Russian players in the camps of NHL clubs . “To get into the NHL, you need to add in everything How to get into the NHL draft
The National Hockey League (NHL) Draft is a procedure for clubs to select young players, which is carried out in the strongest hockey championship planets every summer before the start of the next season. Clubs in a certain order in several stages select young hockey players, who subsequently sign contracts with them.
The list of candidates, which is prepared by a special NHL scouting service that monitors players around the world, also includes the names of Russian young hockey players every year. They sleep and see a representative of some of the overseas clubs say their name, they get a work visa in the US or Canada and go to play hockey in the NHL. All this is reminiscent of the period of maturation of the chicks, when they finally get plumage, learn to fly and get food on their own, and eventually leave their nest, leaving their sad parents alone. A year later, the procedure is repeated ...
So the Russian teams of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) are similar to those same parent birds that annually release their children into the wild. Those of them who have the strength and skill to fly over the Atlantic Ocean fly west in search of a better life.
It hasn't been like this for a long time
Today, the outflow of hockey personnel from Russia does not follow such a predatory scheme as it was a few years ago, when a young athlete could leave for the United States, despite a valid contract with a domestic club. Now between the KHL and the NHL there is an agreement on mutual respect for contracts. That is, if the hockey player Ivanov has a valid contract for two years, say, with Spartak, then he will not be able to start playing overseas until he has worked out his contract in Russia. True, this does not stop anyone, because in the KHL, unfortunately, it is not yet customary to sign long-term contracts with young players. Sooner or later, the best still end up overseas. That is why every year the issue of imposing restrictions on the travel of young athletes abroad is raised.
However, it does not go further than simply shaking the air in this direction. Hockey players continue to migrate west. Nothing can be done - world practice, the right to choose, freedom of movement ...
Over the past decade, the number of running backs in the NHL Russian hockey players steadily decreased. Optimists associated this with the creation of the KHL, believing that the Russian league, created in the image and likeness of its overseas counterpart, would be able to compete with the NHL - they say, young people no longer need to go west. Pessimists argued that a hockey crisis began in Russia and a decrease in the number of young people leaving for the west is associated with a decrease in the level of young players who are trained by domestic teams. Everyone had their own opinion.The latest NHL draft proved that both sides were wrong. This is the conclusion that can be drawn by connecting the logic. At a time when salaries in the KHL continue to grow, and attention to the league among fans increases, when the level of antagonism towards our country increases in the West and sanctions rage, the number of drafted hockey players begins to grow. This means that there is no crisis in our hockey, and the KHL keeps few people in Russia.
This summer, NHL teams staked out the right to invite 17 (and under certain conditions, 18) Russian young hockey players - a record number since 2004, when, when Ovechkin With Malkin. Then 20 Russians flew to America. Not all of them can immediately leave their Russian teams and immediately go to American clubs, because many have valid contracts in the Russian Federation. But in fairness it should be noted that some of the players, almost half, have been playing in the junior leagues of Canada and the USA for a long time, having gone overseas when they were 14-15 years old.
Our new Ovechkins
The draft takes place according to the following scheme: all NHL teams, one by one, in a certain order, select newcomers from the preliminary list, with whom they can subsequently sign a contract. The most prestigious is considered the first round of the draft, when clubs give preference to the best young players on the list. The farther from the first round of the draft a player is selected, the less likely he is to play on the team for high level. There are, of course, cases when a hockey player, selected in the draft only in the fifth round, then became a star, but this is more an exception than a rule. Therefore, everyone dreams of getting into the first round of the draft, and preferably in the top ten. Ovechkin was selected first overall in the 2004 draft. The second then was Malkin.
This year, Russian hockey players did not even make it into the top five. However, in the first round of the draft, four Russians were selected at once - an excellent result when compared with similar procedures over the past ten years.
