Korolev a King among Leafs - Russian Plane Tragedy hits close to home

IGOR WAS ALWAYS WILLING TO HELP AND GET INVOLVED WITH PEAC HOCKEY DURING HIS OFF SEASON, ASKING FOR NOTHING IN RETURN.   HE  LOVED THE GAME.  HE TOOK PRIDE AND PASSION IN HIS CRAFT, BE IT AS A PLAYER OR COACH.  HE WILL BE MISSED

Kay Whitmore, Ryan Stickle    , Igor Korolev, Joe Quinn
After PEAC training session - May 2009

By Lance Hornby ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 06:47 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 07:05 PM EDT

TORONTO - A shaken Kris King spoke of losing his “brother” in Wednesday’s plane crash that took the lives of his ex-Maple Leafs teammates Igor Korolev and Alexander Karpovtsev.

“That is what I called Igor,” said King, now an NHL vice president of hockey operations. “He told me one day that Korolev translated to ‘king’ in Russian and that he and I and (infrequent linemate) Derek King must be brothers. He was a quiet guy, but did the dirty work a lot of people didn’t see, which was unusual for a Russian at that time (the late 1990s). This news today is sad, sad stuff. Just numbing.”
 In the late ’90s, the Leafs lineup had a strong element of the Moscow Circus, five Russian-speaking players on the main roster after a training camp trade brought defenceman Karpovtsev from the New York Rangers. The names included Dmitry Yushkevich and a young Danny Markov — two hard-hitting, colourful characters on the blueline — and the swift winger Sergei Berezin.

But there was no question who their leaders were.

“Igor and Potsie were extremely well-received everywhere they went,” said Mike Smith, the Leafs’ associate general manager, who brought both to the team.

“Igor was soft-spoken, a jack-of-all-trades. Potsie was smart, he could read the b.s. situation in any dressing room and the first year he played for us (’98-99), I think he led the league in plus-minus (+38).”


Smith was a proponent of Russian-trained players from his days with the Winnipeg Jets and brought many to the Leafs. There was still some prejudice towards Eastern Bloc players in the NHL at the time, but the multinational Leafs seemed to hit it off and made the 1999 Eastern Conference final.

A prankster once altered left winger Garry Valk’s nameplate to read Igor Volkov, after he spent time on a line with Berezin and Korolev, and sat in their midst in the dressing room alongside Karpovtsev.

“I know Igor loved his wife, Vera, and their children very much, and my wife and I had some great times with them,” Kris King said.

In 2000, five years after Igor joined the Winnipeg Jets, the Korolevs became Canadian citizens. When the lights were dimmed for the anthems at the ACC, Korolev would be quietly singing O Canada in the darkness, practising as part of his swearing in ceremony. He wanted the media to quiz him on prime ministers and provincial capitals for a written component of his test.

“He helped all of our young guys with their language and cultural issues in those days,” said Pat Park, the Leafs’ director of media relations. “He was so easy to work with. And he was a great influence on Nikolai Kulemin’s career with Magnitogorsk before Nikolai came over here. Igor came to see him play so we would see him around the wives’ lounge at the ACC a few times the past year.”

King did not want to believe the reports from Russia on Wednesday that almost all the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team had perished in the crash.

“We’ve lost pretty good friends and teammates today,” King said. “It’s been a terrible summer for hockey, starting with the loss of (NHL scouting vice-president) E.J. McGuire and the three players who passed away. This has affected us all in a deep way.”