Florida Eels Defensemen YAN KALINOVSKIY SELECTED PLAYER OF THE MONTH
4 NOV | BY FRANK SCARPACI

This is a distinguished honor to be recognized by the top coaches and league staff. Yan clearly the top defensemen in the league.

USPHL Premier South Players Of the Month
By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com, 11/02/18, 9:00PM EDT

Defense: Yan Kalinovskiy, Florida Eels.

The big ‘98 from Kazakhstan is as solid as they come on both ends of the ice. A physical defenseman, he lays out clean, booming hits utilizing his 6-foot-1-inch, 201-pound frame.

Offensively, he led all USPHL Premier defensemen in scoring with six goals, 14 assists and 20 points in 16 games played. His mix of strong “D” and regular offensive contributions helped the Eels rack up a +48 goal differential, good for third in the 51-team league.

Honorable Mentions: Austin Mourar, Richmond Generals; Maxim Plekhov, Richmond Generals.

Goal: Patrik Lietava, Florida Jr. Blades.

Lietava has very often been the saving grace for the Blades, stopping 97.7 percent of the shots he faces. He has faced the 12th most shots in the league, and out of those 309, he’s given up only seven total goals this year in seven starts, three of those being shutouts. His goals against average of 1.04 is also first in the league on a team that is middle of the 51-team pack in total goals against.

Even in a recent pair of losses to DME, he still turned away 103 of 108 shots. A ‘00 from Zvolen, Slovakia, he moved up to the Premier Division from last year’s Elite Division, where he was also one of the top goaltenders.

Honorable Mentions: Alec Lindberg, Hampton Roads Whalers; Nilsson, DME.

NOTE: This edition of Players Of the Month actually takes into account games played in both September and October, as there were fewer games in September and we wanted to give each player a bigger sample size to draw from in making our selection.