New York Rangers Get Draft Pick for Russian Player Who Died During KHL Game

The NHL general managers approved New York Rangers GM Glen Sather's request for a compensatory pick in June's Entry Draft after the death of the Rangers' 2007 first-round selection, Alexei Cherepanov, according to the New York Post and other sources.

The Rangers will get the 17th pick of this year's second round of the NHL Entry Draft.

Sather made a presentation at the NHL GMs' meetings in Naples, FL yesterday.

The New York Rangers were seeking compensation after the mysterious death of their prospect, called "The Siberian Express" in Russia. Cherepanov died during a KHL game in Russia.

The 19-year-old star of the AHL's Avangard Omsk died suddenly last October after collapsing on his team's bench during a game in Checkhov, not far from Moscow.

Sather claimed the Rangers should receive the 17th selection in the second round of June's draft, since Cherepanov was the 17th overall selection in the 2006 draft.

The Rangers drafted Cherepanov with their first selection, 17th overall, in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

Cherepanov was in his third season with Avangard, in Siberia. In his rookie season in the Russian Superleague, Cherepanov had more points than Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk at the same age of 17.

Cherepanov beat the Russian league rookie goal-scoring record previously held by Pavel Bure. He was drafted 17th overall despite being considered a top five prospect because of the lack of a new transfer agreement between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation concerning players in the Russian Hockey Federation.

The day he died, he played a shift with teammate Jaromír Jágr, and the two were talking on the bench shortly after they left the ice, when he suddenly collapsed.

He had a two-on-one situation with Jagr on his final shift. He scored a goal earlier in the game.

Cherepanov's team was found negligent, according to an AP report.

The KHL issued indefinite suspensions to Avangard's general manager, Anatoly Bardin; the president, Konstantin Potapov; and one of its team doctors, Sergei Belkin; as well as Vityaz Chekhov's president, Mikhail Denisov, citing criminal negligence for their roles in the death of Cherepanov.

The suspensions were announced one day after Cherepanov would have turned 20.

Vladimir Shalaev, a KHL VP, said Avangard doctors and team directors should have known that Cherepanov had a potentially fatal heart condition and it should have prevented him from playing hockey.

Shalaev also said Cherepanov was given a banned performance-enhancing drug, which was found in his system during an autopsy.

Cherepanov died shortly after his heart failed as he sat on the bench alongside his teammate Jaromir Jagr at the end of a game against Vityaz Chekhov. He went into cardiac arrest.

Doctors arrived on the scene a full 12 minutes after Cherepanov collapsed, according to The Canadian Press.

Efforts to revive Cherepanov were slow because there were no ambulances or working defibrillators at the Chekhov arena.

The ambulance usually stationed in the arena had already left the building and had to be recalled.

Heart defects have been found in five players in the Russian ice hockey league since the death of Cherepanov. The KHL ordered the tests after he died.