The highest number in the draft, seventh, went to the main Russian star this procedure in 2015 Ivan Provorov who went to Philadelphia. Provorov - a pupil of Yaroslavl hockey, at the age of 14 he left to play in Canada. He spent his last season at the Brandon club, which eventually reached the finals in his league. Provorov became the best newcomer season, scoring 61 (15+46) points in 60 meetings. In 19 playoff matches, he added another 13 (2+11) points to his piggy bank. Any striker could envy this result. But Provorov is a defender.
Under the 12th number was chosen Denis Guryanov- Forward of the Togliatti "Lada". He had a great last season. However, the hockey player is not going to headlong to fly across the ocean. The player will stay in Russia for at least one season.
For the first time in 20 years, a Russian was drafted into the ranks by the once most “Russian” NHL club, the Detroit Red Wings, for which the legendary Pavel Datsyuk. The choice of "wings" fell on the striker Evgeniya Svechnikova, who left the draft under the overall number 19. This Kazan hockey graduate went overseas last season and played for the Cape Brenton team for a year, becoming the second scorer in his league - 78 (32+46) points in 55 matches.
The last Russian who was selected in the first round of the draft was Ilya Samsonov having a great season in youth team Magnitogorsk Metallurg, Steel Foxes. By the way, he became a teammate of Alexander Ovechkin, having liked the Washington Capitals team. True, Ilya can hardly be called the second Ovechkin, because he is a goalkeeper. On average, he allowed less than two goals per game in the MHL, for which he became the best in the list of foreign goaltenders in the 2015 draft.
Six draft rounds
In the remaining six rounds of the draft, another 13.5 Russians fit in. Why and a half? We will explain towards the end - during the description of the Russians from the fifth circle. For now, let's keep moving forward.
In the second round of the draft, the NHL clubs opted for only one Russian. They became a 19-year-old striker Yakov Trenin. The forward is a graduate of Chelyabinsk hockey, however, in the last season he played in the Quebec League for the Gatineau Olympics club. In 58 matches, he scored 67 (18 + 49) points, becoming one of top scorers regular season. He was selected by the NHL club Nashville Predators.
In the third round, the number of selected Russians doubled. Under the general number 74 in the "Los Angeles Kings" left the striker of the club SKA-1946 Alexander Dergachev, who was not yet destined to break into the main St. Petersburg team, which became the owner of the Gagarin Cup. A few minutes later, at number 79, another Russian was drafted, a graduate of the Moscow school "Northern Star", a defender Sergei Zborovsky who went to the camp of the legendary New York Rangers. Last year he, by the way, also spent in the West, playing in the WHL for the Regina Pats team.
Following the results of the fourth round of the draft, three more Russian hockey players were able to take their breath away. Defender Andrey Mironov, who played for Dynamo Moscow last season, was chosen by the Colorado Avalanche team under number 101. Under the number 104 was identified in his new club striker from the Bashkir "Tolpar" Mikhail Vorobyov, the rights to which were transferred to Philadelphia. And finally, the defender Dmitry Zhukenov from the "Omsk Hawks" has an excellent chance to gain a foothold in the "Vancouver", which opted for him under the general number 114.
The fifth round of the draft brought happiness to two more Russians. The forward was the first to know the name of the new club Kirill Kaprizov from Metallurg Novokuznetsk, drafted 135th overall by Minnesota. And the next number in the draft was selected by the team from Calgary Pavel Karnaukhov, who spent the previous season in the youth team from the same city - the Calgary Hitmen. It is Pavel who cannot yet be considered a full-fledged Russian, because he was born and started playing in Minsk. Only after that he moved to Moscow, where he began to play for CSKA and the Red Army. Later, there was Calgary and the long-awaited draft pick. So far, Pavel has not been called up to any team. It's too early to say how his fate will turn out.
The sixth round of the draft made two more Russians happy. Under number 159, the player of "Columbus" became the defender Vladislav Gavrikov playing in the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. And the 161st club found a defender Sergey Boykov, who had previously played in the west for the Drummonville club. This pupil of the Novokuznetsk hockey school was chosen by the scouts of the Colorado Avalanche.
