If you know the Nail Yakupov story, then it might be hard to believe he is only 30 years old. And you might not know that the history-making hockey player is still playing the game at an elite pro level.

Back in 2012, Yakupov was taken with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers. He was just 19 at the time. The native of Russia was also the first Muslim player to go No. 1 in the NHL draft.

Unfortunately, being drafted was probably the high point of Yakupov’s NHL career. The teen phenom debuted with the Oilers that same season and scored 17 goals in 48 games; which turned out to be his NHL career-high in goals scored. In 2014-15, he set his career-high in points with 33 — but that was in 81 games played. If you can do the math, it illustrates how the winger was stagnating at best and regressing at worst. The Oilers traded Yakupov to the St. Louis Blues in 2016, and in one season there he posted a career-low of just 9 points. He joined the Colorado Avalanche as a free agent in 2017, and in what turned out to be his last NHL season, had 9 goals and 7 assists (16 points) in 58 games.

One standout moment for Yakupov in the NHL was when he recorded his first hat trick, during his rookie year in Edmonton. In a game against the Vancouver Canucks, he scored three goals — all of them during a 13-minute stretch of the third period.

Overall, though, Yakupov was considered a bust in the NHL. He was good enough to hold down a job in the league, but players who are drafted No. 1 are supposed to be better than just a guy taking up a roster spot.

When he was still only 25 years old, Yakupov left the NHL and returned to Russia to join the SKA Saint Petersburg club in the KHL, one of the top pro leagues in Europe. In 2021, he won the KHL’s Gagarin Cup championship with Avangard Omsk, and currently plays for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.