Alexander Karmanov committed to play college hockey at Penn State on Friday. The 16-year-old phenom is freakishly tall for his age and will immediately become the tallest athlete in the sport’s Division I history if he makes it to campus in Pennsylvania as planned.
Karmanov, sometimes spelled Carmanov, is no less than 6-foot-11, 250 pounds!
To say that the Nittany Lions are taking on a project might be an unfair assessment of the young prospect’s skills. However, there is a lot of unknown about his current talent and his potential.
Karmanov hails from Chisinau, the capital and largest city of Moldova. He played last season in Russia with Vityaz Podolsk’s Under-16 team, as well as Pinskiye Yastreby in the Belarussian Under-18 league, and scored nine points in 25 recorded games.
Footage of Karmanov on the ice is fairly limited, but he skates pretty well for someone his size!
It is rather jarring to see him next to his opponents.
Karmanov was invited to compete at the 16U World Selects Invitational earlier this year. It is not exactly hard to tell where he is on the ice in any given moment. His stick might be taller than some of the other athletes!
Wondering what a 7-foot-tall hockey player looks like?
— Mitchell Brown (@MitchLBrown) August 2, 2024
Here are some clips of defenceman Alexander Carmanov at this year's 16U WSI tournament.
🎥: LiveBarn/Шестой полевой YT https://t.co/qFX5fcswCR pic.twitter.com/tTQ3usLbzo
Still a few years away from college, Alexander Karmanov is going to continue to hone his skills at Revo Ice Academy in Pittston, Pennsylvania with the Wilkes Barr/Scranton Knights. It will give him a chance to further develop under top-tier coaching while competing against elite-level competition. And then, assuming that everything goes according to plan, he’s off to Penn State!
It is still too early to tell whether Karmanov will actually make it to college. He could flame out and the Nittany Lions could lose interest. He could decide that he wants to do something else with his life.
Should Karmanov actually play college hockey in the future, the seven-footer (in skates) would be the tallest athlete in college hockey history by a couple of inches!