In the seventh, final round of the draft, four of our hockey players found their new overseas clubs. Under the number 185 in Toronto, they chose a striker Nikita Korostelev, to the overseas Sarnia, which played as part of CSKA. With the 188 draft pick, another goaltender left Ivan Fedotov, becoming Philadelphia's third Russian pick this year. 197th found a new club forward Nikita Pavlychev. And almost the last, at number 209, was the defender of the Kazan "Ak Bars" Ziyat Paygin.
The Jupa defender and the captain of the Finnish youth team spoke about his plans for the future, the development of hockey in the country of a thousand lakes, and also predicted who would win the World Championship in Buffalo.
- For you, this is the second youth championship career world. Compare it to the previous one?
- Of course, the second time is easier. You already understand what's what and what kind of hockey they play here. The difference is that Buffalo is bigger than Regina and Saskatoon, where we played last year, and the arena is bigger here. I like it better here, to be honest.
- Many say that Buffalo is a gloomy city. Do you agree?
- I rarely go outside the hotel, so it's hard for me to judge. But I also heard about it.
- How is the local arena different from the one you play in Finland?
- Here good arena, big. Lots of fans. At home, we have a larger playground than here, more free space. But I don't care what platform to play on. As for the fans, they are just great in Jyväskula. The arena is not that big. Therefore, about four thousand spectators gather for our home matches, and here - from ten and more. So it's more fun to play.
You already have four world championships behind you - junior, two youth and "adult". How would you compare these tournaments with each other?
- It is clear that the World Youth Championship is a more prestigious tournament than the junior one. There was no such attention from the fans at the JWCH, no one really talked about us, no one took interviews either ... But in Germany it was great. There were so many stars! Ovechkin is the same, for example. I really enjoyed this tournament and gained a lot of experience.
Yes, but you were not the captain of the national team there. In Buffalo, and a few years ago at the YuChM - on the contrary. Does the captain's letter "C" make you behave differently on the court?
“I don't think this changes anything. I'm just trying to play my game.
What category of captain would you classify yourself as? Some, for example, actively suggest something to everyone in the locker room and on the ice. Someone, on the contrary, for the most part is silent and focuses on a personal example ...
- No, I'm definitely not the main speaker in the locker room. I try to show everything by personal example. But if necessary, I can tell someone and something. The main "starter" in our team now is Eric Haula.
- Whatspeaks?
- Yes, all sorts of nonsense (laughs).
- Does the extra burden of responsibility that falls on your shoulders in such a situation put a lot of pressure on you?
“I don't pay attention to that. I try to concentrate and listen to the words of my coach. This is enough for me.
You have been playing SM-liiga for several seasons, although you cannot boast of impressive dimensions. Is it hard to resist grown men?
- Yeah, it's not easy. Always have to be in right place V right time. You have to constantly go into the fight, push, cling to the stick and “finish” with your feet. Otherwise, they cannot be dealt with.
- Would you classify yourself as an "evil" defender?
- (laughs) No, what are you! Which one is the villain? On the ice, I always smile. I like to play hockey.
- What has changed after you got into the first team of "Jupa"?
- More fans began to come to the games, everything became somehow more professional ... There were certain changes, but I would not say that they were so significant.
- Jupe now occupies a high position in the Finnish championship, and you are one of the leaders of the team. You play in the first pair and spend more than 20 minutes on the ice per match. At the same time, last year you broke the scoring record among rookie defensemen in the league both in the regular season and in the playoffs. How did you do it?
- I don't know myself. I give my best in training and I love hockey in general. I always try to be the first. What's the secret? Don't know. You just have to always give all the best.
- Who was your idol as a child?
- In Finland, of course, it was Petteri Nummelin, and in the NHL it was Scott Niedermeier. I've always liked shooting guards.
You yourself are not averse to joining the attack. At the last MFM, your two goals against the Czech national team became a real decoration of the tournament. Can you say that in matches against your peers you feel more liberated?
- No, it seems to me that I play both there and here in the same manner. If I have the opportunity, I always join the attack. But defensive duties always come first for me.
