Russian hockey player dies after NHL draft. Artem’s life was taken by a terrible accident

It’s hard to find a young hockey player who wouldn’t dream of putting on an NHL jersey and playing a game for it at least once in his life. Most players get to the overseas league through the draft, but talented defenseman Artem Kopot was not destined to play for Pittsburgh, as he died tragically.

“He had a great career ahead of him”

Kopot was one of the most talented defenders of his generation. The coaches of Chelyabinsk’s Traktor noticed the short defenseman when he was just 17 years old. Artem also caught the eye of the management of the youth team of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The hockey player went to the 1992 World Championship for hockey players under 20 years old with a year and a half of experience playing at the adult level.

— We were together from the first days at the Traktor school, we became friends right away. We had the same birthday, we celebrated together. Before this event, we agreed where we would meet, who we would invite. A very talented guy, strong and technical at the same time. He had a great career ahead of him, — Ravil Gusmanov told about Artem’s playing qualities in an interview with RussianHockeyStyle.Ru.

The tournament in Germany turned out to be a triumph for our hockey players. The players, gathered from independent post-Soviet states, won six out of seven matches, losing only to the Czechs. At the same time, the vaunted Canadians were destroyed with a score of 7:2. Kopot was also a notable player in our team’s matches.

“I wanted to play at home for another year”

Many of the CIS national team members were in demand at the NHL draft. Seven Russians were selected in the first round. The same number found their teams in the second. Kopot was selected only in the sixth round, number 139. But such a late choice did not mean anything: the same Pavel Datsyuk six years later would be the 171st player to leave the 1998 draft.

Artem attracted the attention of Pittsburgh. The selection of this defenseman was significant for the Penguins. Before this, the team from Pennsylvania had never drafted hockey players from Russia. Pittsburgh was ready to invite the defenseman right away, but he decided to stay in his homeland for another season.

“Right after the draft, he was invited to the NHL, to Pittsburgh, but he didn’t go, he wanted to play at home for another year, gain strength and experience in the Traktor main team,” recalls Gusmanov.

Unfortunately, Artem never made it back overseas. Exactly a month after the draft, Kopot was returning home in his Zhiguli. According to Gusmanov, the young hockey player was distracted and lost control. The road was empty, but it didn’t help. The car crashed into a pole at high speed.

Teammate Andrey Sapozhnikov was riding behind. He pulled the wounded Artem out and took him to the hospital, but he couldn’t save the talented defender. He never managed to reveal even the minimum of his potential.

In memory of the player, to this day no one in Traktor chooses the number four that Kopot wore. Also, a pre-season tournament in memory of the defender is regularly held in Chelyabinsk.