MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The captain of KHL champion hockey team Dynamo Moscow, Alexei Kudashov, is winding up his playing career to take up the vacant coaching position at Atlant, his new team said Friday.
The 40-year-old former Toronto Maple Leafs center took Dynamo to victory in the Gagarin Cup in his final season on the ice.
"Having completed his playing career with a triumph in the Gagarin Cup, Alexei Kudashov immediately goes to coaching the Moscow region club Atlant," the Atlant website statement said.
Kudashov returned to Europe in 1997 after playing just 25 games for Toronto, winning the German title with Dusseldorf's DEG Metro Stars before switching to the Finland's TPS to win Silver Stone Trophy.
In 1999 he joined Dynamo Moscow for his first stint, winning three titles, and returning there in 2010 when HC MVD merged with Dynamo.
Kudashov made a total of 319 appearances for Dynamo, scoring 60 goals and making 24 assists.
From 2006 to 2009 Kudashov played at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, whose whole team and coaching staff died in an air crash in September.
He had been heavily linked with a return to Lokomotiv to become assistant to head coach Tom Rowe.
Dynamo won the best-of-seven final series Gagarin Cup this season against Avangard Omsk in a pulsating 4-3 series comeback.
Atlant is based just outside Moscow.
