Shtalenkov began his major-league hockey career with Dynamo Moscow in 1986, backing up veteran star Vladimir Myshkin. The team won the Soviet Championship in 1990, ending the 13-year dominance of rival team CSKA Moscow, with Shtalenkov and Myshkin splitting playing time almost evenly. Dynamo went on to win the championship the next two years in 1991 and 1992, with Shtalenkov entrenched as the starter. By the 1991–92 season, he was also the starting goaltender on the Soviet national team.\n', '

Shtalenkov moved to North America in 1992, after backstopping the Unified Team to the Olympic gold medal, signing with Milwaukee Admirals of the International Hockey League. After one season, he was drafted 108th overall by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993 and spent five seasons with the team. He originally began with the IHL\'s San Diego Gulls, but received the call-up to the Mighty Ducks after Ron Tugnutt was traded to the Montreal Canadiens and Shtalenkov served as back-up to Guy Hebert and would continue to do so until the 1996–97 season. During the 1997 Play Offs against Detroit he took over for Guy Hebert who suffered an injury in Game 2 and performed very well forcing the Red Wings into overtime in every game, facing 162 shots in the series. In Game 4 he registered 70 saves in a double overtime loss. Under new head coach Pierre Page he shared the starting position in 97–98 playing a career-high 40 games. Shtalenkov was claimed in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft by the Nashville Predators but was later traded to the Edmonton Oilers and never played for the Predators.\n', '

In his one season with the Oilers, he shared the starting goaltender role with Bob Essensa, but was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes at the end of the season and served as Nikolai Khabibulin\'s back up. After only a handful of games in Phoenix in late 1999, Shtalenkov was traded once more to the Florida Panthers. In 2000, Shtalenkov returned to Dynamo Moscow and eventually retired from hockey in 2002.\n', '

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