Spring 1986, the USSR national ice hockey team is preparing for the world championship. Everyone is determined only to win, and CSKA striker Igor Vyazmikin is especially trying. The forward, who is only 20 years old, is having a good season and won a place in the national team in a battle with experienced Bison. Life is in full swing, sparkles with bright colors, everything is going well, an adult debut is ahead and, apparently, world recognition.
Alas, the dream collapsed overnight. At one of the last trainings before the championship, after a collision with another player, Alexey Gusarov accidentally cut Igor's leg with a skate. Yes, so unfortunate that the doctors put eight stitches, and the world championship had to be forgotten. Then it seemed that this was just an unfortunate accident, and the bright forward still had many world-class tournaments ahead. But there was none.
But in that season, Vyazmikin played superbly at the Youth World Cup in Canada. The Soviet team won all seven matches, including the hosts of the competition (4:1). Vyazmikin scored a magnificent goal, leaving three opposing players and the goalkeeper in the cold, and in just 10 games the striker had five goals and five assists. The player was rightfully included in the symbolic team of the tournament.
«Igor was a talent, one of the best players, if not the best, of his generation. A very powerful, well-knocked hockey player, he could ram opponents, he had good hands, and he saw the clearing very well. And he had good dribbling. He excelled in everything of his peers and started playing in CSKA at the age of 16. Then Igor already looked like an adult, and on the ice he was brave and courageous. He was somewhat reminiscent of Vladimir Krutov, only he was a little taller. And if everything continued in a normal rhythm, then he could sparkle and become one of the best in the USSR national team,» said two-time Olympic champion Alexander Kozhevnikov.
Difficult choice
Vyazmikin for some time successfully combined hockey and football training. Moreover, in hockey he was lucky to get to the Olympic champion, later the famous coach Yuri Moiseev, and in football — to the ex-captain of CSKA football, the champion of the USSR in 1970 Albert Shesternev. And only at the age of 13 Igor made the final choice. And already at 16 he made his debut for the adult CSKA in the national championship. And he did not take a back seat against the background of world stars: he played 20 matches, scored eight goals and made 12 assists.
«Igor Vyazmikin was one of the brightest players of that time. A young, very talented and promising hockey player with an army school and a good character. He was a powerful, physical player with good skating and technique, with an excellent throw. With excellent game thinking. For hockey he was an ideal option. I think that in terms of the way he played, in his best years, he was closest to Andrey Kovalenko,» Honored Coach of Russia Vladimir Plushev told the agency.
But in CSKA, the gifted player could not stay long. Talent and strong playing qualities could not outweigh the troubles with the sports mode and unmanageable character. After another incident with alcohol, Viktor Tikhonov, tired of fighting, showed the hockey player the door.
«If Igor Vyazmikin had not been sitting on a glass, hockey would have received an outstanding player. But the guy is spineless, with laziness. After the murder of his older brother he took to drink. So much so that everyone was horrified. Tikhonov was with him both in a good way and in a bad way — nothing helped. He expelled, «recalled Boris Shagas, a long-term CSKA breeder, in an interview with Sport-Express.
br>
It didn't work out in the NHL
The player went to the Resurrection «Chemist», who played in the major league of the USSR championship. But he spent only one season there, after which he quarreled with the head coach of the team, in the past a formidable defender of the national team Valery Vasiliev. And he left for the NHL in the Edmonton Oilers, who had drafted him earlier, which was then one of the league leaders. But even there he did not work out: only four matches and one goal for the main team, and then a link to the farm club and a trip to the lower leagues.
br>
For various reasons, Igor was no longer able to return to the NHL. And although he continued to play, the level of his clubs was no longer stellar: Danish Rungsted, Italian Fassa, Finnish Ilves. In 1997, at the end of his career, Vyazmikin once again found himself needed by his native CSKA, and Cherepovets Severstal became his last team. After completing his playing career, Vyazmikin coached the youth team of the Moscow Spartak for some time.
In 2009, Vyazmikin died before reaching the age of 44. Apparently, the features of the lifestyle affected. Contemporaries wrote that Igor in his youth was strongly influenced by the tragic death of his older brother.
“He called me shortly before his death, it was terrible … I didn’t even recognize the voice. It was not a voice — some kind of hissing at the end of the wire. I say:“ Who is this? ”-“ Igor Vyazmikin. I have big problems, throat cancer. «I practically did not hear him, I could hardly make out these words. I was going to come to his hospital, but we just flew away the next day. «Sport-Express» doctor of the Moscow «Dynamo» Valery Konov.
An unrising star
The interlocutors of the agency believe that Vyazmikin, due to his addictions, did not manage to realize his outstanding gift.
«It was a talent, but side effects affected,» Kozhevnikov believes. «The kid was a good, sincere, awesome person. But kindness sometimes destroys, because he could not refuse anyone. And a tragedy occurred. I don’t know why he died, I won’t lie. There were various rumors.
«Unfortunately, there are always personal moments , which do not allow reaching the heights to which Igor could rise, — Plushev believes. — I think this is a disagreement with the character. Probably, the person did not quite control himself in some places. Therefore, everything turned out that way. I would not like to go into details. In general, he could become a superstar, but it all depended on the character. Therefore, he failed in the NHL. All that God gave him, he squandered on minor things.