Player Spotlight: Nikita Piazenko

Our Spotlight article this week is back to one of our first liners and one of our Assistant Captains. Nikita Piazenko is on his 5th season with the Dragons, having joined in one of our strangest seasons in 2021-2022. The country was going through one of our many lockdown lifts when the BUIHA and EIHA lifted the suspension of the league. Unfortunately, our home rink at Lee Valley was undergoing renovations (most will remember how insane just the benches were with a strip of metal where players stood) and we didn’t even have a rink to practice. Nikita was one of the first joiners that year and persevered through no home games, games scheduled with teams outside our division, and constant struggles with losing players to illness.

Since then, Nikita has played 38 games for the Dragons and racked up 38 goals and 22 assists for a total of 60 points, a 1.6 ppg average. Nikita really showed his skill in his second season with the Dragons during the 2022-2023 season where he scored 14 goals and had 10 assists. The 2023-2024 season was a real doozy as we won both the Division and the Cup but failed to get the full trifecta here. Nikita racked up a different type of point in this season with a whopping 45 penalty minutes. This puts Nikita at 6th for all time season PIM but not even close to the first and second place records, both held by Lukas Frlicka at 112 PIM and 60 PIM in two different seasons.

Piazenko has come back strong from his bad boy era, last season he tallied 10 points and this year he’s up to 14 points in 4 games! That’s a 3.5 point per game average (and only 2 penalty minutes so far). Nikita has been a powerhouse on the first line with our captain Artem V. Meshcherin and their center Aleksandr Zaborskikh, both only 2 points ahead of Nikita. Not only does he have silky smooth mitts and a powerful shot, he’s also a strong presence on the boards.

It’s no wonder why Nikita is such a talented player. He started skating when he was 5 years old and has played consistently since then. His last league before joining the Dragons was the Herning U20, and Herning IK teams in the Denmark U20 league based, obviously, in Denmark where he also played on the Herning U17 team in the Denmark U17 League. While there, he also played for Herning II, the 2nd highest men's league in the country.

Piazenko also played on the Lithuania U20 and U18 National Teams where he brought home some hardware. He won Silver on the U18 National Team at the IIHF U18 World Championship Division II Group and Bronze with the U20 National Team at the IIHF U20 World Championship Division II Group both hosted in Lithuania. Nothing like bringing home some trophies while representing your country at home!

Going back a little farther, Nikita also played for Okanagan HC Europe U18 in, what was at the time the EBJL, now the ICEJL in Austria. Finally, to wrap up the history of Piazenko across Europe, he played with HC Lugano U15 in the Swiss Mini–Top League way back in the 2013-2015 seasons. What a hockey resume!

A note to our readers, we like to include our players’ history of teams to help prospective players understand the level of the league, what to expect, and where they might fit in. The landscape of hockey leagues across the world is diverse and unstandardized so we like to contextualize the BUIHA whenever we can.

Back to Nikita. Not only is Piazenko an absolute powerhouse on the ice, he’s also a well-rounded student. He joined the Dragons while completing a BSc in Business Management at Birkbeck, University of London and has since graduated and started on his masters.

Nikita is now studying for an MSc in Maritime Operations and Management at City St George’s, University of London. Nikita plans on pursuing brokering, chartering and offshore consulting after he completes his degree which will align perfectly with what he’s studied. He’s actively achieving that goal by creating an independent marine operations consultancy with his father, DMAR International. Their consultancy supports everything from technical review and advisory support to naval architecture to vessel & dynamic positioning assurance. This is the perfect synergy of Nikita’s business degree and maritime operations degree.

We did mention that Piazenko is a well-rounded student. He’s a talented hockey player and student while also acting professionally and pursuing his own professional career in both photography and music.

First up, Nikita’s acting career. He’s had some amazing roles including a Jedi in the Disney Star Wars Series The Acolyte, Fast & Furious X: The Most Fastest and Furious Bridgerton, Mary & George, The Boys in the Boat, Bad Education, Made in Chelsea, Black Dove and as a Bolshevik Soldier in the Crown (pictured above). Piazenko often tries to downplay how cool these achievements are and we here on the Dragons won’t let him get away that easily. This isn’t even the full list!

Next up is Nikita’s professional and entrepreneurial side. He’s started his own photography and events company, having fostered a love for photography at the age of 11 when he moved from Lithuania to Italy. Between then and now, he’s lived in 4 different countries (as evidenced by that hockey CV) where he developed an appreciation for the design, history, and nature of diverse cultures.

Nikita’s photography, now that he lives in London, captures the style of a fashion capital, the classic architecture, and the vibrant moments of a bustling city. He aims to create a personal vision that transforms memories into timeless scenes. Check out Nikita’s photography, music, and digital marketing with his company Pulse Point Events.

Just like Patrick Chapman , Nikita has made the most of London. He’s hit the parks, construction zones, bridges, roof top restaurants, financial institutions, pubs and clubs, and everywhere in between.

If you’d like to get in contact with Nikita Piazenko , check out his LinkedIn Page or his other pages:

• London Photography by Nikita Piazenko

• DMAR International

• Pulse Point

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