Team Ukraine Dream Team

Nikolai Zherdev - Ruslan Fedotenko - Peter Bondra
Anton But - Alexei Ponikarovsky - Denis Shvidki
Alexei Mikhnov - C - Sergei Varlamov

Alexei Zhitnik - Oleg Tverdovsky
Anton Babchuk - Vitali Vishnevsky
Gennady Razin -

Nikolai Khabibulin


i only did two lines O/D cuz i wasnt able to remember anyone else.
wouldnt it be great if these guys actually played for ukraine though??

Question, could Khabibulin play for the Ukraine if he's already played international games for Russia? IIHF rules and all? Thanks!

i think its his choice. most of the players listed play for russia (and bondra plays for slovakia)
i think this is because they wanted to play for teams at the international level and up their play. i also think they let them play for russia cuz when they were born it was all the Soviet Union
IIHF rules say you have to play for your country, which is why nabokov has to play for khazakstan, yet he was allowed to play for russia at the worlds cuz it was nhl rules

so in conclusion, lol, i think they would be allowed to, but i doubt they would want to


IMO they should make them play for it though and make the tournaments more competitive, rather than stockpiling russia

The (half)lineup looks good. I see you have a little problem with all of them playing for Russia!

Nikolai Zherdev - Ruslan Fedotenko - Peter Bondra
Sergei Varlamov - Alexei Ponikarovsky - Denis Shvidki

Alexei Zhitnik - Oleg Tverdovsky
Anton Babchuk - Vitali Vishnevsky

Nikolai Khabibulin


i only did two lines O/D cuz i wasnt able to remember anyone else.
wouldnt it be great if these guys actually played for ukraine though??

Zherdev??? i thought he's from russia, damn memory :(

pretty nice group!

Dmitri Khristich

Zherdev??? i thought he's from russia, damn memory :(

pretty nice group!

nah, he just likes to play for em ;)

it would be a nice group if they actually played for the national team. it for sure would make fore more competition than guys like latvia/belarus/germany

It'd be nice to see all of them play on one team, except replace Bondra with Khristich, since Bondra isn't really Ukrainian. Of course, Khristich is now retired, so that wouldn't work either.

I think of those players, only Fedotenko and Khristich played in the last olympics, if I'm remembering correctly.

It'd be nice to see all of them play on one team, except replace Bondra with Khristich, since Bondra isn't really Ukrainian. Of course, Khristich is now retired, so that wouldn't work either.

I think of those players, only Fedotenko and Khristich played in the last olympics, if I'm remembering correctly.


well bondra IS ukrainian

and yeah, fedotenko and khristich were probly the only ones at the last one. the rest probly played for russia. im not sure on young guys like shvidki and babchuk as to where they will play in the future.

Team participation as-per IIHF regulation is optional based on citizenship. I forget who did it but didn't a Canadian with dual citizenship in the US suit up for the red, white, and blue?

Didn't Kolzig play for Team Germany at one point, while holding citizenship in South Africa?

Khabibulin wasn't born in Ukraine nor did he grew up there, so what exactly is his link to Ukraine ?

Didn't Kolzig play for Team Germany at one point, while holding citizenship in South Africa?
Kölzig has never held citizenship for any other country than Germany. He was born in South Africa of German parents and grew up in Canada.

Khabibulin wasn't born in Ukraine nor did he grew up there, so what exactly is his link to Ukraine ?


Nikolai Khabibulin (G) Goalie
Born Jan 13 1973 -- Sverdlovsk, Ukraine :rolleyes:

Nikolai Khabibulin (G) Goalie
Born Jan 13 1973 -- Sverdlovsk, Ukraine :rolleyes:Ok, so his only link to Ukraine is a mistake in some North American websites -- he was born in Sverdlovsk, Russia.

Ok, so his only link to Ukraine is a mistake in some North American websites -- he was born in Sverdlovsk, Russia.
:thumbd:

Nikolai Zherdev - Ruslan Fedotenko - Peter Bondra
Sergei Varlamov - Alexei Ponikarovsky - Denis Shvidki

Alexei Zhitnik - Oleg Tverdovsky
Anton Babchuk - Vitali Vishnevsky

Nikolai Khabibulin


i only did two lines O/D cuz i wasnt able to remember anyone else.
wouldnt it be great if these guys actually played for ukraine though??


