The National Hockey League is played by many Russians, one of whom is Alexey Marchenko, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings. Muscovite's career began in his hometown, and in just 4 years in professional hockey, he was able to get into the elite of world sports.
Change of “Spartak” to start in CSKA
Alexey Igorevich Marchenko was born on January 2, 1992 in Moscow. Since school age, the young player began to get involved in hockey and soon enrolled in the school of the capital “Spartak”, but soon after the start of training he moved to the CSKA system. “CSKA” highly praised the defender’s talent, and in 2009 the young hockey player made his debut in the professional league as part of the Red Army MHL club. In the first season, Alexey Marchenko demonstrated an incredible level, gaining 34 points in 43 games.
The progress of the newcomer to the club was also evaluated at the core - in the framework of the 2009/10 season, the Russian was 10 times involved in CSKA games in the KHL. But without gaining effective points, he returned to the youth team to gain further experience. The next season was also successful for Aleksey - 38 points for 36 games again forced CSKA coaching staff to attract a player to the KHL matches. In the Russian elite of hockey, Marchenko was able to score two points in 22 meetings and attracted attention from overseas - during the draft he was chosen by the Detroit Red Wings.
A Russian in an interview declared his desire to try his hand at the NHL in the near future, but during the 2011/12 championship he was injured and was out of service for a long time. Upon returning, Marchenko Alexey soon ended up in the main team of CSKA and in the 2012/13 season he seriously helped the club, gaining 9 points.
Moving overseas
To fulfill his dream of moving to America Marchenko Alexey could only in 2013. At the end of May of that year, the defender signed a contract with the Detroit Red Wings, but he did not manage to get into the base right away and was forced to spend some time as part of the farm club - Grand Rapids Griffins, in the AHL. As part of the “griffins” Marchenko spent one and a half seasons, taking part in only one match of the Detroit team at the same time - on January 4, 2014, the NHL defender made his debut.
At the 2014/15 championship, the Russian has already begun to get close to the main squad and on February 25 opened the scoring of goals in the League, hitting the Nashville goal. Since the 2015/16 season, he has become one of the base players and for the first full season he was able to score 11 points in 66 meetings, but this did not help Detroit to succeed. This season, the team again does not shine, being located in the “basement” of the standings, however, the game of the Russian defender is rated very highly.
The game in the Russian team
In 2016, Alexey Marchenko, a hockey player who proved himself in the NHL with the best hand, was called up for the training of the national team. The debut of the young Russian accounted for the World Cup in Moscow and St. Petersburg. An unsuccessful start in the game against the Czech Republic, the Russian team corrected in the following meetings, and in the match against Denmark it was Marchenko’s strike that allowed the ice owners to open an account.
In the final meeting of the group stage with Sweden, the defender issued the first assist for the national team. As a result, losing in the semifinals, Alex became the bronze medalist of the championship, contributing to the victory of the team in the fight for third place. A successful performance allowed Marchenko to be part of the World Cup, however, there, without earning a single productive point, the Russians were content with only 4th place, losing in points to Sweden.