Maple Leafs prospect Amirov, 21, dies two years after brain tumor diagnosis
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Rodion Amirov has died less than 2 years since being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 21.
Agent Dan Milstein (Northville) confirmed to The Associated Press that Amirov died Monday in Munich, Germany. The team said in February 2022 that Amirov had a brain tumor and would go to Germany for treatment, in the hopes of being able to resume his hockey career at some point.
“From the moment he received the news, he refused to speak in the negative, determined to enjoy every day, facing it with the same positive attitude he showed during his hockey career,” Milstein said in a message posted on social media in English and Russian. “We will always remember his courage, his desire, his will, his smile – all of the great things about him.”
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Milstein also thanked the doctors who took care of Amirov, as well as the Maple Leafs and KHL's Salavat Yulayev Ufa, who “did everything possible to help in any way.”
The Maple Leafs said their organization was devastated by the news of Amirov's death.
“Over the duration of his courageous battle, Rodin's positively inspired everyone around him and made lasting impressions with our team and fans in his brief visits to Toronto," team president and former Red Wing Brendan Shanahan said. "It's incredibly sad to see a young man with so much promise taken from us so soon.”
Toronto selected Amirov with the 15th pick in the 2020 NHL draft. The Salavat, Russia, native was playing in the KHL with his hometown team in 2021 before being sidelined by an injury 10 games into the season.
Then-general manager Kyle Dubas said Amirov developed unrelated symptoms over the course of his recovery that required “ongoing extensive investigations.” Amirov went to Toronto for four rounds of chemotherapy last fall and received an ovation at a Leafs game against Washington on Oct. 14.
Dubas, who drafted Amirov three years ago and is now president of hockey operations and GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, said his new team joins the hockey community in mourning Amirov's death.
“The optimism and amazing outlook on life throughout Rodion's battle were unwavering and incredible,” Dubas said in a statement. “Personally, I am so sad for the loss of such a wonderful young man with so much potential. His unabashed positivity – even when faced with an awful diagnosis – will stay with me forever. Rodion was such an example of courage, and I am certain that his spirit has touched, and will live on in, everyone lucky enough to have known him.”
Maple Leafs players took to social media in the aftermath of the news to express their well wishes to Amirov's friends and family. Nick Robertson said Amirov “was a very nice kid and an even better player.”
“It’s incredibly hard to comprehend the loss of Rodion,” captain John Tavares posted. “His smile and joy for life and hockey was infectious. My teammates and I are grateful for our time spent with him and forever inspired by his courageous fight. Condolences to his loved ones. We’ll miss him dearly.”
Krejci retires from Bruins
This time, it really is goodbye for David Krejci.
Krejci, the Bruins’ cerebral, sublime playmaker who was known for raising his game to match the stakes, announced his retirement on Monday via the team’s social media account at the age of 37.
The centerman wrote in his farewell statement that he was retiring from “the best league in the world.” That would seem to leave open the door to playing internationally for his native country of Czechia, which he has hinted at in recent months in interviews with outlets back home. After playing a year in his native Czechia, Krejci returned to play one final season in Boston.
But now his days of playing in Boston are done. Coupled with the retirement of Patrice Bergeron, it marks the end of an era in Bruins’ hockey.
Since becoming a full-time NHLer with his mid-season promotion in the 2007-08 season, Krejci has been half of the B’s dynamic one-two punch at center with Patrice Bergeron that delivered the club its only Stanley Cup of the past half-century in 2011 as well as two more trips to the Cup finals in 2013 and 2019.
“When I was drafted in 2004, I had no idea that I would be working with such incredible and driven people who would lead us to 3 Stanley Cup finals, and winning the ultimate goal in 2011,” wrote Krejci. “I have made so many great friendships throughout the organization. You have always been there for me whenever I needed something and I will always be here for you.”
Krejci will speak with reporters via Zoom on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
Krejci made an inauspicious NHL debut on Jan. 30, 2007 in Buffalo. On his third shift, the Sabres’ Adam Mair hit him with a high cheap shot that knocked him out cold. He played just six NHL games that season, but the next year he was a mid-season call-up and he stuck, playing a pivotal role in getting the B’s to the playoffs and a dramatic seven-game series against the Montreal Canadiens. The B’s lost that series, but a new era of Bruins hockey had been ushered in.
Krejci ranks fifth on the Bruins’ all-time list for assists with 555 helpers to go along with his 231 goals in 1,032 career NHL games. Whether or not that’s enough to get his No. 46 raised to the Garden rafters will be determined in the coming years, but there is no question the centerman had a major impact on the fortunes of the organization.
In fact, it was the loss of Krejci that led to one of the B’s biggest collapses and, in turn, fueled them for their first Cup in 39 years. With the B’s about to take a 3-0 series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers, Krejci suffered a broken wrist from a Mike Richards hit. Without Krejci in the lineup, the B’s blew the 3-0 series lead and then a 3-0 lead in the Game 7.
The B’s came back the next season on a mission. The newly acquired Nathan Horton was put on a power line with Krejci and Milan Lucic and the trio rampaged through the playoffs in 2011. After the B’s survived a series with Montreal on Horton’s Game 7 overtime winner, the B’s avenged the loss to Philly by sweeping the Flyers with Krejci supplying among other things scoring three of the four game-winning goals.
The conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning were decided by another Game 7 in which a slick Krejci pass gave Horton a tap-in for the only goal of the taut, classic game.
