to Denver helping the Avalanche capture the franchises first Stanley Cup in 1996. 1996 turned out to be Kamensky's best season in the NHL, finishing the season with 85 points on the strength of 38 goals and 47 assists. In the end, Kamensky made his mark on the game. Over the space of his career, he played in the Soviet Union, Canada and the U.S. And he scored crazy goals from impossible angles following improvised attacks. He did what he could given the painful adjustment that tended to follow Soviet players who were transplanted to the NHL. He did not become a goal-scoring machine, but together with Igor Larionov and Vyacheslav Kozlov, he helped an obscure provincial Voskresensk gain international acclaim as a pool for hockey talent. He made a name for himself as one of three players from Voskresensk who went on to become Stanley Cup winners.

In 1999 at the age of 33, Kamensky was still on a forward rush, being signed on by the New York Rangers. The talented winger spent two seasons on Broadway before splitting his 2001-02 season with the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils.

Following the 2001-02 season Valeri Kamensky left the NHL.