Calgary Flames where are they now: #62 Andrei Nazarov

There are only two 31-day months until the season starts! Let’s take a look at where former Calgary Flames player, Andrei Nazarov, is now.

There are only 62 days until the season starts, which is basically only two months! Oh, how the time has flown. It feels like just yesterday the Calgary Flames failed to qualify for the post-season after trading all their draft picks to acquire assets to take them all the way to the end.

With 62 days left, there are three players in Flames history who have worn #62: Rico Fata, Kris Chucko, and Andrei Nazarov. We went with Nazarov aka “The Russian Bear” because we’re doing somewhat of a draft history type of series this off-season (stay tuned for that), and Fata and Chucko were both drafted by the Flames.

Enough babbling, let’s look at what Nazarov has been doing since he left the Flames.

Nazarov played with the Calgary Flames for about a season and a half, putting up 15 goals and 46 points in 112 games. Since leaving, much like how he became a Flame, he was traded a couple more times. Since leaving the Flames in 2000, he’s played for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Boston Bruins, the Phoenix Coyotes, and the Minnesota Wild. He played a season in Russia before his final season in the NHL with the Wild/Aeros in 2005/06, but I’m not sure if you can even call it a season since it was a total of three games.

A big reason for his early departure from the NHL was because he mentioned how many NHL players use performance-enhancing drugs.

Via CBC:

"As far as I know, 99 per cent of the [enforcers] are on steroids. It has always been a problem for the young heavyweights: You have the boxing technique, the energy, but you lack the mass. The easiest way to get heavier is to use special chemicals."

After those comments, he decided to retire as a player, knowing well that the NHL wasn’t happy with him. But he wouldn’t hang up his skates just yet… well sort of.

Nazarov wasted no time getting back into hockey and the following season, became the general manager of Traktor Chelyabinsk, a team part of the Russian league (later becoming part of the KHL). A season later, he became the head coach for the team. He was the head coach for multiple teams in the KHL and was also the head coach for Kazakhstan at a few international competitions.

As a player and earning the nickname “The Russian Bear”, Nazarov was known as an enforcer who wasn’t afraid to drop the gloves with anyone and everyone. There are some people who say that he’s the best Russian enforcer in NHL history.

As a coach, that temper has definitely followed him, giving him the nickname “The Russian Keenan”.

Where is Andrei Nazarov now? Since last season, he’s the head coach of the Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, part of the KHL (yes, I had to copy and paste that). They lost in the conference quarter-finals last season under Nazarov.