| Vladimir Malenkikh | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Born | 1 October 1980 Togliatti, Soviet Union | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) | ||
| Weight | 198 lb (90 kg; 14 st 2 lb) | ||
| Position | Defence | ||
| Shot | Left | ||
| Played for | Lada Togliatti CSK VVS Samara Metallurg Magnitogorsk Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod | ||
| NHL Draft | 157th overall, 1999 Pittsburgh Penguins | ||
| Playing career | 1998–2018 | ||
Vladimir Malenkikh (born October 1, 1980) is a Russian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played most notably in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He was drafted 157th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), it is, by a considerable margin, the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.79 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.
Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical, with teams usually consisting of six players each: one goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team.
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises 24 member clubs based in Belarus, China, Finland, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Russia, and it is planned to expand to more countries. It is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in Europe and Asia, and second in the world behind the National Hockey League. KHL has the third highest average attendance in Europe with 6,121 spectators per game in the regular season, and the highest total attendance in Europe with 5.32 million spectators in the regular season.