Mikael Granlund was unable to come to Buffalo this year. Therefore, you are now not only the captain of the team, but also its leader. Do you think this leaves some imprint on her game?
– Yes, Mikael is a star with a capital letter. Too bad he couldn't come here. In general, our current team is very different from last year. Right now we have more SM-liiga players than Saskatchewan. And this is a big plus. This is a great help in matches against large teams.
- A year ago you were content with only the fifth place. What are the goals for your team now?
- Of course, to be in the prize-winners. In Finland, now everyone expects this from us. We have high hopes. Yes, I want to win a medal. After all, it does not matter at what level you win it - children's, club or international. A medal is a medal. It's always a great experience.
So far, you have in your collection only bronze from the JWC-2009 in Fargo. Will third place in Buffalo be an acceptable result for you, or is reaching the final a mandatory task?
– Of course, we want to win gold. Everyone came here for this. But both silver and bronze are good result. It's always nice to be in the top three.
Young Finns don't want to leave for the CHL. As a rule, your peers prefer to stay at home and go overseas in adulthood ...
– There are many in Finland good teams and a lot of good players. Therefore, the level of hockey is quite high. So it seems to me that for professional growth it is better to stay at home and play against senior players than to come here and play against juniors. I think it's better that way. At least for me.
In Russia, it is difficult for young players to break into the main squad of the first teams. How is it in Finland?
- In my opinion, in Finland the situation with this is easier. In our national team now there are probably 6-7 people who play 10-15 minutes at the base of their teams in SM-liiga.
- Do you know that in the KHL draft not a single Finn was chosen as highly as you?
(surprised) No, I haven't heard of that. I only know that I was chosen under the second overall number. I read about it in Finnish newspapers.
- Is it possible to expectyour appearance in the KHL in the next few years?
No, I won't be going there anytime soon. My goal is to get into the NHL. I want to play in this league.
There is information that one of the leaders of the KHL, Avangard Omsk, is ready to pay $500,000 to buy out the rights to conclude a contract with you...
Yes, I read about it too. But no one contacted me or my agent.
What would you say if you were contacted anyway? After all, you could play on the same team with Jaromir Jagr and Karri Ryame...
- Yes, the line-up is good. Such a team would not be lost in the NHL. For young player such a team is a real gift. These stars have a lot to learn.
"Well, where the hell did I get to?"
A year and a half ago, Anaheim selected you in the fourth round of the NHL Entry Draft. Were you expecting to be chosen by Ducks?
- No, I had no idea. But Anaheim has been my favorite team since I was 5-6 years old. So when they drafted me, you could say the dream came true.
- Where does such love for Anaheim come from? Is it because of the movie about "mighty ducklings"?
– (smiles) Yes, yes, because of him. I used to watch it a lot as a kid.
- The goalkeeper of the Russian youth team Igor Bobkov was also drafted by Anaheim...
“I know, but we don’t really know him. Who knows, maybe someday we will play with him for the Ducks.
However, you have already played against him several times. He beat you 4-0 in the playoffs at the JWCH in Fargo and then 2-0 in the group at the WCH in Saskatchewan. Why is it so hard for you to beat him?
- Yeah! It's just incredible! He plays so well that it is simply unrealistic for him to score. In the match in which we lost 0-2, he worked wonders. Well, it happens...
Are you afraid to play against him at all? He's two heads taller than you...
- Of course, he is higher than many players against whom I used to play, but I do not pay attention to opponents. I just go out on the ice and try to play my game. So its gigantic dimensions do not scare me (laughs).
Finland and Russia have a rich history of relations, but the last few years have not brought good luck to your country. If at the MFM in Saskatchewan you lost 0:2, then at the "adult" World Cup in Cologne - 0:5. Of course, in Saskatoon, you won the match for 5th place, but who will remember this now, right?
