Kostitsyn Sergey: career path of the Belarusian hockey player

In modern history, the number of Belarusian hockey players performing in the NHL is less than two dozen. Among them, the current striker of the Minsk "Dynamo" Kostitsyn Sergey, who for 5 years demonstrated a high level of game overseas.

Belarusian launches

Kostitsyn Sergei Olegovich was born on March 20, 1987 in Novopolotsk. His career after the end of the Novopolotsk children's and youth hockey school in 2002, the young Belarusian started as a member of his native "Polymir", for which he spent two seasons. In 2003, Sergei played several matches for "Youth-Minsk", but could not break into the basis, after moving to "Gomel". As part of the current champion, Kostitsyn won the Belorus Cup, and then, after receiving an offer from the Canadian team, London Knights, went overseas.

Playing across the ocean

For two seasons, held in the Hockey League of Ontario, Kostitsyn Sergey showed an incredible result, gaining more than 200 points. In the end, since 2007, he began to play for the AHL team - Hamilton Bulldogs, which is the farm club of Montreal, and also for the main NHL team. Finally, the foothold in the basis of the Canadian club Kostitsyn could not, and in 2010 moved to another club of the National Hockey League - "Nashville".

In the American team in the first season, the key player in the attack was Sergei Kostitsyn. The hockey player took part in all meetings: both in the regular championship and in the playoffs, gaining a total of 55 points. In the framework of this championship the Belarusian forward demonstrated the best realization of throws in the League, showing the result of 24.7% of successful strikes. A year later, Sergei did not fall out of the team, having played another qualitative season in America, but after the contract with Nashville Predators decided to return to Europe.

Return to Europe

Accept the talented and still young striker agreed Omsk "Vanguard", with which Kostitsyn Sergey signed a three-year contract. However, for the first in his career, the Russian club forward played only one season. In the summer of 2014, Sergei moved to the Kazan "Ak Bars" as a result of an exchange with Konstantin Barulin.

Every year the performance of the player fell, and after three score points in Omsk in the Kazan club, the Belarusians hardly managed to score 20 points. As a result, the next two years, Kostitsyn continued to change teams - after Kazan came the turn of Nizhny Novgorod "Torpedo", followed by a native for the hockey player Belarusian club "Dynamo Minsk". As part of the Minsk striker is one of the main links of the attack, and for 43 meetings of the regular championship scored 25 points, which contributed to the club's exit into the playoffs.

Personal life

Since 2014, the striker has Russian citizenship, due to which he ceased to be considered a legatee of the KHL. In the summer of 2015, Sergei Kostitsyn married Elena Tabloych, who a few months later (September 6) gave birth to a daughter of a hockey player. A happy couple called her Eva, and now all his free time the father spends with his family.

Sergei's older brother, Andrei Kostitsyn, also performed for a long time in the US, and now plays for HC Sochi. In his interview, the forward of the Minsk "Dynamo" repeatedly noted that, despite the kinship, on the ice platform, both brothers act as the situation requires, even if necessary, even harshly.