[3] In fact, New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur in an interview before a Penguins/Devils game on Fox Sports Net jokingly stated that he had nightmares of Morozov each night before his club would play the Penguins.

Brodeur also stated in an interview with ESPN's Dan Patrick that Morozov is the player that he would not like to see coming in on him on a breakaway adding " The kid's got probably over 25 percent of his career goals on me.

Despite these successes, Morozov never fully developed into the player he had the potential to be as he played a majority of his first few seasons in the NHL on the third and fourth lines due to the tremendous depth of a talent laden Penguins team that included stars such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromír Jágr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang among others.

After bursting onto the scene with 25 points in 27 games, Morozov suffered a fractured wrist by a crushing hit that ended his season[3] and Lemieux became bogged down by back problems which forced him to call it a year.

He would see significant ice-time on a talent laden Ak-Bars team that included NHL stars such as Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, Brad Richards and Nik Antropov.

[citation needed] With the NHL's future still up in the air, Morozov signed a one-year contract with Kazan in hopes to build upon his previous season's success.

[citation needed] Shortly after the 2006–07 RSL season ended, Morozov was chosen to represent Russia as an Alternate Captain at the International Hockey World Championship (IHWC).

[citation needed] Due to his previous year's success with the Russian national team at the 2007 World Championship, Morozov was chosen as captain of the 2008 squad.

With Morozov in the lineup the previous year, Russia went undefeated until he suffered a knee injury and the 2007 squad without their alternate captain would finish 1–1 and fall short of the Gold once again.

Although Morozov was limited to only 49 games due to a freak head-on collision with Atlant Moscow goaltender Ray Emery, he finished second in scoring with 70 points (32 goals and 38 assists).

Although Ak Bars would get off to a slow start, getting outscored in their first three games by a combined score of 9–4, including two shutout losses, they and captain Aleksey Morozov would turn it on when it mattered.

He would not disappoint, as Russia would go on to steamroll their opponents in the opening rounds of play and would soon find themselves in a rematch of the previous year's championship game against Canada.

As of 2010, Canada and Russia stand tied with the most gold medals of any ice hockey national team with 25 between Olympic and World Championship tournaments.

[citation needed] Despite the devastating Olympic loss, Morozov did not let it bother him on the ice as he led Ak-Bars to their second straight Gagarin Cup as KHL champions.

[citation needed] The 2010–11 season would prove another successful one for Morozov as he was amongst the KHL league leaders in points once more with 56; averaging over a point-per-game for the fourth and final time in his professional career.

Although Ak-Bars would bow out early in the KHL playoffs, Morozov scored 4 goals, 6 points in just 5 games cementing his place as one of league's best all-time clutch performers.

Although they wouldn't capture their third Gagarin Cup, the Ak-Bars captain lead the way scoring an impressive 15 points in 18 games in his final season with the club.

[8] He leaves behind an impressive legacy as one of Russia's most gifted offensive players of all time as well as several Soviet/Russian league records from his years playing in the CIS, RSL, and KHL.