Ruslan Fedotenko named 2012 Ukraine Player of the Year
21 Jan 2013 | Davide Tuniz
Philadelphia Flyers forward was named with 105 votes, the best result ever
60 among coaches, referees, hockey experts and sports journalists voted, as usual in January, the best Ukranian player for the last season, assigning 3 points for the first, two for the second and one for the third.
Ukraine national team and Philadelphia Flyers forward Ruslan Fedotenko was the clear winner with 104 votes total, the highest result ever.
After the end of the season in the NHL, where Ruslan, along with his former club "New York Rangers" came until semifinals of the Stanley Cup, he come home during the lock out, where defending the colors of Donbas Donets'k in the KHL (33 matches 8 goals, 10 assists). Ruslan also left his sign in the victory of Ukraine in Kyiv prequalification Olympic tournament (3 games, 2 goals, 3 assists), wearing Ukraine jersey for the first time in 10 years.
Fedotenko repeated his success in 2009, when the won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh Penguins
Winnipeg Jets' Alexei Ponikarovsky. finished second with 63 points. Last season Ponikarovsky played the Stanley Cup finals with New Jersey Devils and during the lockout played at Donbas (32 games, 5 goals, 13 assists).As Fedotenko, also Ponikarovsky helped the national team to get to the final Olympic qualification (3 matches, 2 goals, 3 assists).
Fedotenko and Ponikarovsky line-mate at Donbas Sergei Varlamov was in third place.
Last year the prize was awarded to Aleksandr Materukhin