Alexei first put on skates at the age of 3 in his native St. Petersburg on the frozen Neva River and he was a natural where he quickly picked up speed and eventually became a natural at skating around the River and the Ice Palace. At the age of 5 his parents Vasily and Sophia introduced a young Alexei to the game of hockey to which he took his great proficiency with skating and started to applying it to the game of hockey and quickly found himself playing in various city leagues and school teams quickly showing that his abilities with the stick were a mix of raw natural talent and a strong work ethic. Eventually while in secondary school he was recruited by the SKA youth program in which he finally found himself within a very competitive environment that had an opening to get into Junior hockey but also the ability to end his career before it even started. Luckily Alexei thrived under the pressure and while being captain of the SKA youth team led his team to victory in the Gazprom Neft Cup in the International Kids Hockey Tournament and cemented his star and interests by Junior Hockey teams.