Fitting in
Russia has become a reliable pipeline for ready-made NHL talent
Down the street from where Detroit’s Russian Five took the NHL by storm in the 1990s, defenceman Nikita Zaitsev sat down for dinner with his agent and explained that his pain of being passed over in the draft three times was gone.
Just four months into his rookie year with Toronto, Zaitsev realized not being drafted was the best thing to happen to him. Chicago’s Artemi Panarin told agent Dan Milstein the same thing as he earned rookie of the year honours with 77 points last season. Zaitsev and Panarin are on the leading edge of a generation of Russian stars coming to North America from the Kontinental Hockey League in their 20s and making an immediate impact. Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov and St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko developed after being high draft picks, and Alexander Radulov returned last year and experienced the kind of NHL renaissance in Montreal that Ilya Kovalchuk hopes to find as he looks to be back next season.
Fledgling franchise Vegas hopes it gets the same kind of results from multiple KHL AllStar centre Vadim Shipachyov, Colorado is counting on defenceman Andrei Mironov to play right away and Buffalo is figuring the same from Victor Antipin as Russia is proving to be a reliable pipeline for immediately NHL-ready talent. “Years ago, we had (Igor) Larionov and (Slava) Fetisov coming over and it took them a little time, but in recent years players like Panarin and Radulov and Zaitsev have come over and done very, very well,” Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee said.
“Especially with the experienced players, a bunch of them just got to play in the World Cup in Toronto on the small rink in a huge tournament, and they’ve played in international tournaments over here, so I think just having the experience of playing on the smaller rink has probably helped some of the experienced players.” A combination of factors has made the NHL assimilation for Russian players quicker than ever. Milstein believes the comfort level of being able to develop and play professionally at home, combined with improved coaching and the assistance of veterans such as Kovalchuk and former Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk have all contributed to easing players’ adjustments. Despite thoughts that some Russian players might leave the NHL for the KHL for the chance to play in the 2018 Olympics, there seems to be an exodus the other way with top players even taking pay cuts to come to North America. Some of that has to do with financial turmoil in the KHL, including concerns over late or missed paychecks.