- Agree. The Russians are hard to beat - too technical a team. I hope that this year we will be able to beat them and get into the top three. It is difficult to single out any one reason for our failures. Perhaps it's all about their technique - after all, every year the Russians assemble very, very technical teams.
Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Datsyuk came to the Russian team for the World Championships in Cologne. Stars can be listed ad infinitum. You weren't even 20...
- (smiles) I was nervous then, of course, regularly. I went out on the ice, saw Ovechkin, Malkin and other stars in front of me, and thought: “Well, where did I get to ***?”. Didn't understand what was going on around. But I have to say that the match didn't go as badly as I initially expected. I am glad that I was lucky enough to go on the ice against such players.
- What is the most memorable moment from the Cologne World Cup?
- Peter Regin's feint when he scored a goal. He circled just me, so it was not a laughing matter. But to play in the same tournament with Petteri Nummelin - the idol of his childhood - it was something. And it was just interesting to look at other world-class stars, how they play, work...
- But somewhere now in Finland, young players are already looking at you as an idol ...
– I hope so. It's nice to think that you are an example for children.
"We'll take the gold"
The captain of last year's Russian junior team Nikita Filatov recently spoke very positively about your performance at the current tournament. Do you pay attention to such compliments?
- Who?! Filatov?! Wow. A good hockey player, he has already played in the NHL ... Of course, it's nice to hear that. Positive feedback is always a plus.
- Maybe you should also play in the NHL as soon as possible to back up his words with deeds?
- (laughs) Let's see.
Have you had the opportunity to try your hand at the Anaheim first team this season? Indeed, in this case, you would play with the living legends of Finnish hockey - Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu ...
No, I didn't have that opportunity this year. IN physical plane I was not ready for this transition. I think it was better for me to stay at home. Besides, if I had the opportunity to play in Anaheim, I would not play here now.
- How did the leadership of "Dax" react to your decision?
- I was offered a bilateral contract, but I did not sign it, because, as I already said, it seems to me that I am not ready for this yet.
Your sworn rivals the Swedes are progressing year by year in youth hockey. However, this is not the case in Finland. What is the reason?
- Don't know. We all need to think about this. So far, we do not have an answer to this question. They are larger than us, for example. Perhaps because of this, they are more often selected in the first round of the NHL Draft. But if we meet them at this MFM, we will beat them. They have no chance against us.
- Maybe you know the score?
– I think we will beat them 4:1 or 4:2.
- And how many points will you score in this meeting?
(laughs) I don't know about that.
- Do not torment - who will win the medals this year?
We'll take the gold. The Swedes will be second and either the Canadians or the Americans will be third.
- And what about Russia? No medals?
No, they won't have anything this year. After all, they leave the group from third place, which means they get to us in the quarterfinals. And there's no way...
A few days ago, NHL clubs opened their training camps ahead of the new league season. Only five teams in the league don't have Russians: the Anaheim Ducks, the Arizona Coyotes, the Ottawa Senators, the Calgary Flames, and the San Jose Sharks. We figure out which of the Russian players can start the next season at the base of their club. The regular season starts on October 4th.
Capital Division
Every club in the Capital Division has at least one Russian player, and most of them have a spot at the start. Of course, Buchnevich, Bereglazov and Kulemin will play for teams from New York. In Washington, Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov will take to the ice. The chances of Dmitry Zaitsev to get into the base are small. In Pittsburgh, no doubt, Evgeni Malkin will continue to light, in Columbus - Sergey Bobrovsky and newcomer Artemy Panarin. One of the main intrigues is whether he can get into main team Blue Jackets forward Vitaly Abramov. According to him, he is already ready to play in the NHL. There are now five young Russian hockey players in Philadelphia, and if Ivan Provorov is an iron player in the base, then nothing is guaranteed for the rest.
The most difficult thing for the Russians will be in New Jersey and Carolina. Nikita Popugaev's chances of playing in the NHL next season are not very big, and Yaroslav Dyblenko will most likely start the championship in the AHL and will wait for a chance to play for the base. Tolchinsky and Zykov have been trying to get their chance in Karolina for many years, and new season could be a turning point for them.
