Viktor Kozlov: A Forgotten Tough Guy

[Rin 277]

It's theme week, yipee. Because my brain refuses to entirely turn off my creativity during theme week, I figured I'd throw back a little bit to my initial stint with the Helsinki Titans and talk about an entirely forgotten player-- Viktor Kozlov, created by my brother @Kuch9.

 

Conceived as the fictional son of former WWE wrestler Vladimir Kozlov, Viktor (of no relation to the actual former NHL player) was born and bred to be a bruiser in the VHL. Early build decisions heavily favored stats that allowed for greater body checking, as he wanted to build the best enforcer he possibly could.

 

Early on, Kozlov was drafted to the Halifax 21st (when their logo was still the really bad one that would eventually be replaced by what it is today), and immediately made his mark known on the VHL by going after the league's best and brightest. In one season with the 21st, Kozlov laid the body 263 times, good for 4th in the league at large. Not complacent with just being a big body on the ice, his rookie season also saw him put up 48 points in 72 games, including 15 goals to put him near the 20 goal mark. This was particularly interesting, because Kozlov would actually continue down the path of a lesser seen build for forwards at the time by being a bit more aggressively pass-first as opposed to shoot-first. This, of course, was well before the hyper scoring meta that saw a  number of people just send scoring to 99 and watch the points fall in. Kozlov, instead, wished to dish the puck off to teammates who were better at handling, shooting and overall setting up plays, likely because it left him open to throw another check should the need arise.

 

When I got the inaugural GMing job in Houston, I knew I wanted to bring Kozlov to the Bulls right away. He was my brother, of course, but I also knew he would be an incredibly useful piece of the inaugural puzzle as someone who had higher TPE compared to the rest of the field. While putting up 61 points in 72 games (not exactly lighting the league on fire in that regard), he would go on to league the league in both hits and PIM with 258 hits and 157 minutes spent in the box.

 

While it should have been a recipe for success, Kozlov would spend his only meaningful VHL season on the Helsinki Titans in s66. Drafting my brother to the team I was playing for in the bigs should have been a slam dunk, but unfortunately, he and I don't have a very large intersection on the Venn diagram of interests and hobbies. Writing articles and making graphics, to many, is more like doing homework, and Kozlov ended up being the victim of such a mindset. Still, for the Titans, Kozlov put up 30 points in the regular season on a lower line, and threw the body 125 times-- good for top 20 in the league. He served as the ultimate roleplayer for a Helsinki team that would go on to win it all after sweeping the Vancouver Wolves in the finals. That means, poetically, Viktor Kozlov is a one season wonder in the VHL and has his name on the Continental Cup. Dude is kind of a legend in that regard.

 

He'd bounce around between a few more teams in the VHL as an inactive line-filler, but nothing exciting would follow the Russian-born forward for the rest of his career. Still, he accomplished his goal of being a physical force on the ice, and even got his name on the Continental Cup (as many times as Pepper did, I might add).