Valeri Bragin

Valeri Bragin
Born	(1956-05-31) May 31, 1956 (age 67)
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight	172 lb (78 kg; 12 st 4 lb)
Position	Forward
Shot	Left
Played for	NHL Draft			Undrafted
Playing career	1978–1994

Valeri Nikolayevich Bragin (Russian: Валерий Николаевич Брагин) (born May 31, 1956) is the current assistant coach of SKA Saint Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He is also a retired ice hockey forward. He is former coach of the CSKA Moscow team in the KHL and the Russian national team. He is an ethnic Tatar.

Playing career

Valeri Bragin started his career with

. He won the Danish title with Rødovre in 1990. In that season he was also named league player of the year. The following season he won a silver medal with Rødovre. In 1992 and 1993 he led the Rødovre team to consecutive bronze medals in the Danish league. Bragin ended his playing career at the age of 38 with Rødovre following the 1993-94 season.

Coaching career

Having acted as player/coach with Rødovre, Bragin became the full-time coach for the Russian Under-18 junior team which he led to a gold medal at the 2004 IIHF World U18 Championships. The following season he coached the Russian National Junior Team to a silver medal at the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.

His first full-time head coach job at the club level came with HC Spartak Moscow in the Russian Superleague for the 2007-08 season. Following a stint as an assistant coach with Atlant Moscow Oblast for the 2009–10 KHL season Bragin returned as the head coach of the Russian National Junior Team in the summer of 2010.

He led the Russian junior team to a gold medal at the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Buffalo, New York, USA.

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Eurohockey.com, or The Internet Hockey Database