Malysjev signed, ‘excited’ to be Blade
Sweden’s Emil Malysjev is signed, sealed and delivered.
Malysjev — who was chosen 18th overall by the Saskatoon Blades in the 2018 Canadian Hockey League import draft — stickhandled his way through airports in Sweden, Germany, Toronto and Saskatoon before heading to the rink late Wednesday morning.
He went directly from airport to arena.
From tarmac to ice in a hurry. “I’m a little bit tired,” admitted Malysjev, who flew from Sweden to Germany to Toronto, where he spent the night before a red-eye flight in the morning to Saskatoon.
The 2001-born defenceman arrived just in time to take in his very first practice with the Blades on Wednesday afternoon.
“Great team, great coaches — everything is great,” he said after his debut practice. “I’m very excited, very excited. It’s going to be a fun year.”
Malysjev, a dual citizen of Sweden and Russia, is expected to bolster the Blades blue line, which graduated Evan Fiala.
“I expect I will play at my top level and show everybody what I can do and just do my best.”
Malysjev spent last season with HV71 in Sweden’s top Superelite junior league as a 16-year-old. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Malysjev appeared in 29 games for HV71 last season, registering four assists along the way. He also played 15 games with HV71’S J18 squad, scoring twice and adding five assists.
“He has great potential and adds another strong 2001 to our group,” said Blades general manager Colin Priestner.
“We feel his ability to speak fluent English will also help ease his transition over to Canada.”
The newest Blade could see game action as early as this weekend when the Blades travel to Regina to take on Moose Jaw and Swift Current in pre-season competition on Friday and Saturday.
The Blades travel to Prince Albert today to play the host Raiders in their first Western Hockey League pre-season game.