RUSSIA – Alexei Cherepanov, New York Rangers No. 17 overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack during a game with his KHL Avangard Omsk team. Here’s a video of the incident that shows former NHL star Jaromir Jagr standing over the fallen player as medical staff respond to the bench:

The 19-year-old third-year player tallied eight goals and five assists for 13 points in 15 games thus far this season.

Rangers GM Glen Sather made a statement to the media regarding the loss. “On behalf of the New York Rangers organization, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to [Alexei’s] family. Alexei was an intelligent, energetic young man, with tremendous talent and an extremely bright future.”

The Rangers had planned on including Cherepanov in their plans for the 2009-10 season as the player remained in Russia developing for the NHL.

Cherepanov had 29 points in 47 games with Omsk when it played in the Russian Super League and had more points in his first year in that league than Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin did. In addition to those impressive numbers, the youngster tallied 18 goals during his rookie campaign in 2006-07 to break Pavel Bure’s league rookie scoring record.

Jay Grossman who also represents Ilya Kovalchuk said, “He was a great kid. He had a great smile and was an outstanding player with a great future on and off the ice. It’s both shocking and devastating news for all of us.”

Yes it is and it appears an investigation is opening up to the lack of treatment the player received on the bench after his collapse as seen in the video above.

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