| Last night the first matches of the NHL championship took place Last night the next NHL championship started in North America. Our fans are particularly interested in the fate of Russians who moved overseas last summer. Ilya Kovalchuk’s phenomenal NHL debut last season shocked the public, and now similar feats are expected from the next batch of Russian recruits.
In recent years, the leading clubs of the Russian Super League have been able to offer their stars such attractive conditions that there are now few people willing to leave for the NHL without firm guarantees of a place in the main roster and a million-dollar contract. Mostly ambitious young people flock to North America. Of all our guys who are going to conquer America this season, only the “sweet couple” of “Wings of the Soviets” Anton Volchenkov and Alexander Frolov can be considered among the accomplished stars. Last season, this duo became the main catalyst for the sensational rise of the Setun team. In the summer they signed contracts with Ak Bars Kazan and only after that they went on an overseas “trip”. If in Russia Anton and Alexander were obvious primas of the same level, then in the NHL, according to experts, different fates await them in the first season.
The son of the eminent CSKA defender Alexei Volchenkov has very good chances not only to gain a foothold in the Ottawa team, but also to seriously compete for the “Best Newcomer in the League” award. He performed excellently in exhibition matches, becoming the team's top scorer with 7 (2+5) points. And this despite the fact that Anton is a defender! Volchenkov’s aggressive style of play fits perfectly into the canons of North American hockey, and the club is already betting on a bright newcomer.
Frolov is one of the most technical players in the Super League. Alexander is one of the cohort of masters who can easily beat two or three opponents at once. But in Los Angeles it will be difficult for him to immediately quickly find a worthy use for his talents. Still, the forward’s size doesn’t look too impressive for the NHL. Although Alexander performed well in exhibition matches, surprising even the head coach of the Kings, Andy Murray, it is still doubtful that he will be able to quickly feel like a fish in water in a new club that professes fairly straightforward hockey. But all experts rate Frolov’s long-term prospects in the league very highly.
Another “sweet couple” – Alexander Svitov and Stanislav Chistov – has also waited its time in the NHL. After last year's draft, where they received the third and fifth picks, respectively, the guys did not hide their desire to immediately move to America. To keep them in their homeland, the leadership of the Omsk Avangard resorted to the only win-win method, sending the guys to “serve” in the army. But hockey players' agent Jay Grossman found a way out of this impasse. Thanks to a directive from the Ministry of Defense, Svitov and Chistov were transferred to Moscow, to CSKA. But according to our hockey legislation, this transition was declared illegal, since there was no consent from the previous club. And the guys didn’t have the right not only to play for the army team, but even to train for six months. However, this high-profile case had a quiet and quite predictable ending. By the summer, thanks to the peculiarities of the military code, the players were safely discharged and calmly went to America. In the coming season, the grenadier Svitov has a good chance of breaking into the Tampa team, and the diminutive “techie” Chistov, apparently, will be tested for strength in the Anaheim farm club.
Ex-Ak Bars defender Dmitry Bykov also has very good prospects of quickly becoming one of his own in Detroit. This team, beloved by many of our fans, now has big problems with defensive players, which a calm and reasonable Russian can solve. Overseas analysts have no doubt that Dmitry is guaranteed a place in the starting lineup, and some even believe that he will play in the first pair along with the Swede Nicklas Lidström. Victor SHUMOV |
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