New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov was just 19 when he died suddenly of cardiac arrest on Monday during a game in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.
A first-round draft pick by the Rangers in 2007, Cherepanov was part of the next wave of young Russian stars ready to enter the NHL. But, while he had an outside shot to play with New York this season, the immensely skilled forward was spending one last year in the KHL with his club team, Avangard Omsk. Former NHL star Jaromir Jagr signed with Omsk over the summer and had been mentoring Cherepanov.
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“He was like me, [Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni] Malkin, [Caps forward Alexander] Semin,” said Caps forward Alex Ovechkin, who met Cherepanov several times during his own tenure with Omsk. “But he wasn’t only hockey player. He was good person, too. For a good person to die like that — it’s not right. But it’s life. I’m very sad.”
Russian news reports have claimed the arena where Cherepanov collapsed — located in Chekhov, a suburb of Moscow — did not have an ambulance on site or working defibrillators.
“Well, I don’t know about it,” Ovechkin said. “If it’s true that there was no ambulance over there — you read about it — it can’t be like this. It’s hard time for all of us.”