Photo: Championat.com
Former Washington Capitals and Hershey Bears forward Oskar Osala has won the Gagarin Cup. His Metallurg Magnitogorsk won game seven 7-4 over Lev Praha.
In the NHL, Osala played in all of three games (two with Washington, one with Carolina). For the most of his North American career, Osala played in the AHL with the Hershey Bears (where he won the Calder Cup in 2009), the Albany River Rats, and the Charlotte Checkers.
Osala, who was traded by the Caps as part of the package for Joe Corvo (sigh) in 2010, has spent the past three seasons in the KHL. Metallurg traded for him last December after Osala played for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk for more than two years.
During the finals, Osala drew criticism from TV analyst Sergey Gimaev who said on air that Osala’s skills aren’t sufficient to play on one of the KHL’s top clubs (in 20 postseason games, Osala didn’t score a single goal and had just five assists). Two days later though, Gimaev had nicer things to say about Osala, mentioning his agressiveness on the forecheck and cost efficiency. The coach of the 26-year-old Finn, Mike Keenan, called him a “solid team player”.
Late in the postseason, Osala played on Metallurg’s fourth line, skating alongside fellow ex-Hurricane Tim Brent and Russian powerforward Evgeny Timkin.
In game seven, Osala recorded an assist on an empty-net goal by another Capitals draft pick, Mikhail Yunkov, selected by George McPhee in the third round of the 2004 Draft.
Small world.
Keenan has already suspended half the team for wearing hats wrong RT @AOsadchenko Metallurg Magnitogorsk KHL Champs pic.twitter.com/0aMN0e3uIO
— RMNB (@russianmachine) 30 апреля 2014
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