Former Blackhawks captain Alexei Zhamnov given the highest coaching position in Russian hockey

Former NHL forward Alexei Zhamnov has been named head coach of the Russian Men's National team. He'll be the man in charge of Russian's Olympic team, as well as the 2022 World Championships team. Joining his staff are assistant coaches Oleg Znarok and Valeri Bragin.

“Taking into account the importance of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, the FHR (Federation Hockey Russia) decided to convene an expert council of authoritative representatives of hockey to agree on the candidacy of the head coach of the Russian national team," the FHR declared in a statement.

More from the FHR (translated from Russian):

The meeting of the council took place on September 27. It was held with the participation of three-time Olympic champion Vladislav Tretyak, two-time Olympic champion Boris Mikhailov, Olympic champion Valery Kamensky, Olympic champion Alexei Zhamnov, world champion, silver medalist and best player of the 1998 Olympic Games Pavel Bure. 

After lengthy discussions by a majority of votes, the council recommended the appointment of Alexei Zhamnov as the head coach of the Russian national team, ”the statement on the FHR website says. 

Note that Zhamnov previously only once acted as head coach at the KHL club - in the 2018/19 season, he temporarily headed Spartak.

In the Russian national team, he held the positions of scouting director and assistant coach.

Zhamnov was an assistant coach for Russia, or rather the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) or Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang where the country claimed a gold medal over Germany. Of course, those particular Olympic Games did not feature NHL players.