Chris Cook has outfitted players of all shapes and sizes over his 25 years as an equipment manager in professional and junior hockey. Two decades ago, while working for the Ottawa Senators, it was his job to gear up Zdeno Chara, the biggest player in NHL history.
When the 6-foot-9 Chara left Ottawa, Cook was sure he’d never see anyone like the future Hall of Fame defenseman again.
But next week, when training camp opens for the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs, someone even larger will duck into Cook’s training room for the first time.
His name is Alexander Karmanov, and he stands 7 feet tall — off skates — and weighs 277 pounds. He’s not just bigger than Chara, he’s three inches taller and more than 20 pounds heavier — heavier even than all but seven NBA players last season. He’s the biggest hockey player in the world, already good enough to have been drafted into the major junior ranks of the OHL and the USHL, and to have verbally committed to play NCAA Division I hockey at Penn State.
And he’s only 17 years old.
Karmanov is so big that hockey equipment doesn’t exist in his size. When Cook sent the defenseman’s measurements along to the OHL’s official jersey provider, Under Armour, the billion-dollar sportswear company couldn’t find a template large enough in its system to send for production. So instead his jersey was custom-made from a goalie’s cut, with larger arms and a wider and longer body.
His gigantic pants, shin pads and elbow pads are all bespoke, too. He sports size-15 skates, which are almost impossible to find, and size-17 sneakers, larger than those worn by most NBA players. Karmanov claims to use an ordinary-sized hockey glove, but Cook says he’ll believe that when he sees it.
“I might have to do some arts and crafts and fix something up for him,” Cook said.
Then there’s the stick. A standard professional hockey stick is 60 inches long, but manufacturers like Bauer can add extensions to make them 63 or 64 inches for the tallest defensemen — the 6-4 and 6-5 ones. Anything beyond that requires applying for an exemption to use it on the ice, as Chara once did for his 67-inch model.
Karmanov’s stick measures at roughly 70 inches, more than half a foot longer than the longest models seen in the NHL today. It also has a custom flex of 122, the same stiffness used by 6-7 star Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, to support his weight when he leans on it.
“Hopefully it’s properly welded and reinforced so there isn’t too much breakage,” Cook said, crossing his fingers.
All of these factors make Karmanov a first for hockey.
They’re far from the only things, though.
Alexander Karmanov, back left at age 7, has since grown into the world’s biggest hockey player. (Courtesy of the Karmanov family)
Igor Karmanov tells the story of his family’s hockey journey almost in disbelief.
It begins in Moldova, a small Eastern European country with around 3 million residents yet zero hockey rinks, let alone a national team. Even so, Igor’s son fell in love with the strange game that he first saw people playing on a frozen lake as a young child. And as little Sanya — his name to friends and family — grew and grew, so too did his obsession with hockey.
Before Igor knew it, he was steering the family’s beat-up Toyota Camry in seemingly every direction to find ice time for his fledgling defenseman. Six hours across the southern border to Bucharest, Romania on Fridays. Eight hours north to Kiev, Ukraine on Sundays. The car’s odometer breezed past 300,000 kilometers, or more than 186,000 miles, in short order.
Summers, meanwhile, became reserved for traveling to hockey camps in Slovakia and Czechia, where Sanya could learn from NHL players such as Marian Gaborik and pursue his unlikely dream of becoming one of the sport’s first high-level Moldovan players.
“It was really hard,” Igor Karmanov said. “Sometimes I’m looking back and, a little bit, I don’t understand why we did this. But we did.”
By age 10, Sanya was already 5 feet 10 inches tall, towering over even older teammates and opponents. Around that time, scouts from Vityaz Podolsk in Russia saw him at a tournament and offered him a placement in their youth academy outside Moscow, promising a higher level of competition for the young giant.
So Karmanov’s mother, Tatiana, moved with him to Podolsk, dedicating her life to chasing that dream. Igor stayed home in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital city where he runs a family business that cleans workplaces like restaurants and shopping malls.
“He really loved this sport,” Igor said of his son. “He was dreaming to be a great player. … But it was really hard, especially for my son, because he’s (so) tall. Especially in Russia, (people) told us this is not the strongest sport for him. But he liked it.”
Their lives were further complicated in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which shares a lengthy border with Moldova, as a Chisinau-to-Moscow flight suddenly became a circuitous, nearly daylong journey via Turkey or Romania just for Igor to see his wife and son. Still, he made the trek every month for years, all part of his transformation into what he now calls “a crazy hockey dad.”
