Valery Vasilyev

Valery Vasilyev began playing hockey with Dynamo Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) in 1967, but after one season there he joined Dynamo Moskva, playing there until the end of his playing career in 1984. Vasilyev never won a Soviet title, but was a runner-up six times (1971, 1972, 1977-80) and won a bronze seven times (1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981-83).

Internationally, besides his Olympic medals, Vasilyev won eight World Championships titles (1970, 1973-75, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982) and seven European Championships titles (1970, 1973-75, 1979, 1981, 1982). He also won silvers (1972, 1976) and bronze (1977) at the World Championships and silvers (1972, 1976, 1978) and bronze (1977) at the European Championships. Vasilyev was named as the best defenseman at the 1973, 1977 and 1979 World Championships. He took part in the 1972 and 1974 Summit Series and won the 1979 Challenge Cup between Soviet Union and NHL stars.

He also won the 1981 Canada Cup and was third in the 1976 Canada Cup. Vasilyev retired from hockey in 1984, but made a short come-back in 1989, when he played one season in Hungary with Újpesti TE. After that he was the vice president of hockey club MVD Moskva Oblast and worked as a general manager of Krylya Sovetov Moskva. Vasilyev was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1998. His daughter Yelena later married the Russian ice hockey player Aleksey Zhamnov, who won a full set of medals at the 1992, 1998 and 2002 Olympic Games.