first played for Dynamo Moscow in 1991-92 as well as participating in the European Junior Championships for Russia.
Klimovich started his professional career with Dynamo Moscow
In the summer of 1992, Klimovich was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks 41st overall in the NHL Entry Draft. The following season he became a full time member of Dynamo and also played in the 1993 World Junior Championships, scoring four points in seven games.
Klimovich wearing the rare "Onion Dome" jersey style from the early days of the post-Soviet Russian National Team
After another season with Dynamo, Klimovich came to the United States, joining many Russians at the time seeking fame and fortune in the NHL. He played three full seasons with the Indianapolis Ice of the International Hockey League (IHL), scoring a high of 57 points in 1997-98. In addition, during the 1996-97 season Klimovich would play his one and only NHL game with two penalty minutes served but no points for the Blackhawks.
Klimovich played three seasons for Indianapolis in the IHL
He would play for both the Las Vegas Thunder and Quebec Rafales, both of the IHL, and the Idaho Steelheads of the West Coast Hockey League in 1997-98 as his time in North America came to an end.
1998-99 Klimovich split time between first EC Graz in Austria and the Augsburg Panthers in Germany and remained with Augsburg for the 1999-00 season as well.
A return to Russia followed for 2000-01 when Kilmovich rejoined Dynamo Moscow. 2001-02 was split between Sibir Novosibirsk, then in the Russian second division, where he excelled with 63 points in 47 games. The remainder of the season saw him join Metallurg Magnitogorsk for 13 games in the top division.
Klimovich returned to Dyanmo for the 2001-02 season
For the first time since his three seasons in Indianapolis, Klimovich found some stability, as he rejoined Sibir Novosibirsk, now in the top division of the Russian league, for three seasons from 2002-03 to 2004-05.
His career would wind down with a season spent with Spartak Moscow and a move to Metallurg Novokuznetsk, 3,000 kilometers east of Moscow in south central Russia for the 2006-07 season. After three seasons off the ice, Klimovich returned to action with HK Belgorod in the Russian third division and then 4 games with Donbass Donetsk in Ukraine, ending a 21 year hockey journey that took him from Idaho around the globe to central Asia.
While Klimovich only played in a single NHL contest, there are many other leagues in the world where one can make a living being a hockey player, and his long career proves that the NHL, while the elite league on the planet, is not the only one.
Today's featured jersey is a 1991-92 Dynamo Moscow Sergei Klimovich jersey and it's white color shows off the many battle scars this jersey accumulated on the ice. It also features the bold sponsorship of the Samsung electronics company, the first jersey sponsor of Dynamo.
This jersey has all graphics screen printed onto the light weight mesh, typical of Russian jerseys of the era.
Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1993-94 Dynamo Moscow Sergei Klimovich jersey. This jersey was made by the Tackla company out of Finland. While Dynamo was still sponsored by Samsung, they had also now added sponsorship from Simod sportswear of Italy and Favorit Bank.
14 different teams in 21 seasons - Sergei was a nomad!
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