Confirmed with Link: Nikita Tryamkin returns to the KHL (signs 3-year deal with Avtomobilist)

[Petrichor]

You need to Google Botchford's article in this morning's Province...basically they totally screwed up with Tryamkin and lost a big piece of their rebuilding job as a result. He was on his way to being the 'foundational' d-man this team has never had.

For starters, even if Tryamkin was bloated and out of shape at the start of the year, which I doubt, he was still a lot better than Sbisa, Gudbranson or Hutton...and they tried to send him to Utica, which they knew was a clear violation of his contract.

They apparently showed the guy "Chris Pronger videos", hinting he wasn't mean or tough enough....and then Willie called him out after the Boston game, saying if he'd stepped it up physically on Marchand, the game might have turned out differently. What a load of crap...according to Botch, it even shocked other Russian players in the League, and I believe him.

Despite being one of the best Canuck d-men by the end of the year, he was still getting third pairing minutes, while guys like Edler and Sbisa crapped the bed night after night and played more minutes in meaningless games.

The only consolation to this whole fiasco is that one of the worst coaches in franchise history and the agent of this total flop was sent packing at the end of the year. But damage done....and for a team in a complete rebuild, with only 'hope' to sell to the faithful, this is about as bad as it gets.

I read that article before posting and although asking him to be Pronger is a bit of a reach, I don't think they were too hard on him. In the beginning of the year when he arrived and the media asked him if he was similar to Chara, he replied he wanted to be better than Chara. And everyone was like "I like his aggressiveness"

This is a guy who is really confident (read: cocky) in himself, but once management gives him expectations of being Pronger, all of a sudden the fanbase is like "oh no, that's ridiculous! He's just a little kid, don't force him to play a different style of game". The guy put himself in that situation in the first place. The guy had 4 years of professional hockey in the KHL before coming to the NHL. This is not a child anymore, but his complaints on ice time, ice distribution, management requests is very childish. And really, are people going to use "ice time distribution" as a complaint? Willie is fired. That excuse is bogus.

If someone paid me a million bucks to play Pronger style. Guess what? I'll do it. Or at least TRY to do it. Not fly half way across the country because the team didn't listen to me.

I am not a Benning supporter. Read my first post on this forum. He's made horrible moves, but this is definitely not one of them, nor was the management at fault. Take off the rose coloured glasses for once and see the player was at fault for being a drama queen. Not every screwup is because of management.

The Canucks invested in him because they thought they were getting a tough player who was hard to play against. People complain about Gudbranson not being tough, yet Tryamkin gets a free pass? I don't think so.

 

[Grantham]

Petrichor, thank your for your thoughts.

We are all entitled to our feelings on this. Why can't we be pissed at whoever we feel like? I am! I'm a fan of this team and a player bolted that was really important going forward after playing ONE stinking year. Am I supposed to dance a jig?

 

[DanCloutiersFiveHole]

I read that article before posting and although asking him to be Pronger is a bit of a reach, I don't think they were too hard on him. In the beginning of the year when he arrived and the media asked him if he was similar to Chara, he replied he wanted to be better than Chara. And everyone was like "I like his aggressiveness"

This is a guy who is really confident (read: cocky) in himself, but once management gives him expectations of being Pronger, all of a sudden the fanbase is like "oh no, that's ridiculous! He's just a little kid, don't force him to play a different style of game". The guy put himself in that situation in the first place. The guy had 4 years of professional hockey in the KHL before coming to the NHL. This is not a child anymore, but his complaints on ice time, ice distribution, management requests is very childish. And really, are people going to use "ice time distribution" as a complaint? Willie is fired. That excuse is bogus.

If someone paid me a million bucks to play Pronger style. Guess what? I'll do it. Or at least TRY to do it. Not fly half way across the country because the team didn't listen to me.

I am not a Benning supporter. Read my first post on this forum. He's made horrible moves, but this is definitely not one of them, nor was the management at fault. Take off the rose coloured glasses for once and see the player was at fault for being a drama queen. Not every screwup is because of management.

