Kucherov becoming Datsyukian
Tampa Bay’s sniper is following the path laid out by Red Wings’ legend Pavel Datsyuk
Ask Dan Milstein how he became Nikita Kucherov’s agent this summer and you get the kind of sales pitch Jerry Maguire might give to potential clients.
“I offer a white-glove service,” said Milstein. By that, the Michigan-based agent means he is available 24/7, holidays included. Whatever a client needs, whether it’s a new house, new furniture or a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, he’s always there. His service even extends to family members.
“In fact, I have two clients who I found out their wives were pregnant before they did,” said Milstein, laughing.
When Kucherov signed on with Milstein shortly after the 2016-17 season ended, he wasn’t interested in buying a new house or scheduling an ultrasound appointment. He just wanted to become the next Pavel Datsyuk, which led Milstein to install a shooting range in Kucherov’s two-car garage.
“Shortly after I took over as his agent, we were talking about stickhandling and he was asking a lot of questions about Pavel Datsyuk,” said Milstein. “His idea was to put synthetic ice in the backyard so he could practice. I suggested the garage. That’s how he spent his summer.”
That might partially explain why the Tampa Bay Lightning forward headed into Tuesday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils as one of the hottest snipers in the NHL. Every puck he shoots has been going in. Or, at least, it seems that way.
Heading into Tuesday, Kucherov had scored in each of his first six games of the season. He was tied for third in league scoring with 10 points and trailed only Alex Ovechkin (nine goals) in the Rocket Richard Trophy race with seven goals.
When reporters asked after a 3-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday if his personal shooting range had something to do with the early success, Kucherov smiled.
“I want to hope it is and I want to think it is,” said Kucherov, who scored twice in the game. “It’s been good so far.”
While the off-the-charts production has been impressive, it’s hardly surprising considering Kucherov tied Toronto’s Auston Matthews for second in the league with 40 goals last season and finished in the top-five with 85 points.
Every year, he has gotten better. Every year, he has scored more goals and put up more points and been a bigger piece to Tampa Bay’s success. But after the Lightning missed the playoffs for the first time since he’s been with the team, the 24-year-old became even hungrier.
“The one thing he said to me was ‘I never want to miss the playoffs again for the rest of my life,’ ” Milstein said of his first conversations with Kucherov. “He said he would rather score 30 goals instead of 40 last year, if there was an opportunity for the team to be in the playoffs.”
That led Milstein to call in a company that transformed Kucherov’s garage into an indoor training centre.
“The synthetic ice covers the entire 20-by-24 space,” he said. “It’s like a big sheet of plastic. And we have a big curtain — like a fancy shower curtain — that goes around the perimeter of the garage, so pucks don’t harm the walls.”
Aside from a two-week trip to Moscow to see his parents and grandparents, Kucherov spent the entire summer in Tampa honing his craft. Twice a day, for 30 to 45 minutes, he would shoot pucks and stickhandle in a garage that doubled as a steam room in the sweltering Florida heat. It appears that it was worth it.
“Not a lot of guys can shoot it like that,” Steven Stamkos, Kucherov’s linemate and a two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner, told reporters on Monday. “I don’t even think I have that in the repertoire. He just gets it and uses the little toe-curve that he has and roofs it … It shouldn’t be a surprise because he’s always working on it.”
“The work ethic is like Pavel Datsyuk,” said Milstein. “Nikita gave an interview with Russian media recently and he basically said after each practice (last year) he would stay on the ice and work with Valtteri Filppula, because Filppula was a close friend of Datsyuk’s (in Detroit). His comment was ‘I’m basically a student of Pavel Datsyuk’s.’ ”
Now, Kucherov appears to be on the same path as Datsyuk.
If he keeps it up, the next contract he signs in 2019 will be significantly more than the bargain (three years, US$14.3-million) his last agent negotiated a year ago. For now, Milstein joked he is working on a different deal.
“The synthetic ice companies should be paying us big endorsement money, because every time he goes and talks in an interview about his shot, he’s talking about the synthetic ice,” said Milstein. “I bet those companies are making money. We should have got it for free instead of paying for it.
“I should re-negotiate that deal, for sure.”