Evgeni Nabokov

Playing career

Russia and minor league
San Jose Head Scout Tim Burke saw Nabokov on a advertisement during his trip to Russia while Burke went to scout another player. Taken late in the ninth round, the Sharks had never seen him play; rather, they were more interested in the skill of Nabokov's father, a professional goaltender who played 18 years in Kazakhstan.

San Jose Sharks
After a few years in the AHL, Nabokov played his first NHL game on the first day of the new millennium, stopping his first four shots, all breakaways,when he replaced Steve Shields in a game against the Nashville Predators.
On January 19th, 2000, Nabokov started in his first NHL game, playing against the Colorado Avalanche and famed goalie Patrick Roy. Impressively, Nabokov stopped all 39 shots he faced in a 0-0 tie. In his first four appearances, Nabokov stopped all but one of his first 104 shots, and the one goal he allowed was when Stephane Matteau put the puck into an empty net while Nabokov was skating to the bench on a delayed penalty.
In the second game of the 2001 season, Shields hurt his ankle, leaving San Jose without a number #1 goalie. Instead of giving the job to the very well known Miikka Kiprusoff, whom the Sharks brass considered the "goalie of the future," they left Kiprusoff in the AHL so he could get more experience, and gave the starting position to Nabokov, and he ran away with it, winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the rookie of the year. Also, he played in the 2001 All-star game and took San Jose to the playoffs.
On March 10, 2002 he became the first netminder in NHL history to score a powerplay goal, doing so against the Vancouver Canucks. He was also the first European goaltender to score a goal.
Nabokov was considered one of the elite goaltenders in the NHL, and is often ranked as one of the top ten, if not top five goaltenders in the NHL by magazines like ESPN The Magazine and The Hockey News. However, the 2005-2006 season was an off year for Nabokov. His save percentage of under .900 was a big concern to the team. More notably, he was relegated to the role of backup goaltender, in deference to a red-hot Vesa Toskala.
Nabokov is known for his excellent positioning and his ability to challenge shooters, but has recently been hampered by a groin injury. During the 2006-07 NHL season, Nabokov has split the starting goaltending duties with Toskala. As of March 18, 2007, the Sharks have played 78 games, with Nabokov starting 45 . Nabokov played all 5 games in the Western Conference Quarterfinals of the 2007 NHL playoffs, helping the Sharks defeat the Nashville Predators in 5 games.
During the first half of the 2007-08 NHL season, Nabokov started the first 43 games for the San Jose Sharks, however on January 13, 2008 in Anaheim he received his first day off when Thomas Greiss started his first NHL game.
Nabokov was recognized as one of the 'Three Stars' for the NHL in the last week of December 2007, along with Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers. [5] In addition to that honor, Nabokov was named the “Sharks Player of the Month” by Seagate Technology in December. Since the 1996-97 season, Seagate Technology has recognized Sharks players who made contributions to further the team’s accomplishments and makes a donation of $2,500 to The Sharks Foundation on the players’ behalf. Nabokov holds the franchise-record for having won this award nine times.
Nabokov played in his second NHL All-Star Game on January 27, 2008. He stopped all eight shots that came at him in the second period, making it the first time since 2002 that a goalie has played a period where no goals were scored. Nabokov secured the scoreless period when he blocked both of Ilya Kovalchuk’s shots in the last minute of the second period.