Although they've played for Russia in some tournaments, Anton But and Alexei Mikhnov were born in Ukraine. Both are far better than Shvidki and Varlamov. But is better than Ponikarovsky --- at least on big ice.

anton but (i never heard of him till ur post, thanks!) is good, but Alexei Mikhnov isnt as good as shvidki

If they had full comitment Ukraine would be way better than say....Germany and Switzerland.

Nikolai Zherdev - Ruslan Fedotenko - Peter Bondra
Anton But - Alexei Ponikarovsky - Denis Shvidki
Alexei Mikhnov - C - Sergei Varlamov

Alexei Zhitnik - Oleg Tverdovsky
Anton Babchuk - Vitali Vishnevsky

Nikolai Khabibulin




Isn't it strange how many skilled originally Ukrainian players there are? I've never even heard that Tverdovsky, Zhitnik, Vishnevsky, Shvidki and Bondra are Ukrainians. When it comes to Khabibulin, I doubt a bit. Why do you reckon some of those, for example Bodra, have chosen to play for another country?

Isn't it strange how many skilled originally Ukrainian players there are? I've never even heard that Tverdovsky, Zhitnik, Vishnevsky, Shvidki and Bondra are Ukrainians. When it comes to Khabibulin, I doubt a bit. Why do you reckon some of those, for example Bodra, have chosen to play for another country?

Bondra is actually Slovakian. He only lived in Ukraine for a couple of years when he was little and then, I think his parents moved back there. The others probably play for Russia because they had a better program. It's really too bad that they did, though :(

I'd like to see a line up like this:

Nikolai Zherdev - Ruslan Fedotenko - Peter Bondra
Anton But - Vladimir Shakhraichuk - Alexei Ponikarovsky
Denis Shvidki - Alexei Mikhnov - Sergei Varlamov
Vitali Litvinenko - Vasili Bobrovnikov - Roman Salnikov

Alexei Zhitnik - Oleg Tverdovsky
Vitali Vishnevski - Anton Babchuk
Sergei Klimentiev - Gennady Razin/Vyacheslav Zavalnyuk

Konstantin Simchuk
Igor Karpenko


They'd probably be the 8th best team in the world.....behind the "big 7".

Isn't it strange how many skilled originally Ukrainian players there are? I've never even heard that Tverdovsky, Zhitnik, Vishnevsky, Shvidki and Bondra are Ukrainians. When it comes to Khabibulin, I doubt a bit. Why do you reckon some of those, for example Bodra, have chosen to play for another country?

Well, if you think about it, all these skilled 'Ukrainians' are from the same Soviet development system as the Fedorovs and Bures and Kovalchuks of the world as Ukraine and Russia both belonged to the old USSR. I'm sure a lot of these so called Ukrainians are just ethnic Russians anyway, so they would favor playing for Russia.

Well, if you think about it, all these skilled 'Ukrainians' are from the same Soviet development system as the Fedorovs and Bures and Kovalchuks of the world as Ukraine and Russia both belonged to the old USSR. I'm sure a lot of these so called Ukrainians are just ethnic Russians anyway, so they would favor playing for Russia.

Do you really think that when the Soviet Union existed, the people who lived there wer all ethnic Russians? If so, you don't know anything.
The Soviet Union contained several states and ethnic groups who lived in same area, unlike in The United States, for example, where roughly all the people consider themselves Americans.
Consequently, not all the groups in the Soviet Union didn't call themselves Russians, only those who really were ethnically Russians did. For instance, the Estonians called themselves Estonians, even though they lived in the Soviet Union and were it's citizens. Neither did they call their habitat Russia or any other. It was Estonia, even though it was part of the Soviet Union.
So, in this case, these players who were born in Ukraine and whose parents were presumably also Ukrainians really were Ukrainians, not Russians.
Come to think of it, if Italy, for instance, happened to conquer Austria, would those Austrians start to call themselves Italians? Certainly not. And if Austria became independent again, would the Austrians still consider themselves Italians and move to Italy and start playing for Italy's national team? I don't think so.
You got the idea?

