To some, it is a point of curiosity that, twice in the past decade, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted a Russian player at seventh overall, with Ivan Provorov having been taken at this spot in 2015 and Matvei Michkov in 2023. There is something of a checkered history there with it seemingly been rare for players from the former Soviet bloc to find spots on the team throughout the years (to the point where the acquisitions of several Russian players, most notably forward Alexei Zhamnov and defenseman Danny Markov, at the 2004 trade deadline was considered unusual), sometimes attributed to some biases from former owner Ed Snider and former captain and long-time executive Bob Clarke. Clarke’s playing days also assuredly fueled a schism between the franchise and that part of the world, with him having slashed Valeri Kharlamov viciously on the ankle in the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union and leading a very trademark physical team performance between the Flyers and HC CSKA Moscow, which included CSKA leaving the ice in protest upon a brutal hit by Flyers D Ed Van Impe on Kharlamov. However, there is a certain detail left out of this conversation, and while none of this sweeps this under the rug, it is a curious fact in light of it: The Flyers were the first NHL team to draft a player from the Soviet Union.

Yes, read that again: The first, in 1975. Let us talk about the case of this largely unknown narrative for a while.

1975 was a historic year for the Philadelphia Flyers franchise. They won their second Stanley Cup in a row, and yet also had the first overall pick [to this day, still the only one they have held in their history] in that year’s NHL Amateur Draft (as it was then known) thanks to a trade on June 3rd, 1975 between them and the lowly, recent expansion Washington Capitals that sent their own first round pick, C (and future respected announcer and entertainment industry figure) Bill Clement, and D Don McLean (not to be confused with the American folk singer-songwriter of “American Pie” fame) in exchange for Washington’s first overall selection. With this pick, they selected C Mel Bridgman from the WCHL’s Victoria Cougars, who was fresh off a season wherein he posted 157 points in 66 games while also posting 175 PIMs. Bridgman was an archetypal Flyer, good two-way forward with steady offensive contribution capabilities and, as demonstrated, no fear with regards to playing aggressively. He had a respectable career with Philadelphia, as well as the Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils, before slowly winding down with the Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks, but did not serve as a gamebreaker of a selection. This is not about whatever disappointment that may serve as, however. This is about an intriguing chapter in NHL history that was monumental in its nature, yet largely forgotten and perhaps ineffectual despite its intrigue both on and off the ice.

In this era, the drafting process was much more drawn out, lasting 18 rounds, leading teams to perhaps take chances in later stages where the chances of a player cracking the league were already minimal/even more minute than they are in the contemporary NHL Entry Draft’s, say, sixth and seventh rounds (though it is worth noting there are a handful more selections nowadays due to an increased number of teams, but the process could still be considered even more of a crapshoot, particularly since scouting was not the same in that era as it is now). In fact, the process was so long and sometimes boring to teams’ front offices (particularly when it was conducted by phone to keep WHA franchises away from young talents before NHL teams could officially sign them) that it led Buffalo Sabres GM Punch Imlach to make an effective protest statement out of frustration/also play a prank on the League by drafting a fictitious Japanese player named Taro Tsujimoto from the similarly fictional Tokyo Katanas of the Japan Ice Hockey League (the only aspect of Tsujimoto’s selection that was real) in round 11 at 183rd overall, in a stunt coordinated by Imlach and Sabres director of communications Paul Wieland. With this in mind, it does not seem like such a reach that players who were legitimately good, but may not play in the league, would be gambled on with late round, low value picks. This is precisely what Flyers GM Keith Allen did in round nine at 160th overall in 1975, when he chose D/LW Viktors Hatuļevs (sometimes rendered as Viktor Khatulev) from the Soviet Union, an elite player for Dinamo Riga of the Soviet Hockey Championship.

Herein, there is something of a distinction to be drawn, as, contrary to prior examples/talking points, Hatuļevs was Latvian and played for a Soviet Latvian team. It does amount to mostly the same in terms of international relations issues relative to the time, but in terms of internal affairs, it does get interesting and complicated. Hatuļevs was an unbelievable, versatile talent on the ice respected throughout the USSR, putting in impressive performances for the Soviet junior national team in both 1974 and 1975, and played a crucial role in Riga becoming a respected opponent in the Soviet Hockey Championship under the guidance of head coach Viktor Tikhonov (which served as a springboard for Tikhonov eventually becoming head coach of HC CSKA Moscow, the Soviet national team, and later the Unified and Russian national teams). Internal politics got dicey when Hatuļevs did not transfer to CSKA, the most respected team in the USSR which held a monopoly on most of the best Soviet talent, however. Statements conflict on whether or not Hatuļevs turned down this offer himself (which was considered a severe offense that could sometimes result in punishment) or if it was by interference of two Latvian Communist politicians, but in any event, this likely did not sit well with the Moscow-dominated Soviet hockey institution. Further, Hatuļevs received a five-year ban for fighting after his draft selection, which seems like an extreme measure even bearing in mind fighting was much less of a staple in Soviet hockey than in North America and was generally considered taboo/was strongly punished, but it may have been meant to discourage NHL teams from drafting Soviet talent and to discourage Soviet players from defecting (as mentioned in the Broad Street Hockey article), though the ban was eventually lifted.

That said, it was personal demons that Hatuļevs could not defeat that ultimately served as the greatest undoing for his hockey career. After not having found out that he was drafted by an NHL team until 1978, the wheels began to come off (these events may not necessarily be correlated and a likely hypothesis will be put forward shortly). He received a year-long suspension in 1979 (incidentally, the same year he played AGAINST the Philadelphia Flyers in an exhibition game for the Soviet Wings Hockey Club, a time during which Clarke was aware of Hatuļevs’ draft status, but not that he was an opposing player as mentioned in the Broad Street Hockey story previously linked – This also being one of a few times that Hatuļevs played against NHL competition that year, having further participated with Krylia Sovetov) for incidentally striking an official during a fight with CSKA’s Vladimir Vikulov. The suspension was lifted, but his off-ice struggles were at an intense point, and he was banned for life in 1981 due to the immenseness of his alcoholism and intense flirtations with selling drugs (which Bill Meltzer attributes to his personal tragedies that he had endured in the form of the death of his wife in a car accident and his father from a heart attack). Hatuļevs ended up never playing an NHL nor WHA game (according to the chidlovski.com profile on him, he was also drafted by the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders in 1975 and also played against WHA teams with the Soviet national team in 1977-78) due to the virtual impossibility of ever obtaining a visa to play in North America, and subsequently, his hockey career came to an end at age 26. Subsequently, he became a cab driver and warehouse worker. On October 7th, 1994, he died at the age of 39 under suspicious circumstances. As mentioned by Meltzer, foul play was suspected, but nothing came of this legally and it became a cold case. Ultimately, no Soviet hockey player would play in the NHL until 1989 when Alexander Mogilny defected to do so and was joined by a crop that included Viacheslav Fetisov, Helmut Balderis, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, Sergei Mylnikov, Sergei Priakin and Sergei Starikov who were permitted to play by the Soviet government under their glasnost policy.

This is quite the intriguing and saddening tale. A story of promise, personal hardship, global geopolitics, and internal politics both of the sporting and governmental nature culminating in one of many instances of extremely talented hockey prospects that never amounted to their full potential. That is a phenomenon the Philadelphia Flyers and their fans know quite a bit about (with Nolan Patrick serving as a recent example), but this story is perhaps the most unique, and one that may surprise many due to it flying under the radar and defying many conventions. It is definitely a resonating and evocative narrative, and one that is fascinating to look into, but a heartbreaker to digest.