Professional Hockey in Russia:
Building a World-Class League
I worked for a few months as a sports reporter at a Russian television station, so I thought I would put my knowledge of Russian hockey to use. A lot has changed since I made this map in 2006 – Evgeni Malkin is a bona fide NHL star, and the Kontinental Hockey League has become the pre-eminent league in the former Soviet Union (though it is still not without problems). This infographic spans topics from the leaders of the Russian hockey world to struggling clubs to Russia's historic hockey hotbeds. I plan on updating this map to reflect the landscape of the KHL, and in addition to Malkin defecting to the NHL, I should make mention of the players under contract in North America who have skipped over to Russia. I created all of the design features and wrote all of the text for this wall poster – click on the insets below to see a sample of the features and writing.