Valeri Karpov

Valeri Yevgenievich Karpov (Валерий Евгеньевич Карпов, 5 August 1971 – 10 October 2014) was an ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League and National Hockey League. He competed for Traktor Chelyabinsk and HC CSKA Moscow in Russia before moving to North America. He was drafted 56th overall by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft and joined the team the next season, but struggled to maintain a place in the Ducks roster, bouncing around the minor leagues. He played 76 regular season games for the Ducks over three seasons, scoring 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points, collecting 32 penalty minutes. He returned to Russia in 1997, spending three seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, helping them win the RSL title in 1999. After spells with HC Lada Togliatti and HC Dynamo Moscow, he returned to Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2001, where he stayed for another four years. He was inducted into the Russian and Soviet Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993 and retired in 2005.

In the summer of 2014, during a brawl in his house he took a hit to the head and had a bad fall that resulted in a coma. He underwent two trepanning surgeries, but did not regain consciousness and died on 10 October 2014.