Although over the summer he enrolled in Siberian Federal University, former Capital Alexander Semin has resumed his hockey career, playing for HK Sokol Kransoyarsk, a team in Russia’s Vysshaya Khokeinaya Liga, or VHL.
The VHL is Russia’s second professional hockey league, the rough equivalent of North America’s AHL. Semin, who grew up in Krasnoyarsk, previously played four games with Sokol in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.
Even before the start of the 2017-18 season, Semin stated outright that he wanted to return to playing hockey.
During the preseason, having failed to receive offers from any KHL clubs, Semin practiced with Sokol on an informal basis.
“I think that KHL teams are going to see how Semin plays,” said Sergei Gomolako, former vice-president of hockey operations for Traktor Chelyabinsk, in an interview with Championat in late September. “He’s a talented guy, and I think he’ll soon be called up to one club or another.”
Traktor was one KHL team that was rumored to be mulling over an offer to Semin. Nikolai Sukhanov, a former Traktor player and hockey commentator, told Yuzhnouralskaya Panorama’s Natalya Kalentyeva that the team needed to “shake up” its players and coaches, mentioning Semin as a potential target for Chelyabinsk’s general manager.
As of yet, however, nothing has materialized for Semin in the KHL, and he continues to play for Sokol. The forward has three goals and five assists over eight games with the club.
Sokol’s Instagram account posted a video of Semin’s most recent goal from the club’s match against Khimik Voskresensk on Friday, October 13, 2017.
S/T to RMNB reader Joonas Ahola for alerting us to the story.
Photo Credit: HK Sokol
