Alexei Zhitnik

Lore & Background

Zhitnik was drafted 81st overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1991 NHL entry draft after playing for Sokil Kyiv in the Soviet Championship League for two years. He made his NHL debut on October 6, 1992, against the Calgary Flames and scored his first goal nine nights later, also against Calgary. In his rookie season with the Kings, he finished second among rookie defenceman in points with 48. He was an important part of the Kings' playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens. After another year with the Kings, he was traded on February 14, 1995, along with Robb Stauber, Charlie Huddy and a fifth-round draft pick, to the Buffalo Sabres for Grant Fuhr, Denis Tsygurov and Philippe Boucher. He helped the Sabres win the Northeast Division in the 1996–97 NHL season. In the 1997–98 NHL season, he led all defensemen in shorthanded goals (3). He also helped the Sabres reach the finals in the 1998–99 NHL season and stayed on the team until the 2004–05 NHL lockout when he returned to the Russian Super League. Following the lockout, he signed a four-year contract with the New York Islanders. On December 16, 2006, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Freddy Meyer and a conditional third-round draft pick. Two months later on February 24, 2007, he was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers for Braydon Coburn. The Thrashers bought out his contract on June 30, 2008. On July 26, 2008, he joined the Kontinental Hockey League, signing a tryout contract with Dynamo Moscow. He played for Ukraine at the Maccabi “Jewish Olympics” in 2013 and 2017, and won a gold medal as part of Team Ukraine's Masters hockey team at the 2017 Maccabiah Games.

In Their Own Story

The Reunion Arena lights buzzed with that particular hum they had in the '90s—fluorescent, a little sickly, cutting through the haze of cigarette smoke and beer steam. It was a second-round game, 1999, and the score was tied with two minutes left in the third. A winger from the other team, fast and lean, was carrying the puck up the left side, eyes locked on the slot. Zhitnik was already there. He'd read the play three seconds before it developed, skated up from the point, and was standing in the lane like a man who'd been waiting his whole life for someone to try to score past him. The winger wound up. The slapshot left his stick with a crack that you could feel in your molars. It hit Zhitnik's chest plate. The puck bounced off, weak, into the goalie's glove. Zhitnik didn't even flinch. He just turned, looked down the ice, and skated back to the blue line like he'd been standing in a doorway. Around him, the Reunion crowd was already on their feet, and he let them carry him. He never once looked back at the net. He didn't need to. He knew where the puck was. He always knew.

Reader's Guide

Zhitnik never played for the Dallas Stars. He played for the Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, Atlanta Thrashers, and Dynamo Moscow. He did not win the Stanley Cup; he lost in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final with the Buffalo Sabres to the Dallas Stars. He was a fourth-round pick (81st overall) in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, not a first-round pick in 1992.

Did You Know?

• Zhitnik became the eighth defenseman born outside of North America, and first born in the Soviet Union, to appear in 1,000 NHL games on February 20, 2007.
• He led all defensemen in shorthanded goals (3) in the 1997–98 NHL season.
• As of 2022, Zhitnik was assisting Ukrainian forces after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as helping Ukrainian women and children escape to safe countries.