Atlantic Division
Buffalo Sabers: Vasily Glotov, Viktor Antipin. Boston Bruins: Anton Khudobin. Detroit Red Wings: Evgeny Svechnikov. Montreal Canadiens: Nikita Shcherbak. Tampa Bay Lightning: Mikhail Sergachev, Nikita Kucherov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Andrey Vasilevsky, Alexey Lipanov, Alexander Volkov, Oleg Sosunov. Toronto Maple Leafs: Nikita Zaitsev, Nikita Soshnikov, Rinat Valiev. Florida Panthers: Evgeny Dadonov, Maxim Mamin, Nikolai Belov. the two most Russian teams The Atlantic Division are "Tampa" and "Toronto". The Southerners invited seven Russian hockey players to their training camp, three of whom are base players, and one more, Mikhail Sergachev, has an excellent chance of becoming the main defender of the team. Alexander Volkov and Oleg Sosunov are very likely to play in the AHL or a league below, but Alexey Lipanov will have to go to the Barry Colts OHL club. Five hockey players began training in Toronto, but Vladimir Bobylev and Nikita Korostelev had already gone to the location of the AHL team. Zaitsev and Soshnikov will play for the base, and Valiev, as in previous seasons, will balance between the NHL and the AHL. Vasily Glotov is unlikely to play for the Buffalo team, unlike rookie Viktor Antipin. Anton Khudobin will continue to play the role of Tuukka Rask's replacement, and Shcherbak will be able to play for Montreal from time to time, which has already ceased to be Russian.
The main question is whether Evgeny Svechnikov will be able to start the season in Detroit. Or after winning the Calder Cup, he still needs to play in the AHL? It will be interesting to watch how forward Evgeny Dadonov will adapt to the NHL again and how Maxim Mamin will adapt. Both players will play in the new season for Florida.
Central Division
Only in Minnesota there will be no Russians. The Savages invited forward Dmitry Sokolov to the training camp, but he was already sent to the junior league. In Chicago and Winnipeg, there is only one Russian hockey player each, from whom they will expect a confident and reliable game. Four Russians can start in Colorado at once, it will be interesting to see how Andrei Mironov adapts to this hockey, but Sergey Boykov will probably play in the AHL.
All eyes in Dallas will be on star rookie Alexander Radulov, but Denis Guryanov also has a good chance of playing a dozen games in the NHL this coming season. In Nashville, Vladislav Kamenev and Yakov Trenin will make another attempt to get into the main team. There are five Russian hockey players in the St. Louis training camp at once. Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev will play the first team, while Klim Kostin's future will be decided in the coming weeks.
Pacific Division
The most sparsely populated league division by Russians, only half of the teams have players with a Russian passport. At the same time, Andrei Loktionov is on a viewing contract, and he has yet to win the trust of the Kings coaches. Vadim Shipachev has a chance to become a star, his move to Vegas is one of the main intrigues of the NHL season for Russian fans. Dmitry Osipov will probably play for the team's farm club. It will be interesting to watch another attempt by Burmistrov to show himself in the NHL, now Vancouver believed in him, where Goldobin and Pedan already exist. Slepyshev misses the Edmonton training camp due to an injury, but even without him there are enough Russian-speaking guys, such as Maximov, Samorukov and Paygin. The first two will probably go to the junior leagues, but Pigin will have to fight for a place in the team.
As you know, many hockey players get into the team through the procedureDRAFT. Many professional and junior hockey leagues have this process. What's happened hockey draft? EThis annual event held in the National hockey league, which consists in the transfer of rights to young hockey players who meet certain selection criteria to professional league clubs. NHL draft takes place once a year, usually during two to three weeks after the end of the previous season (at the end of June). The draft takes place over 7 rounds.
Here, for example, to get into the youth Canadian Hockey League CHL (Canadian Hockey League), which includes three hockey leagues OHL (Ontario Hockey League), WHL (Western Hockey League), QMJHL (QU ÉBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE), you need to be noticed by a hockey agent, a hockey scout who directly represents the interests of the club, and the general manager with the coaching staff will already make a positive or negative decision about you.