I think the reason why these players they play for Russia is that it's much easier to get somewhere, advance in their career, get better training and become better player in Russian than in Ukraine

Do you really think that when the Soviet Union existed, the people who lived there wer all ethnic Russians? If so, you don't know anything.
The Soviet Union contained several states and ethnic groups who lived in same area, unlike in The United States, for example, where roughly all the people consider themselves Americans.
Consequently, not all the groups in the Soviet Union didn't call themselves Russians, only those who really were ethnically Russians did. For instance, the Estonians called themselves Estonians, even though they lived in the Soviet Union and were it's citizens. Neither did they call their habitat Russia or any other. It was Estonia, even though it was part of the Soviet Union.
So, in this case, these players who were born in Ukraine and whose parents were presumably also Ukrainians really were Ukrainians, not Russians.
Come to think of it, if Italy, for instance, happened to conquer Austria, would those Austrians start to call themselves Italians? Certainly not. And if Austria became independent again, would the Austrians still consider themselves Italians and move to Italy and start playing for Italy's national team? I don't think so.
You got the idea?

I think the reason why these players they play for Russia is that it's much easier to get somewhere, advance in their career, get better training and become better player in Russian than in Ukraine

Well, I am doing Eastern European studies in school, so I think I know something about the subject. I know for a fact that there's a large minority population of Russians living in the Ukraine, in Belorussia, in Georgia, in the old eastern republics like Kazakhstan, etc. since the Soviet Union was a unified country for a long time, and Russians did live everywhere. Everything was integrated. Off the top of my head, I know a third of the population is ethnically Russian, 17% or so of Ukraine is Russian, etc. Hell, the Russian space program was located in Kazakhstan. Anyway, all I'm saying is that all of the so-called Ukrainians with Russian names, who choose to play for Russia are probably just Russians who want to play for their own country.

Well, I am doing Eastern European studies in school, so I think I know something about the subject. I know for a fact that there's a large minority population of Russians living in the Ukraine, in Belorussia, in Georgia, in the old eastern republics like Kazakhstan, etc. since the Soviet Union was a unified country for a long time, and Russians did live everywhere. Everything was integrated. Off the top of my head, I know a third of the population is ethnically Russian, 17% or so of Ukraine is Russian, etc. Hell, the Russian space program was located in Kazakhstan. Anyway, all I'm saying is that all of the so-called Ukrainians with Russian names, who choose to play for Russia are probably just Russians who want to play for their own country.

But I got the idea that these players really were Ukrainians. But when it comes to those Russian-Ukrainians, your explanation makes sense. And it's really true that Russians spread all over the Soviet Union and they were actually an advantaged ethnic group and they were favoured in many ways. For instance, the Tatars were transported from fertile Crimea, their home, to Kaukasus to give Russians space in Crimea.
It's not hard to imagine that there's a huge population of Russians in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union. In Riga, Latvia, Russians are majority, forming over 65% of population.

you confuse nationality with the birthplace. if your parents are Russians and you were born in Ukraine it doesn't make your Ukranian. almost everyone from your list were born in Kiev or in Eastern Ukraine where live a lot of Russians.
and Khabibulin was born in Sverdlovsk, Russia. now this city is called Ekaterinburg :teach: you may check it - there is no such city in Ukraine;)

Hassan is right in this matter hands down.

as far as "so-called Ukrainians with Russian names", Fedotenko, Bondra, Ponikarovsky, Vishnevsky, and Babchuk are all really Ukrainian names

Shvidki is more of a Polish name

and Zherdev, Varlamov, Mikhnov, & Khabibulin are Russian names

and Khabibulin was born in Sverdlovsk, Russia. now this city is called Ekaterinburg :teach: you may check it - there is no such city in Ukraine;)

i did a search and many results came up for a Sverdlovsk in Ukraine

i even found many pages saying Boris Yeltsin was born in Sverdlovsk Ukraine

http://www.answers.com/topic/boris-yeltsin

Tverdovsky sounds ukrainian, but i am sure he is a russified ukrainian.

i did a search and many results came up for a Sverdlovsk in Ukraine

i even found many pages saying Boris Yeltsin was born in Sverdlovsk Ukraine

http://www.answers.com/topic/boris-yeltsin
it's just a typing error both Khabibulin and Yeltsin were born in Russia
http://nhl.com/lineups/player/8459140.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/nikolai-khabibulin-1?hl=khabibulin
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yeltsintimeline1.html

[QUOTE=futurcorerock]Team participation as-per IIHF regulation is optional based on citizenship. I forget who did it but didn't a Canadian with dual citizenship in the US suit up for the red, white, and blue?

[QUOTE]

Are you talking about Brett Hull?

Are you talking about Brett Hull?
Deadmarsh too...

Kostitsyn .. uh