Alex Starukhin

Alexander "Alex" Evgenyvich Starukhin(Born June 2, 1980) is a Coocoostani Ice Hockey player. He is currently a Defenceman for the Coocoobad Red Menace of the Coocoostan Hockey League.

Early Life

Starukhin was born in the capital of Coocoobad and tried out for the CSKA Coocoobad(Central Red Army) hockey academy at the age of 8, after having played recreationally for several years prior. He was rejected and it was only after more unsuccessful tryouts that the head Coach of CSKA's senior team decided to accept him after supervising the recruiting personally. Starukhin underwent 5 years of strenuous on and off ice training, that he was assinged to the old CSKA's under 15 team in 1993. CSKA, now under the supervision of the People's Liberation Army of Coocoostan(PLAC) competed in the Coocoostan Junior Hockey League. He progressed at an average rate, moving to the Under 17 and finally to the Under 20 team in 1997. After two years with the under 20 side, he was assigned to the PLAC Senior team for 8 games intermittently in the 1999-2000 season. After the off-season retirement of two of the side's defencemen, Starukhin was invited to join the PLAC team full-time.

PLAC Career

Starukhin then began to climb the defence pairings of the PLAC side. Starukhin was christened along with Centre Andrei Stolypin and Goaltender Nikolay Naumov as "The Wunderkids of Coocoobad" as PLAC enjoyed back to back titles in 2000 and 2001. Times grew tougher after that for PLAC, as the Coocoostan Hockey Federation began to crack down on Army domination of the sport. This came to a head in the 2005-6 season, when the CHF asked two teams, one being PLAC to withdraw for the next year. This issue was solved by a compromise where the new Coocoostan Military announced it planned to sell off the many sports teams controlled by the army anyhow and the team was sold to billionaire Konrad Schultz. Schultz rebranded the team the Coocoobad Red Menace and retained roughly half the players. The team performed decently in the regular season, going 8-6-0, good enough for third of 8 but floundered in the playoffs losing to eventual finalist Panjuhr Elite. The team won the first game of their quarterfinal series, but lost the next three and battled back from being down 3-1 to force a seventh game, which they lost 2-0. Starukhin was named the league's best Defenceman for the first time, after being nominated two other times and was a candidate for MVP.

International Career

Starukhin was selected to represent Coocoobad in both East Pacific Hockey Championship 4 and 5, winning the tournament the first time and losing in the final the second. Starukhin was lauded in the media for his tight checking of Kelssek's Sydney Crawford and was regarded as one of the best defencmen in the tournament both times.

Red Menace Career

Starukhin's performance during the regular season was heavily criticized by ownership, as he recorded two assists in 18 games. Reportedly, he was the focus of the dispute between owner Konrad Schultz and coach Mikhail Afanasenkov, resulting in Afanasenkov's firing from the team. Starukhin played well in the playoffs, maintaining his high standard of defencive play, while recording 5 assists in 12 games.

Attributes

Starukhin is of average size for a Defender, at 6 foot 2 inches tall and 210 pounds. He is well rounded in terms of skill, with only fighting, faceoffs and deking relative weaknesses. He is known for a hard and accurate slapshot, strong checking, good fitness and leadership.

International Interest/Contract Situation

There were rumours during EPHC 4 of Starukhin moving to the Kelssek Hockey League, which were widely beleived to be unfounded and were likely started by his own agent to raise the asking price. He eventually signed a 17.5 Million Gropek contract, which covers three years of 5 million in salary, plus 2 million in incentives and 500 thousand for a signing bonus(Coocoostansky Sport,16 APR 06). Starukhin will be under contract to the CRM until the summer of 2009.