Semen Varlamov

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Position	Goaltender
Catches	Left
Height Weight	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 183 lb (83 kg)
NHL Team	Washington Capitals
Nationality	Russia
Born	April 27, 1988, Saratov, Russia
NHL Draft	23rd overall, 2006 Washington Capitals
Pro Career	2006 – present

Semen Varlamov, born on April 27, 1988 in Saratov, Russia, is an Ice Hockey player and currently a top prospect of the Washington Capitals. He was drafted onto the team in 2006.

[edit] Biography

Semen Varlamov grew up and initially learned hockey in Samara, Russia hockey school. The young netminder moved to Yaroslavl in his early teens and quickly established himself as the club’s dominant 1988-born goalie. During the 2004-05 season, Varlamov made his debut on Lokomotiv’s junior farm club, Lokomotiv 2, skating for the first time in the 1st League (Russia 3). Throughout that season he was second, backing up 1987-born Ivan Kasutin. During the summer of 2005, Kasutin was loaned to Penza, opening the starting job for Varlamov.

The young goaltender has not looked back, starting most of the games for Lokomotiv 2 during the 2005-06 season. Internationally, Varlamov is a long time member of the Russian 1988-born national team. He also was a back up for the 1987-born Russian squad at the unsuccessful 2005 U18 World Junior Championships. Continuing to play with an older age group, Varlamov beat out his former teammate Ivan Kasutin for back up duties at the 2006 U20 World Junior Championships for a Russian squad that mostly consisted of 1986-born players. Varlamov did not see much ice time, skating only in the game against Latvia, where he did not particularly stand out despite allowing just a single goal. Varlamov is the netminder of Russian junior national team’s future and will be the starting netminder for Russia’s U18 squad at the 2006 World Junior Championships and the U20 squad for the 2007 and 2008 WJC tournaments.