On Mon, 21 Nov 1994, Nitish Singh wrote:
 
> > Sokol Kiev played at Harvard in '90 and the Crimson tied them 3-3. It was
> > quite a game. Ted Hartje, Harvard '90, later went on to play for Sokol
> > Kiev: I believe he may have been the first American to play in the
> > Russian leagues.
>
> MIKE muller a minnesota native and winnipeg jet prospect played a couple
> years with moscow dynamo in 91-92 and 92-93 before going to the AHL last
> year. there has to be another North american before that. Hartje maybe
> the first college grad to go over but probably not the first NOrth american.
 
Tod Hartje played for Sokol Kiev in 1990-91.  I can't look in his book to
verify this because I lent it to my brother who's in Germany, but I think
he said he was the first North American player to be assigned by an NHL
team to play for a Soviet team.  It may be that another North American
player had played for a Soviet team, but what made him different was that
he was assigned there by the Winnipeg Jets.
 
BTW, his book is fascinating.  I would certainly recommend it.
 
Carol