After playing for Russia's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl-2 youth team and Canada's Drummondville Voltigeurs team, this Russian-born ice hockey defenseman was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the NHL Entry Draft of 2009.
Early in his career, he represented his native country in the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships of 2009 and in the 2007 and 2008 U-18 World Cups.
In 2014, he signed an over four-million-dollar annual contract with the Florida Panthers.
He spent his youth in Lipetsk, Russia (which was then in the Soviet Union).
He and David Booth both played for the Florida Panthers in the early 2000s.
