Former masseur of the USSR national team Oleg Kuchenev:

“Vyazmika kept a bottle of cognac under her pillow and drank it down her throat. Alcohol killed him. Despite being an unborn talent now, he dishonorably finished hockey..

Former CSKA watcher Boris Shagas:

“If Vyazmikin had not sat on a glass, hockey would have received an outstanding player. But the man is lazy, spineless. He started drinking after killing his brother. So much so that everyone was horrified.”.

Khimik and former striker of the USSR national team Alexander Chernykh:

“The team was preparing in Sochi. Vyazmikin was called up for the first time with a group of young hockey players. There he also managed to catch fire. I went out, I was late for the meeting.

Igor Vyazmikin came to hockey at the age of 6 – his father brought him to CSKA school to the legendary former hockey player and novice coach Yuri Moiseev. At the same time, the future of the USSR national team was seriously fond of football and managed to successfully combine the two sports.

The childhood of our heroine turned out to be quite difficult. Already at the age of 12, he experienced a severe tragedy – the death of his older brother, who played for the Moscow Spartak farm club. For a teenager, this episode was a turning point that divided his life into before and after – later the death of his brother, who became the catalyst for all his troubles, an example and guide for Igor in life. Despite the difficult situation and depressed mood, young Vyazmikin did not withdraw and continued to play sports. At the age of 13, he had to choose between football and hockey, and the young man chose to play with puck.

After 3 years, at the age of 16, the promising striker made his debut in the main team of CSKA. His first season turned out great – the young striker scored 20 (8 + 12) points in 38 games! And this is in the strongest national championship in which the best hockey players of the USSR played. Of course, the success of the young player did not go unnoticed by the coaches of the young team. In 1986, Igor went to the first international tournament in his career and immediately became the owner of the MFM gold medals – in the final, the Soviet team beat the Canadians, and Vyazmikin scored a magnificent goal.

During the tournament, our hero became the leader of the Soviet team, scored 10 (5+5) points in 7 games, scored a hat-trick and was included in the symbolic team. Journalists praised the outstanding miracle of the Soviet team and noted its assertiveness, aggressive style of play and ability to complete attacks. And for the peculiar way of protecting the disk, Vyazmikin was nicknamed the Snake.

The CSKA graduate managed to impress not only reporters and ordinary fans, but also coaches of the main team of the USSR. Right after MFM, the talented forward was supposed to go to his first World Championship in his career, but a tragic accident intervened. The day before the start of the world championship, Alexei Gusarov cut Vyazmikin’s leg during training, thereby closing the road to the World Championship – the doctors put 8 stitches in the front and forbade him to go on the ice. This case, coupled with the death of his brother, prompted our hero to drink alcohol, which very quickly became the main passion of CSKA and the USSR national team.

Igor’s career went downhill very quickly – teammates of the hockey player said that he often came to training with a hangover, and also let him drink at the training camp, and even fled from his base in search of a new portion of strong drinks. . The coaching staff of the army team was well aware of the weakness of his wards, but up to a point he turned a blind eye to it – whatever he says, and even in this case, Vyazmikin, thanks to his natural talent, can guarantee the result of the team.

Igor’s partners in CSKA recalled that once he came to a skating match with Dynamo Riga. Find out about these coaches and the striker was threatened with severe punishment. Therefore, he went to the residents of Riga to the locker room and asked to borrow a pair of skates. And those jokes gave him skates a few sizes bigger.

Of course, this could not continue for long – at some point, the patience of the coaching staff and management ended, and Vyazmikin was expelled from hockey for systematic violations of the regime. Having lost his life’s profession, Igor soon went to work at a powder metallurgical plant and did not regret his previous mistakes – acquaintances and friends of the hockey player did not leave the feeling that he was constantly in some kind of prostration. One of the journalists became interested in the fate of a promising striker, found him at the factory and gave a long speech, which resulted in the article “Last Chance” published in one of the Soviet newspapers. In it, Vyazmikin made sure that he quit the addiction and was ready to go on the ice again if given a chance. After this note, the legendary Vyacheslav Fetisov became interested in the history of the striker, whom Igor had known since childhood: when he was still very young, he played with Anatoly, the younger brother of the great defender. Thanks to Fetisov, the hero of this text managed to get a second chance.

The MFM hero from CSKA moved to Khimik, where he spent 2 seasons. But due to a conflict with the head coach, Igor had to leave the club – then the forward decided to drastically change his life and try in Edmonton, which had already prepared himself. Overseas were well aware of the addictions of newcomers, but local administrators were confident that if you wrote a hockey player a solid check, he would automatically be disciplined and get rid of all alcohol-related problems. However, despite the absence of confirmed cases of violations of the regime by our hockey player, he did not manage to gain a place in the main team of one of the strongest NHL clubs. He played only 4 matches in the best league in the world and scored 1 disc, mainly in the AHL.

After North America, Vyazmikin tried himself in the European championships – Denmark, Finland and Italy. But nowhere did he achieve significant success. Returning to his homeland, Igor spent 2 more seasons with his native CSKA and Severstal, after which he finally closed his skating. All his former teammates and experts are absolutely sure that Snake hasn’t realized even half of his potential. And Viktor Tikhonov, the former head coach of CSKA and the USSR national team, said that Vyazmikin was addicted to pills:

“There was such a Vyazmikin in CSKA. Nicknamed Snake. When he was playing in Canada, no one could stop him. Brilliant hockey player! But I’m stuck on pills. Seduxen, phenazepam, something else… And he finally got some great hockey.

Having finished with hockey, Igor tried to become a coach and even managed to manage the youth team of Moscow Spartak. But after a short coaching period, Vyazmikin disappeared for a long time.

“Shortly before his death, he called me – it was terrible … I could not even recognize the voice. It wasn’t a sound, it was a hiss at the end of a wire. I say: “Who is this?” — »Igor Vyazmikin. I have a big problem, throat cancer.” I almost didn’t hear him, I could barely make out those words. I was going to come to his hospital – but we flew away the next day. And when they returned, there was no one to visit. ”– said the doctor Valery Konov.

Igor Vyazmikin died on October 30, 2009 after a serious and prolonged illness – at that time he was only 44 years old.