Maxim Bets

Career

Maxim Bets started his hockey career in Russia with Traktor Chelyabinsk before crossing to North America to play in the junior Western Hockey League. He turned in two standout seasons for the Spokane Chiefs, notching 49 goals and 57 assists (106 points) in 1992–93, then 46 goals and 70 assists (116 points) in 1993–94. In each of those years, he finished second on the team in scoring, behind Valeri Bure and then Ryan Duthie. The St. Louis Blues picked him 37th overall in the 1993 NHL draft, but while he was still with the Chiefs, his rights were swapped to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in exchange for fellow Russian Alexei Kasatonov. Bets appeared in three NHL games for the Mighty Ducks during the 1993–94 season without recording a point, which proved to be his only taste of the league. He spent the rest of his North American tenure bouncing between the IHL’s San Diego Gulls, the AHL’s Worcester IceCats and Baltimore Bandits, and the ECHL’s Raleigh IceCaps. In 1996, he returned to Russia and the Russian Superleague, playing single seasons with HC CSKA Moscow, Traktor Chelyabinsk, Mechel Chelyabinsk, and Metallurg Magnitogorsk. He rejoined Mechel Chelyabinsk for another year, then played a season with Severstal Cherepovets, and split the 2002–03 campaign between Molot-Prikamye Perm and Krylya Sovetov Moscow. In 2003, he went back to Mechel Chelyabinsk for a third stint, this time in the Vysshaya Liga, and stayed three seasons before returning to Traktor Chelyabinsk for a third time at the end of the 2005–06 season. After a year with Kazakhmis Satpaev, he joined Mechel Chelyabinsk for a fourth time. In 2008, he signed with Gazprom-OGU Orenburg.