An outstanding hockey player signed a contract with HC Sochi

Contract

One of the brightest and most impulsive Russian hockey players, Mikhail Anisin, found a job in a newcomer club from Sochi
Photo: RIA NOVOSTI

The notorious hockey player of the Continental Hockey League (KHL), 27-year-old Mikhail Anisin, signed a one-year contract with HC Sochi. The newcomer club took the risk of betting on the best scorer of the 2012 Gagarin Cup, whose services were once refused by the current head coach of the Russian national team, Oleg Znarok.

Signing a full-fledged contract with Mikhail Anisin is, without a doubt, a selection success for almost any KHL club, if we evaluate the playing qualities of this nimble 27-year-old forward, who is compared by many to NHL legend Theo Fleury for his small height (165 cm) and scoring talent. And Anisin’s official track record, better than any comparison, speaks in favor of signing a contract with the 27-year-old player for a longer period than a year. In the KHL, he played 255 matches and scored 145 points (81 goals + 64 assists), defending the colors of Sibir, Vityaz, Ugra, Severstal, and Dynamo Moscow. And if the explanation for the fact that the last season for Mikhail Anisin turned out to be crumpled was a sports injury, then there would be no question of the damaged reputation of this hockey player. Moreover, last season, which Anisin started at Neftekhimik and ended at Donbass, the forward had good statistics: in 20 matches he scored eight (4 + 4) points. However, the son of three-time world hockey champion Vyacheslav Anisin and half-brother of Olympic figure skating champion Marina Anisina, Mikhail Anisin, became widely known not only for his sporting success and ability to sing well: KHL President Alexander Medvedev in 2012, after hearing Anisin perform “O sole mio" before the start of the fourth KHL All-Star Game, was so touched that he asked the athlete to give a small concert for the participants of the hockey show.

Mikhail Anisin did not ruin his hockey reputation. The forward's "unofficial track record" spoiled it greatly. This list describes in black and white the player’s scandalous departure from Dynamo Moscow at the end of 2012, when Dynamo head coach Oleg Znarok said that Anisin is now a closed book for him, which he “put in the attic.” And in November last year, Mikhail Anisin added to this list with a fight with Sergei Varlamov, which Donbass players staged in one of the nightclubs in Ufa. Even worse, two videos of the adventures of a man staggering in the frame, very similar to the attacker, appeared on the Internet: one was filmed in a Ufa hospital, the second in a local hotel. As a result, the Ukrainian club refused his services.

However, time heals, and memory better preserves good impressions. In addition, the hockey player publicly apologized for the offense. In March, even Oleg Znarok said that he did not rule out inviting Anisin to the Russian national team. And in early August, before the start of the current season, Mikhail Anisin first signed a trial contract with HC Sochi, then went through the preseason and with his play earned good reviews from specialists, including the head coach of the Sochi club, Vyacheslav Butsaev, who gave the hockey player a chance. According to the coach, the athlete’s problems “are a thing of the past.” “We are starting everything from scratch, I hope Mikhail will become one of the leaders of our club,” said Mr. Butsaev. During the preseason, the “kids” line, in which Canadian Mark Olver (175 cm) and Belarusian Artem Demkov (178 cm) play with Mikhail Anisin, terrified the goalkeepers of the rival teams of the Sochi club, and the management of HC “Sochi” made an agreement with Anisin full contract for a year.

The club’s sports director, Nikolai Vakurov, told Kommersant that when concluding the contract, the club’s management had no fear that the hockey player’s sad track record could soon be replenished: “Of course, there are no guarantees, but Mikhail showed himself well at the training camp, we hope that as a first- or second-line player, he will help the team in the debut season, and the contract was signed for a year at the mutual request of the parties."

In the Sochi club, Mikhail Anisin will wear number 22, the same number he wore on the ice at Dynamo. Well, Dynamo, in turn, before the start of the season signed a one-year contract with two-time world champion 29-year-old forward Nikolai Zherdev, whose track record is not inferior to Anisin’s. Not the preseason in the KHL, but the era of mercy.

Ruslan Karmanov

Mikhail Anisin will play catchily