Pittsburgh Penguin's Ruslan Fedotenko and His Hockey Career

Ruslan Fedotenko is a name that most hockey fans, particularly Penguin fans, are very familiar with. The Pittsburgh Penguin's Ruslan Fedotenko was born in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 18, 1979, making him 30 years old. This current member of the Pittsburgh Penguins is 6 feet 2 inches tall and weights 195 pounds. Fedotenko played hockey for the Soki Kyiv, a team in the RSL (Russian Super League) in the 1995-1996 season. From there, Ruslan Fedotenko moved to a United States team, the Sioux City Musketeers. The Sioux City Musketeers are a team in the USHL (United States Hockey League) which is the top junior ice hockey league in America. Fedotenko played one season for the Sioux City Musketeers from 1998-1999.

For the 1999-2000 hockey season, Ruslan Fedotenko played for the Trenton Titans. The Trenton Titans is a team that is part of ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) which is a mid-level professional ice hockey league and often a league whose teams act as feeder teams for the NHL (National Hockey League), although the competitive level is usually put a notch below the AHL (American Hockey League), another league with feeder teams. The AHL is a professional hockey league that most NHL teams use for developmental purposes. Almost all of the teams in the NHL are exclusive with one of the AHL teams in the league. Fedotenko did not finish out the season with the Trenton Titans because he started playing with an AHL team, the Philadelphia Phantoms when he was signed by an NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers. He finished out the 1999-2000 season there and remained with this team throughout the 2000-2001 season as well.

In 2001, six years after his debut in the RSL, Ruslan Fedotenko played for the Philadelphia Flyers in the National Hockey League. Fedotenko played the 2001-2002 season with the Philadelphia Flyers, but was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2002. He remained with the Tampa Bay Lightning four seasons. He and the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, where he scored the winning goal of the playoffs. This was the first Stanley Cup that the Tampa Bay Lightning had ever won. In 2007, Ruslan Fedotenko was traded to the New York Islanders. Fedotenko played with the New York Islanders during the 2007-2008 season, but was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, his current team.

In addition to playing in the NHL, Ruslan Fedotenko has also played in the Olympics. In 2002, he played hockey for team Ukraine in the Winter Olympics and is on the roster to play for them again in 2009.

ref-www.nhl.com