The organization annually raffles memorial cup , a tournament between four teams: the current cup holder and the winners of three sub-leagues. In addition, various exhibition matches are regularly held, where young players can demonstrate their abilities to scouts and thereby raise their NHL draft rating. For example, CHL Top Prospects Game- competition between teams of forty the best players league, Subway Super Series - a series of games in which the all-star team of the league opposes the best Russian juniors playing in MHL.
Unfortunately, you can’t just come to this CHL league, unlike the USHL American League, which is also a forge of players for NHL and NCAA.
You need to understand that if you are going to play in the junior Canadian hockey league CHL, then the road to student hockey NCAA You are closed, since the athlete is a professional and receives a salary, and according to the rules of the student association, all NCAA athletes must have amateur status. This rule does not apply to the league USHL, NAHL.
As everyone knows, there is a draft NHL, KHL. Junior Fair KHL or Junior Draft KHL - an annual event held in the Continental Hockey League, which consists in the transfer of rights to young hockey players who meet certain selection criteria to professional clubs in the league. draft KHL is held once a year, usually within two to three months after the conclusion of the previous season.
draft in AHL, ECHL No. Draft to the junior hockey league USHL (United States Hockey League) usually takes place in the first week of May, and the draft NAHL (North-American Hockey League) in the first week of June, and in CHL at the beginning of July.
Accordingly, in one case or another, in order to be noticed, you need to work in this direction in advance, and not at the last moment. Hockey agency KeySport Agency has an extensive database of partners and is ready to consider the application of each player.
Please, or contact us by phone +7 929 9778757, +7 499 390 9796.
Matveev Andrey Igorevich is the official partner-representative of the licensed NHL agency NSM.
1. Get into good hockey school
The history of hockey insists on one extreme, practice on the other. From the point of view of history, there are no places where the path to gold medals and cups of various values is closed by default.
From the point of view of practice, a truly great hockey player can be trained in a few locations. The truth is in the middle - there is no problem in being born, for example, in Barnaul and eventually getting a chance to play in the NHL (it is clear that in the later stages a lot depends solely on the hockey player).
But if at the age of 11-12 you do not receive an invitation to a patented factory for the production of masters - let it be Omsk, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Moscow, Yaroslavl or Tolyatti (in fact, almost all cities with KHL clubs) - then with further development careers will begin insurmountable difficulties.
Naturally, there are unconditional talents that can be seen two kilometers away, but the overall level technical training, which is laid at the earliest stages of a player's preparation, will haunt him all his life. The amount of ice available for training, quality coaching staff and methods - a lot depends on this.
2. Stay in hockey until the age of 16
No matter how many goals a player scores at regional and all-Russian championships by his age, no matter what feedback he receives from the coaches watching him, there still comes a turning point when the hockey player and his family need to make a choice. Normal life, school, higher education - or fees, training, traveling.
As a rule, if a hockey player remains in business until the age of 14-15 and the doors to new steps do not cease to open before him, he passes the point of no return automatically. Key moment family support along the way: there is nothing surprising in the fact that, for example, Evgeni Malkin, receiving the 2009 Stanley Cup MVP award, first of all thanked his parents.
3. Enter the KHL draft
To the procedure for drafting newcomers in the main Russian league can be treated differently, but now it is difficult to argue with the fact that it begins with it professional career player. The goals of a player entering the draft differ depending on the elitism of the school that released him - it is much more interesting for an Ak Bars graduate not to leave with a high number, but to be protected by his own alma mater. There are some doubts that in Khabarovsk it will be competently brought to the level of the foundation KHL club.
4. Find a good agent
A point about which we talk less than we could. It is not difficult to imagine what would happen if hockey players negotiated with the management of the clubs on their own - everyone would play for pennies on short contracts with a huge penalty. An adequate agent, no matter what commission he requests, is a good help in finding and choosing options for career development, which is especially important at the very start.
