Kaspars Astašenko

Kaspars Astašenko
Date of birth	7th February 1975
place of birth	Riga , Latvian SSR
date of death	November 20, 2012
Place of death	Riga , Latvia
size	190 cm
Weight	91 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1999 , 5th round, 127th position Tampa Bay Lightning
Career stations
until 1992	Vendenieki
1992-1995	Pardaugava Riga
1993-1994	Hokeja Centers
1995-1998	HK CSKA Moscow
1998-1999	Cincinnati Cyclones
1999-2001	Tampa Bay Lightning Detroit Vipers
2001	Springfield Falcons
2001-2003	Lowell Lock Monsters
2003-2004	HK Riga 2000 Ilves Tampere
2004-2005	EfB Ishockey ASK / Ogre
2005-2006	Chimik Woskressensk HPK Hämeenlinna
2006-2007	HC Slovan Bratislava ASK / Ogre
2007-2009	Ritten sport
2010-2011	HK Beibarys Atyrau
2011–2012	Belfast Giants

Kaspars Astašenko (born February 7, 1975 in Riga , Latvian SSR , Soviet Union ; † November 20, 2012 ibid) was a Latvian ice hockey player .

Career

Kaspars Astašenko began his career as a hockey player with Vandenieki, for which he made his debut in the Latvian ice hockey league in the 1991/92 season . Then the defender played for three years for Pardaugava Riga in the Russian Super League , where he spent much of the 1993/94 season at Hokeja Centrs , with whom he became Latvian champions . From 1995 to 1998 he was under contract with HK CSKA Moscow in the Super League, then the Latvian went to North America, where he played in the 1998/99 season with the Cincinnati Cyclones from the International Hockey League and the Dayton Bombers from the ECHL . He was then selected in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft in the fifth round as a total of 127th player from the Tampa Bay Lightning . For Tampa Bay he was a total of 23 times in the National Hockey League on the ice in the following two years and was able to score one goal and give two assists. Most of the time, however, he spent with their IHL farm teams Detroit Vipers and Long Beach Ice Dogs .

After Astašenko began the 2001/02 season with the new farm team of the Lightning, the Springfield Falcons from the American Hockey League , he was transferred to the Carolina Hurricanes on December 28, 2001 in exchange for Harlan Pratt . In the following year and a half, however, he played exclusively for their AHL farm team Lowell Lock Monsters . For the 2003/04 season he returned to Europe and began the season at HK Riga 2000 in his Latvian hometown, before finishing it with Ilves Tampere in the Finnish SM-liiga . In the following three years he only stayed with his clubs for a short time and played for EfB Ishockey in the Danish AL-Bank Ligaen , ASK / Ogre in Latvia, Chimik Woskressensk in the Wysschaja Liga , the second Russian division, the HPK Hämeenlinna , with the he was Finnish champion in the 2005/06 season , as well as HC Slovan Bratislava in the Slovak extra league .

From 2007 to 2009 Astašenko ran for Ritten Sport in the Italian A1 series . He then took a year off from ice hockey before signing a contract with HK Beibarys Atyrau from the Kazakh ice hockey championship for the 2010/11 season . In early February 2011, shortly before the trade deadline , Astašenko was signed by the Belfast Giants from the Elite Ice Hockey League .

International

For Latvia , Astašenko took part in the junior C World Championships in 1994 and 1995 . In the senior sector, he was in his country's squad at the 2001 and 2006 World Championships , as well as at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City .

death

During and after his career, Astašenko struggled with drug problems. He died of an overdose in November 2012 in Riga.

Achievements and Awards

• 1994 Latvian Master with Hokeja Centrs
• 2006 Finnish champion with HPK Hämeenlinna

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season	2	23	1	2	3	8th
NHL playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-
AHL regular season	2	95	8th	21st	29	114
AHL playoffs	1	5	1	1	2	2
SM liiga main round	2	51	4th	6th	10	172
SM liiga playoffs	2	17th	0	2	2	57
Super League main round	5	121	1	4th	5	98
Super League Playoffs	1	2	0	1	1	4th

(Status: end of the 2010/11 season)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Former NHL player Kaspars Astasenko found dead (leta.lv, November 23, 2012, English, accessed June 1, 2014)
2. ↑ Hokejists Astašenko esot atrasts miris Maskavas priekšpilsētā; nāves iemesls - narkotikas (nra.lv, November 23, 2012, Latvian, accessed June 1, 2014)

Web links

• Kaspars Astašenko at hockeydb.com (English)
• Kaspars Astašenko in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Kaspars Astašenko at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Kaspars Astašenko at eliteprospects.com (English)