Unbelievable news, the kid was just 19, and was suppose to be the next Pavel Bure:

 

New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov collapsed on the bench during a game Monday night in Russia and died later. He was 19.

"We are extremely saddened by the tragic passing of Alexei," Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather said in a statement. "On behalf of the New York Rangers organization, I would like to extend our deepest sympathies to his family. Alexei was an intelligent, energetic young man, with tremendous talent and an extremely bright future."

Cherepanov was the Rangers' first-round pick, 17th overall, in the 2007 draft.

Avangard Omsk head coach Wayne Fleming said Cherepanov collapsed during the third period Monday night. Fleming said he did not see anything on the ice that could have contributed to the collapse and said medical personnel tried to get Cherepanov's heart beating again after it had stopped.

 [ESPN]

Man this is heart wrenching. I was waiting for this kid to come to the Rangers since we drafted him. This is very upsetting news.

Huge bummer

The kid had his doubters, but the spellbinding talent was always there. Adding to the Greek-level tragedy of this whole horrible thing was the fact that his boyhood idol, Jaromir Jagr, was playing on the same team. The two had apparently grown pretty close, with Jagr playing the role of mentor. There's a video floating around of Jagr watching them carry Cherepanov off from the team bench.

 

Absolutely devastating. 

Jagr was telling the coach of the Rangers that he could be playing on the 2nd line now for the team. He was sitting right next to him when he collapsed. Apparently the ambulance took forever to get there, but I don't think anything could have been done. I wonder if he had heart problems he didn't know about or perhaps he was on drugs? Apparently he died of a heart attack.

Very bizarre and tragic