Mikhail Shtalenkov

Mikhail Shtalenkov
Born	(1965-10-20) October 20, 1965 Moscow, USSR
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg; 13 st 3 lb)
Position	Goaltender
Played for	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Edmonton Oilers Phoenix Coyotes Florida Panthers HC Dynamo Moscow (Russia)
National team	Soviet Union, Unified Team and Russia
NHL draft	108th overall, 1993 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
Playing career	1985–2002

|- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;background-color:#eeeeee;color:inherit;" | Men's ice hockey

|- | style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;color:inherit;" | || style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;" | 1992 Albertville || style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;" | Ice hockey

|- | style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;color:inherit;" | || style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;" | 1998 Nagano || style="text-align:center;vertical-align:middle;" | Ice hockey |}

Mikhail Alekseyevich Shtalenkov (Russian: Михаил Алексеевич Шталенков; born October 20, 1965) is a former amateur and professional ice hockey goaltender. He played extensively in his native USSR and Russia for HC Dynamo Moscow and in North America, seeing time with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Edmonton Oilers, Phoenix Coyotes and Florida Panthers. He was selected in the fifth round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, 108th overall, by Anaheim. Despite such international success and a good performance in the NHL, Shtalenkov was never able to obtain a starting netminder's job.

Playing career

Shtalenkov began his major-league hockey career with Dynamo Moscow in 1986, backing up veteran star Vladimir Myshkin. The team won the Soviet Championship in 1990, ending the 13-year domincance of rival team CSKA Moscow, with Shtalenkov and Myshkin splitting playing time almost evenly. Dynamo went on the win the championship the next two years in 1991 and 1992, with Shtalenkov entrenched as the starter. By the 1991-92 season, he was also the starting goaltender on the Soviet national team.

Shtalenkov moved to North America in 1992, after backstopping the Unified Team to the Olympic gold medal, signing with Milwaukee Admirals of the International Hockey League. After one season, he was drafted 108th overall by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993 and spent five seasons with the team. He originally began with the IHL's San Diego Gulls, but received the call-up to the Mighty Ducks after Ron Tugnutt was traded to the Montreal Canadiens and Shtalenkov served as back-up to Guy Hebert and would continue to do so throughout his tenure at Anaheim.

Shtalenkov was claimed in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft by the Nashville Predators but was later traded to the Edmonton Oilers and never played for the Predators. In his one season with the Oilers, he shared the starters place with Bob Essensa but was soon traded to the Phoenix Coyotes. After only a handful of games in Phoenix, Shtalenkov was traded once more to the Florida Panthers. In 2000, Shtalenkov returned to Dynamo Moscow and eventually retired from hockey in 2002.

International career

Shtalenkov represented the USSR, the Unified Team and Russia many times internationally. At the 1992 Winter Olympics he earned a gold medal with the Unified Team and at the 1998 Winter Olympics he won four of five games for Russia, earning the silver medal.

Personal Life

On March 27 2012, Shtalenkov went missing after arriving to Moscow on a flight from Magnitogorsk two days earlier. Shtalenkov’s wife phoned the police after her husband did not come home from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Sunday and reported him missing. An unnamed police source told Interfax that search efforts are underway to find him.

Transactions

• June 26, 1993 - Anaheim drafts Shtalenkov.
• June 26, 1998 - Nashville selects Shtalenkov in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft.
• October 1, 1998 - Nashville trades Shtalenkov and Jim Dowd to Edmonton in exchange for Drake Berehowsky, Greg De Vries and Éric Fichaud.
• March 11, 1999 - Edmonton trades Shtalenkov to Phoenix for a conditional draft choice.
• November 18, 1999 - Phoenix trades Shtalenkov to Florida along with a 4th round draft pick (Chris Eade) in exchange for Sean Burke and a 5th round pick (Nate Kiser).

External links

• Mikhail Shtalenkov career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database
• Mikhail Shtalenkov biography at Legends of Hockey (archived)
• Mikhail Shtalenkov profile at Eurohockey.com
• HockeyGoalies entry