Here, the example of Nikolai Zherdev is very suitable, whose life is very ambiguous (although, in some places, quite fun), but who, throughout its entire course, quite easily found new, quite worthy offers - largely thanks to his agent Yuri Nikolaev.
5. Choose - MHL or CHL
The easiest and most obvious option for a young Russian is the MHL; and it should not be underestimated - almost all young hockey players who left for North America went through this school. It is not far from home, the native language is here, the level of competition is quite suitable, the attention of journalists, to put it mildly, is moderate. On the other hand, not in all club structures the work of the “youth team” is organized correctly - often it does not work as a sports lift, but rather as a haven for 19-20-year-old players who are not in demand, which complicates the life of 16-17-year-old players.
Canadian "junior" in this sense, the option is noticeably closer to the harsh hockey reality - there is higher speed, much higher level of spectator and journalistic interest, there are much fewer random people in the coaching and management staffs and, most importantly, with "lift" everything is more obvious: 152 points in 62 regular season matches (Alexander Radulov in the 2005-06 season for Quebec) - and the path to the NHL is practically open to the player. Unfamiliar surroundings, stress and language barriers are also there, but hockey is generally a pretty tough game.
6. Get into the NHL Draft
One of the additional advantages of playing in the CHL is that the hockey player is in full view of the North American scouts, which means that his chances for the NHL draft automatically increase. However, a lot can be seen from afar - successful performances for the junior team and enchanting performance in the local youth league will certainly be noticed on the other side of the ocean.
Moreover, if the results of the Kaheel draft are not always amenable to intelligible interpretation, then the result of a similar procedure in the NHL is always an impressive basis for planning a future career. bad result- also a result: a low draft number, or even a complete disregard by the NHL clubs in themselves do not mean anything - there are wonderful rookie camps where you can come, prove that it was all a mistake, and earn a place in the North American leagues with a lower rank.
7. Break into the KHL
In the career of a real player, this point can change places with the previous one - no one closes the door to the KHL in front of especially talented juniors. At the same time, the Kontinental Hockey League is gradually developing its own structure for recruiting young people into the main teams of the clubs. Overall and strong guys from the MHL, ready to hustle with men - such as Nikita Tryamkin - can easily be taken to the KHL directly.
Everything is more complicated with the VHL, because the link there is perceived rather as a diagnosis, and too rare groups of hockey players move in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, a full-fledged season in the VHL is in any case more useful than a series of symbolic appearances on the ice for KHL team. And in some cases, when a player has outgrown the “youth team” both physically and morally, and there are already plenty of talented guys in the club (as was the case with Valery Nichushkin when he started his career in Chelyabinsk), staying in the Major League becomes simply necessary.
8.1. Grow to the NHL through the AHL
For some time in our country, the myth was exaggerated that the AHL is a terrible division, where our talented guys are rolled up, as one specialist put it, “in sprats”. In fact, everything is a little different and the American League may not be the most pleasant place in the world, but there you can a) get used to more contact North American hockey, b) work on individual skills, c) work in the role that the hockey player is planned to take to the NHL club.
Typically, a person educated harsh American League and trustworthy in the national club, comes there to a specific place, for specific tasks, seriously and for a long time - even despite the low number under which the hockey player left in the draft. Ask Vyacheslav Voinov.
8.2. Become a KHL star
There is a separate variety of players who were not the stars of the youth teams, but were consistently called up in them. Which were not particularly eager for the ocean, and which were not really expected there. While the partners of Alexei Emelin and Anton Belov on the youth team conquered North America, they gradually made their way to a place in the first links in their clubs. And have achieved notable progress, playing in Russia for several years.
One of the key conditions in such cases is the constant work in the Russian top club, where there is a concept of “competition for a place in the squad” and which regularly reaches the final stages of the playoffs. The players of the first links of Magnitogorsk, Ak Bars, Dynamo or Avangard, as practice shows, will come to court in many NHL clubs.
