MOSCOW (CP) - Alexei Kovalev, Alexi Yashin and goalie Nikolai Khabibulin lead 19 NHLers named to the Russian Olympic hockey team.

The Russian roster also includes 19-year-old forward Evgeni Malkin, who plays for Metallurg Magnitogorsk. His club coach, Canadian Dave King, has described as the best player in the Russian Superleague. Veterans on the team include defencemen Alexei Zhitnik (Islanders), Darius Kasparaitis (Rangers) and Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh) and forwards Kovalev (Montreal), Yashin (Islanders) and Alexei Zhamnov (Boston).

Kasparaitis and Zhamnov will be playing in their fourth Olympics.

Former Kazakhstan goaltender Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose) is eligible to participate in his first tournament for Russia.

Thirteen players on the squad represented Russia at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

Malkin is one of 11 first-time Olympians on the roster.

Russian coach Vladimir Krikunov selected three players from his Dynamo Noscow club: defenceman Dmitri Bykov and forwards Maxim Sushinsky and Alexander Kharitonov.

The Russian team was filed with the IIHF on Thursday, the deadline for roster submission. But due to the elections of the Russian national Olympic committee on Thursday, the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia was granted permission to delay publicly announcing the roster a day.