“I am a businessman: I understand if you want to receive something (in life) you have to move on the same road,” Igor said. “It was very interesting, this journey, this adventure for our family.”
From the younger Karmanov’s perspective, no other path existed. As Alexander told The Athletic over the phone last week from Moscow, taking a break from training with NHL Draft picks, including Matvei Petrov and Daniil Chayka, “I was always just hockey.”
Raised in Moldova by his parents, Tatiana and Igor, Alexander Karmanov later moved abroad to join the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. (Courtesy of the Karmanov family)
Not long after Alexander turned 16 in spring 2024, his improving skills and incredible size — then nearly 6-11 — led to a life-changing offer. Making the leap to Tier I AAA, the highest level of youth hockey in the United States, he moved to Scranton, Pa., last season and joined the same club for which Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Ivan Provorov had starred a dozen years earlier.
Karmanov quickly became a difference-maker for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights, logging 25 minutes a night and putting up 11 goals and 23 points over 20 games in the Atlantic Youth Hockey League. But the increased physicality was also a significant adjustment, one that started with him repeatedly sitting in the penalty box last fall — even otherwise innocuous hits would be whistled, given he was more than a foot taller than most of his competition.
“Referee was saying sometimes it was a hit to the head,” Karmanov explained.
But his size came with advantages, too.
“Almost every game, kids would go up to him and say ‘Holy crap. What do we even do against (you)?’” Knights teammate James Tompkins said. “Kids would jump into him, and he won’t even flinch. It’s kind of nuts when you have that out there.”
Off the ice, Karmanov went from speaking minimal English to quickly making friends with almost everyone on the Knights roster. Teammates would roar with laughter when he hit his head on the ceiling in their dorms, and they delighted in showing him how things worked in the new country. He quickly developed a taste for Chipotle.
They also marveled at his work ethic, as Karmanov often stayed in the gym longer than anyone, filling out his massive frame and helping explain how he is already one of the heaviest athletes to ever play high-level hockey. He brought what teammates felt was surprising agility for his size and a rocket of a shot, the latter of which the Knights deployed to great effect on their power play.
Over the Thanksgiving holidays, Tompkins hosted Karmanov at his North Carolina home, bringing him to a Panthers NFL game and a Hurricanes NHL game. Karmanov met a host of Hurricanes players after the latter, including Brent Burns and fellow Russian speakers Andrei Svechnikov and Dmitry Orlov.
It was a long way from those games on the frozen lake in tiny Moldova.
“It’s memories for all my life,” Karmanov says now, calling his season in Scranton his favorite in hockey so far. “It was the best team of my life. The boys, we have a lot of really big memories. We just were like family, you know? It’s really nice.”
“I’m going to miss him,” Tompkins said. “He’s always smiling. A fun person. He’s a really great, fun kid to be around.”
But bigger things are now in store for the big man.
Attending a Carolina Hurricanes game last season, Alexander Karmanov towered over 6-3 forward Andrei Svechnikov, left, and 6-5 defenseman Brent Burns. (Courtesy of the Karmanov family)
Last year, when Bulldogs general manager Spencer Hyman first caught wind of a 7-foot hockey player committed to play at Penn State, his first reaction was “Who the hell is this kid?”
After asking around about Karmanov, who had been initially scouted by the Nittany Lions at the WSI World Selects tournament in May 2024 before receiving an offer, his second reaction was, “OK, I’ve got to try to be a part of this development process.”
Once Hyman got to know Karmanov’s game a little more, fascination evolved into excitement about the player and his prospects. The Bulldogs eventually selected him in the third round of the CHL Import Draft in early July.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of a story and a player’s life that is this big,” Hyman said. “We want to take on this challenge.”
By then, the USHL’s Fargo Force had already used a 14th-round selection in their own draft to take the Moldovan mountain as well. Head coach and general manager Brett Skinner recalled hearing a little buzz about Karmanov last fall, but then started paying closer attention after some conversations with Penn State staff.
Once he did, the mere sight of Karmanov playing against other kids his age last year was “odd to the eye,” Skinner said. “…(E)specially at the youth level where you can have all sorts of varying heights, it’s certainly different.”
After getting in touch with Karmanov’s family advisor, Gold Star Hockey agent Vlad Spektor, and after Fargo team president and assistant general manager Cary Eades scouted him some more and pounded the table for his selection, Skinner pulled the trigger late in the USHL draft.
