National team Soviet Union Playing career | Name Vitali Samoilov Positions Goaltender | |
 | ||
Born 17 April 1962 (age 62)
Riga, Soviet Union ( 1962-04-17 ) | ||
Vitālijs Samoilovs (Russian: Виталий Анатольевич Самойлов; born 17 April 1962) is a retired Latvian professional ice hockey player who played in the Soviet Hockey League. Ethnically Russian, he played for Dynamo Riga and Sokol Kiev.
The best season of his career was 1987-88, in which he made the Soviet National Team. He was the third-string goaltender at the 1987 Canada Cup and didn't appear in any games. He did, however, play in one game for the gold-medal-winning Soviet team at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Also that season, he backstopped Riga to a surprising second-place finish in the Championship League.
The following year, however, an injury caused him to lose his starting job in Riga to upstart Arturs Irbe and he never again regained his top form.