GALCHENYUK LIVING LIFE WITH ‘NO REGRETS’ AT 24
In his sixth season, Habs forward leads 2012 draft class in points, games played
Alex Galchenyuk has no memory of the first time he put on skates, but does know how old he was.
“I started skating when I was one year and eight months,” Galchenyuk said after the Canadiens practised Monday morning in Brossard. “That’s when my dad put me on skates. Crazy. Everybody remembers their first time skating … I don’t remember that. All my life I just remember playing hockey.”
Galchenyuk celebrated his 24th birthday Monday and has already played six seasons in the NHL. When asked if he feels older than 24 because of his life experiences on and off the ice, Galchenyuk said: “I don’t know. I don’t think about it too much. I was fortunate to start in the NHL at 18 years old and already play for six years. Sure I’ve seen a lot, but at the same time 24 is nothing yet.”
Galchenyuk has 12 goals and 20 assists in 55 games this season — including four assists in the last four games — and is a team-worst minus-27. When Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin selected Galchenyuk with the No. 3 pick at the 2012 draft — his first as the team’s GM — he was supposed to be the No. 1 centre of the future. That hasn’t happened and Bergevin and coach Claude Julien both made it clear before the start of this season they don’t believe Galchenyuk can play centre in the NHL and they have stuck to that mindset.
Galchenyuk has played more games (391) and has more points (236) than any other player selected at the 2012 draft and his 101 goals are second only to the Nashville Predators’ Filip Forsberg, who has 107 goals in 304 games.
Valentine’s Day will mark the first anniversary of Julien taking over from Michel Therrien as coach and Galchenyuk has been somewhat of a project for him since then.
“I think there’s a lot of improvement in his game,” Julien said, noting that a knee injury last season slowed Galchenyuk’s progress. “I’m seeing a guy who’s really putting in an effort to be a little bit more complete. We don’t want him to stop creating scoring chances, scoring goals. The offensive part of his game is actually pretty good. Because you don’t play with the puck that much in the game, you just want him to continue to work hard in playing without the puck and sometimes about reloading, sometimes about forechecking. It’s about different things and he’s doing a better job of that. I like his attitude, I like his will to want to get better and he is doing that. So I have no complaints at all. If anything, I have a lot of praise for him right now in the direction he’s going.”
Galchenyuk is in the first season of a three-year, US$14.7million contract and has already earned more than $10 million during his NHL career. What do you get a young man like that as a birthday gift?
“Oh man, I don’t know,” Galchenyuk said after practice. “I’m going to go to my parents’ house right now and see what they got for me. But I’m not really asking for too much.”
Galchenyuk said the best birthday gift he received was from his sister when he was about 15 and he thought it was a book at first.
“She wrapped it in a book,” he recalled. “I was turning through the pages, thinking it was just a book, and then I saw an iPhone inside and that was my first iPhone. That was the coolest thing. It’s crazy to think that some kids today get iPhones or iPads when they’re about four years old.”
Galchenyuk was born in the U.S. when his father Alexander was playing for the International Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals after spending seven seasons with Russia’s Moscow Dynamo. After Galchenyuk was born, his father played for the Madison Monsters in the United Hockey League, the Berlin Polar Bears in Germany, the Michigan K-Wings in the IHL, Milan Saima and Asiago HC in Italy and Sierre HC in Switzerland before wrapping up his career in Russia for the 2002-03 season with St. Petersburg SKA.
“I watched my dad play, so I guess he was my favourite player,” Galchenyuk said.
Galchenyuk’s father remains an important figure in his life, attending practices and games and seeming to live the NHL life vicariously through his son. Galchenyuk is often seen after games talking with his father outside the Canadiens’ lockerroom and getting advice.
Asked what advice he would give his 18-year-old self if he could turn back time, Galchenyuk said: “I try not to look at it that way. It’s easy to say maybe at that time I would have done something different. But at the same time, if you don’t make certain mistakes, you wouldn’t know what it’s like. So it’s easy now to say I might have done some things different, but there’s no regrets on anything.
“You live and you learn.”
I’m seeing a guy who’s really putting in an effort to be a little bit more complete.