Front Office Football Central - Rangers' Center Lyashenko Found Dead

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Rangers' Center Lyashenko Found Dead
Mon Jul 7,11:22 AM ET Add Sports - Reuters to My Yahoo!

MOSCOW (Reuters) - New York Rangers (news) Russian center Roman Lyashenko has been found dead in his hotel room while vacationing in Turkey, ice hockey officials said Monday.

He was 24.

"He was on holiday in Turkey with his mother and sister," Yuri Lukin, general manager of Russian champions Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Lyashenko's former club, told Reuters.

"On Sunday morning, they opened his room and found him dead. The cause of his death has not yet been established."

Lyashenko joined the Dallas Stars (news) of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1999 after he captained the Russians to the gold medal at the world junior championships earlier that year.

He was a regular player with Dallas in his first two seasons, but saw limited action after being dealt to the Rangers in 2001. Regarded as a good two-way forward, Lyashenko only played two games last season and 15 the year before.

Lyashenko's death is the latest tragedy to hit Russian ice hockey this year.

Lyashenko's former team mate Lokomotiv Yaroslav forward Vladimir Antipov was injured and his wife died in a car crash last month.

In May, Igor Grigorenko, 20, the Detroit Red Wings (news)' first pick in the 2001 NHL entry draft and another of Lyashenko's former team mates, broke his leg in two places and suffered concussion in a car crash in his home town of Togliatti.

In January, Lokomotiv coach Alexei Traseukh was shot dead in his apartment in Yaroslavl.