His two career shining moments were in the ’11 and ’13 playoffs when he led the B’s in scoring in both playoff runs. In the Cup-winning season, Krejci had 12-11-23 totals in 26 games and in ’13, when the B’s lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games, he had 9-17-26 in 22 games.
Through no fault of his own, there is a feeling that the B’s didn’t fully capitalize on some of the Krejci’s best years. After Horton signed with Columbus following the 2013 season and then Jarome Iginla left for Colorado after one season with the B’s, Krejci’s right side was a revolving door of wings. When Lucic was traded to the Kings amid a cap crunch in 2015, regular linemates were hard to find.
He was a mentor to a young superstar-in-the-making, countryman David Pastrnak but he rarely got to play with him. Krejci also shepherded young Jake DeBrusk into the NHL, serving as the wing’s centerman in his rookie season and the next year when DeBrusk scored 27 goals in the third season the B’s reached the Cup finals with Krejci.
Krejci’s highest regular season point was 73, which he reached twice, in his first full NHL season in 2008-09 and then a decade later in 2018-19, another season in which the B’s made it to the Cup final, losing to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 at the Garden.
After the 2020-21 season, Krejci decided to fulfill a career-long dream of returning to play for his hometown team Olomouc HC, allowing his young children to better understand his upbringing in Czechia. In his statement, he gave a touching tribute to his brother Zdenek.
“We dreamt the same things as kids but only one of us was fortunate to experience it. You never complained and you were never jealous of me. You were the exact opposite. I don’t think you understand how much influence you have had on my career, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” wrote Krejci.
Krejci kept the door open for a return to Boston and, after having satisfied his desire to play a season at home, he did in fact return for one more season, for the team-friendly base salary of $1 million. It had all the makings of a dream finale to his career. With Krejci and Pastrnak playing together, not only did the B’s set the record for regular season wins, Krejci (16-40-56 in 70 games) helped Pastrnak become the first Bruin to hit the 60-goal mark (61) since Phil Esposito did it for the last time in 1974-75.
But as it did for fellow veteran Bergeron, Krejci’s 37-year-old body began to break down at the worst possible time. He missed the last six games of the regular season with a lower body injury and then three games in the first round playoff series against the Florida Panthers. As this dream was unraveling into a nightmare, Krejci reached back in time in Game 7 to conjure up the “Playoff Krech” his teammates had talked about for years, scoring a goal and assisting on the two others that the B’s scored on that crushing night at the Garden when they lost a late one-goal lead and then Florida’s Carter Verhaege won it in overtime.
It would be the last time we saw Krejci in a Bruin uniform, and his performance would be lost in the recriminations surrounding a massive, stunning defeat. But it served as one last taste of what Krejci, never speedy but slowed even more by years and injury, could still accomplish with his slick hands and brilliant hockey mind.
IIHF rules in favor of the Flyers
The International Ice Hockey Federation ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday by agreeing that Russian goaltender Ivan Fedotov had a valid NHL contract for the upcoming season when he signed with CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
The decision paves the way for Fedotov to play in North America, like he planned to do a year ago before being conscripted into the Russian military.
It was not immediately clear if he'd seek to leave Russia to play in North America. Relations between Russia and the U.S. are strained over the war in Ukraine, the NHL cut ties in Russia last year and no transfer agreement exists between the league and the KHL.
Fedotov, drafted by the Flyers in the seventh round in 2015, signed a one-year contract with them in May 2022. He said during the Beijing Olympics earlier that year that he was expecting to go to the NHL.
Instead, last summer his NHL agent, J.P. Barry, said Fedotov was taken to a remote military base in northern Russia. The Flyers, as a result, tolled his contract to the 2023-24 season.
CSKA announced last month that it signed Fedotov to a two-year contract. Fedotov at the time said he completed his military service, according to comments reported by Russian government daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The IIHF, hockey's world governing board, determined the deal to be a breach of international transfer regulations because Fedotov did not obtain a release from his contract with the Flyers, and it sanctioned the 26-year-old and CSKA. Fedotov was given a four-month IIHF suspension, spanning from CSKA's first regular-season game on Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
Fedotov would not be suspended from NHL games if he performs in accordance with his contract with the Flyers, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed.
CSKA was given a one-year ban through Aug. 10, 2024, on international transfers. The Russian Hockey Federation said in a statement that it would provide full support if CSKA decides to appeal.
The KHL, in a statement reported by Russian news agencies, said it would only comment after taking time to study the ruling. CSKA said in a statement that Fedotov was with the team at training camp in Belarus and that management “has no doubt that Ivan will take part in the upcoming season,” alleging the IIHF ruling is biased and “aimed at protecting the interests of the NHL.”
Messages sent from The Associated Press to the IIHF and Flyers seeking comment were not immediately returned.
CSKA, whose name translates to “Central Sports Club of the Army,” was founded as the Soviet army’s hockey team in 1946 and still has traditional ties to the military. It is owned by Rosneft, a Russian state-run oil company.
Fedotov is considered one of the top goalie prospects not currently in the NHL, and the Flyers hoped he would be a part of their future. He helped the Russians reach the Olympic final before losing to Finland and helped CSKA win the Gagarin Cup as KHL champion, earning first-team All-Star honors.
Since signing Fedotov and expecting him to compete for the backup job last season, the Flyers have launched into a long-term rebuild under new president of hockey operations Keith Jones and general manager Danny Briere, who was promoted to replace fired executive Chuck Fletcher. The team already has a logjam in net but could trade starter Carter Hart to make room for Fedotov.
With files from Boston Herald.