As the first Russian born player to be drafted in the first round in the National Hockey League, Alex Kovalev did not disappoint North American fans. Kovalev’s high skill and stickhandling ability was quickly put to good use with the New York Rangers, and along with Mark Messier, helped bring the Stanley Cup back to Broadway after a lengthy absence. He would hit the celebrated…

This should be a no brainer. From the second he put his skates on a NHL rink, North Americans knew they were seeing a star in the Swedish export, Nicklas Lidstrom. The skilled defensemen collected a whopping seven Norris Trophies and for a fourteen consecutive seasons never finished below sixth in the voting. He anchored the Wings to four Stanley Cups and even managed a…

Sergei Fedorov changed a lot of minds in hockey about European players. It wasn’t because he was very good and could score a lot of points; anyone who watched International hockey could have told you that. It was that he excelled the brighter the lights got in the National Hockey League, erasing the perception that Europeans were soft and could not succeed in the grind…