Columbus Blue Jacket's Nikita Filatov and His Hockey Career

Nikita Filatov is a young name in NHL hockey, but definitely not a small one. Nikita Filatov was born in Moscow, Russia on May 25, 1990. Filatov is only nineteen-years-old, making him one of the youngest players in currently playing in the NHL. Nikita Filatov is 6 feet tall and weighs 172 pounds and is quite an impressive player. Filatov attended the CSKA Red Army Hockey School in Russia, where his hockey career took off.

In the 2007-2008 hockey season, Nikita Filatov played with the HC CSKA Moscow, a team which is part of the RSL (Russian Super League). The RSL is a league that has produced many great NHL players such as Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings, Vyacheslav Kozlov of the Atlanta Thrashers, Maxim Afinogenov of the Buffalo Sabres, and many more. In the 2006-2007 season, Nikita Filatov played in the IIHF World U18 Championships, where his team took home a gold medal. He played in the same tournament the 2007-2008 season, where his team won the bronze medal. Nikita Filatov's career in the RSL was very short compared to most other players who later go on to the NHL, he she didn't even spend the entire season with them before being drafted.

Nikita Filatov was drafted in 2008 by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was only 18 years old, but he was ranked as the top European skater and was drafted 6th overall, which is very impressive. He started off the 2008-2009 season with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL (American Hockey League), as many players do. The Syracuse Crunch is the Columbus Blue Jacket's affiliate AHL team, which is commonly referred to as a farm team because they mostly use it as a developmental league for future players. Nikita Filatov played the majority of the 2008-2009 season with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, but was called up to play with the Columbus Blue Jackets towards the end of the season.

Nikita Filatov only got to play eight games in the NHL before the end of the season, but he made those eight games count. He scored his first goal in his NHL career in his very first game when the Blue Jackets were playing against the Nashville Predators. In a game against the Minnesota Wild, Nikita Filatov scored three of the four goals by the Blue Jackets to win the game (4-2). Filatov was the first ever Columbus Blue Jacket rookie to score a hat trick. As mentioned before, he is a very young player, and has only very limited experience in the NHL, but judging by his already big list of accomplishments, he is sure to have a great hockey career.

ref-www.nhl.com