“The size jumps off of the page but you’ve still got to be able to play hockey, and we felt there was a little bit of a player there too,” Skinner said. “I don’t think he’s just a big guy. … He’s not deficient with his skill. But everything’s harder when you’re that big. There’s just more room for error at that size and you’ve kind of got to get your coordination.
“But I think if you look at the story of Zdeno Chara, he was probably told similar where early in his career and coming up through the minors, nobody thought he was going to be potentially one of the greatest defenders of all time. And I’m not saying this kid will be, but it takes some time when you’re that size.”
Because Karmanov’s development is going to be a process, Brantford believes he likely needs a year at the Tier II Junior A level before he’s ready for the OHL. Chara didn’t play major juniors until age 19, spent time in the minors and didn’t establish himself as an NHL star until his mid-20s.
“I think at this stage of his career, from everyone I’ve spoken to, he skates better than Chara at this age, which is really interesting,” Hyman said.
“If I had to put my money on it, I’d say that he’s likely going to be a full-time Bulldog at 18 and a force.”
Fargo, which remains in contact with the Karmanov family, has kept him on its affiliate list and similarly views him as at least a season away from its league.
“I wouldn’t see him being able to make the jump to the USHL this year,” Skinner said. “The reality is for a kid that size that his best days are going to be way down the road, way past us. But there is some fun in being a part of that development path for these kids where you’re kind of the first leg of their development.
“That’s kind of the intriguing part of the package. It’s a unique story.”
According to his agent, Alexander Karmanov has already caught the eye of NHL teams. Some scouts are skeptical he can make it there. (Courtesy of the Karmanov family)
After Cook first heard from Hyman that the Bulldogs were considering Karmanov in the CHL import draft, he traveled to Florida for the annual Professional Hockey Equipment Managers conference. There he met with representatives from Bauer, the OHL’s new equipment partner, and Under Armour.
“We’re going to need some help here,” he told them.
With the league-wide switch in equipment manufacturers, Karmanov‘s custom gear was even tougher to procure because Cook couldn’t use leftover stock from his storage. But everything should arrive in time for Karmanov to get his shot at Bulldogs camp.
Igor said he trusts Hyman, and that the family is hopeful Alexander’s audition with the Bulldogs will work out. According to Spektor, the priority is for Karmanov to play in the OHL this year.
Though NHL teams haven’t yet seen him, Spektor said that his hulking client is “on NHL radars already.”
Continued Spektor, “Teams will be watching closely this year because he’s one of a kind. And it’s not just about right now; it’s about what kind of player he can be.”
Karmanov will turn 18 next March and be eligible for the 2026 NHL draft, where it may make sense for teams to take a late-round flier on him — if only given his size. Chara, who will soon be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member of its class of 2025, was drafted late in the third round as a 19-year-old back in 1996, before he played in the WHL.
But there are skeptics.
“Loooooooooong way away,” one USHL general manager who saw him play last year recently said via text. “He has some tools and athleticism, just think he played in a very weak league and is going to really struggle with pace. People (are) saying Chara; I don’t think he is Chara.”
One OHL scout recalled Karmanov as “very intimidating” in Scranton but argued that major junior players “aren’t going to be afraid.”
“Hard to say at that age and so big. I’m on the fence there,” the scout said. “There’s such a thing as too big. And with how fast the game is now, he’s toying with too big. … It’s going to be about how he impacts the game versus what his presence is. I wouldn’t have him up yet if I was running a team.”
Even if the 7-footer never gets any taller, Karmanov believes his on-ice development is only just starting.
“Smaller players, they’re not growing every year,” he said. “It’s hard to develop yourself, growing three, four inches every year.”
Karmanov still aims to one day reach the NHL, where he would instantly set records as the league’s tallest player, its heaviest player and its only Moldovan player. But that’s not his only goal now.
Regardless of how far his playing career goes, he also dreams of building the first rink back in his home country and introducing ice sports to more kids there. Many factors have already made him a first for hockey. But he doesn’t want to be the last.
“I hope he will fulfill (that) dream,” his dad said. “I hope.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Courtesy of the Karmanov family)
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She continued as a scholar-athlete in college, leading the Union team in scoring for two seasons and in assists for one season. AS a senior she was recognized as honorable mention All-Liberty League, and earned Union’s Award for Academic Excellence, presented to a senior student-athlete for outstanding performance in the classroom. She graduated from Union in 2022 with a B.S. in neuroscience.
West Hartford native Amber Raisner, currently an assistant coach for the Yale University women’s basketball team, was announced as an honoree on Thursday, according to a spokesperson from Yale.
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