year with the Penguins. Despite these successes, Morozov never fully developed into the player he had the potential to be as he played a majority of his first few seasons in the NHL on the third and fourth lines due to the tremendous depth of a talent laden Penguins team that included stars such as Mario Lemieux, Jaromír Jágr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang among others. He finally got his chance on the starting line during the 2002–03 season and the KLM line of Kovalev, Lemieux and Morozov led the Penguins to a top three record in the conference the first third of the season before being dismantled by injuries and trades. After bursting onto the scene with 25 points in 27 games, Morozov suffered a fractured wrist by a crushing hit that ended his season and Lemieux became bogged down by back problems which forced him to call it a year. Kovalev was later traded at the NHL trade deadline to the New York Rangers. The next season saw Morozov off to a slow start, mainly due to injury and the lack of talent on a young Penguins team. However, down the stretch of the 2003–04 season, Morozov was instrumental to the Penguins late season success, leading the team with five game-winning goals, including two in the final three games of the season as well as netting 20 points in the final 15 games. He would also finish the season leading all Penguins forwards in points. Ak Bars Kazan During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Morozov went back to Russia to hone his skills and play for the Ak Bars Kazan of the Russian Superleague (RSL), for whom he has played since. He would see significant ice-time on a talent laden Ak-Bars team that included NHL stars such as Vincent Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, Brad Richards and Nik Antropov. Despite these marquee NHL names, it would be Morozov who would go on to lead the club in scoring with 46 points. 2005–06 season With the NHL's future still up in the air, Morozov signed a one-year contract with Kazan in hopes to build upon his previous season's success. The 2005–06 season proved a great one for Morozov, where he finished the regular season leading the league in goals (23) and being second in points (49) after Sergei Mozyakin (52) while leading Ak Bars to its first championship