The Canucks invested in him because they thought they were getting a tough player who was hard to play against. People complain about Gudbranson not being tough, yet Tryamkin gets a free pass? I don't think so.

Gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you know Canada and Russia are separate countries.
Tryamkin was tougher than Gudbranson, but that's irrelevant. He didn't want to come back, and the reasons don't really matter. He fulfilled the terms of his contract and didn't make a fuss in the local media. How is that throwing a hissy fit? Where is the obligation to stay here? If management wanted him to stay then they should have done a better job of keeping him around. If they didn't think he wanted to play here they shouldn't have drafted him. He's under no obligation to you, the fan, or to management, who is merely a potential employer among many. I guess Auston Matthews was being a real ****** for playing in Switzerland instead of North America.

 

[DanCloutiersFiveHole]

Petrichor, thank your for your thoughts.

We are all entitled to our feelings on this. Why can't we be pissed at whoever we feel like? I am! I'm a fan of this team and a player bolted that was really important going forward after playing ONE stinking year. Am I supposed to dance a jig?

If you're going to be angry, be angry at the people who constructed this piece of **** team. Also you're entitled to be pissed, but don't be upset when someone points out that calling a hockey player childish because you wanted your shiny new toy and he had other plans is actually extremely childish.
EDIT: I know you didn't call him childish btw, it was from an earlier comment

 

[Petrichor]

Petrichor, thank your for your thoughts.

We are all entitled to our feelings on this. Why can't we be pissed at whoever we feel like? I am! I'm a fan of this team and a player bolted that was really important going forward after playing ONE stinking year. Am I supposed to dance a jig?

We're in the same boat, I am pissed about this move too and I never said fans aren't entitled to their feelings. That said, I am trying to provide a different perspective on the issue.

 

[Grantham]

If you're going to be angry, be angry at the people who constructed this piece of **** team

I am, I have plenty of anger to go around

 

[BrockBoeser6]

Could he just be making these excuses because he didn't want to come out publicly and admit that he just missed his home, his language, and his wife didn't want to live in Vancouver? He might've wanted to make it sound like his reasons were hockey related rather than personal to keep his options open moving forward. Also, the Olympics may have had something to do with it and I doubt he wants to be overly vocal about that since his name is not Ovechkin. It sucks that he left and I really hope he decides to come back and play in a Canuck sweater for a long time.

 

[Petrichor]

Gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you know Canada and Russia are separate countries.
Tryamkin was tougher than Gudbranson, but that's irrelevant. He didn't want to come back, and the reasons don't really matter. He fulfilled the terms of his contract and didn't make a fuss in the local media. How is that throwing a hissy fit? Where is the obligation to stay here? If management wanted him to stay then they should have done a better job of keeping him around. If they didn't think he wanted to play here they shouldn't have drafted him. He's under no obligation to you, the fan, or to management, who is merely a potential employer among many. I guess Auston Matthews was being a real ****** for playing in Switzerland instead of North America.

Yeah, meant to say across the world haha, but the flurry of text just came without edit.

My response was directed at people blaming management for asking him to play like Pronger. I don't see an issue with that at all.

As for your bolded response, I don't see how that's relevant. What do you mean management should do a "better job"? Besides, the coach is fired. He's back at square 1 like the whole roster to earn the trust of the new coach.

 

[Grantham]

We're in the same boat, I am pissed about this move too and I never said fans aren't entitled to their feelings. That said, I am trying to provide a different perspective on the issue.

No worries, my rant wasn't directed at you. I'm just going through the 5 stages of grief.

 

[Egghead1999]

Brutal just brutal.

You can't draft Russian players without bending over backwards to make them feel like this is a second home. I don't mean that in a negative way. You have just got to go into their first few years with eyes wide open that these players are going to need some special treatment.

Willy D is the wrong coach for Russian players.

Linden/Benning should be on the ropes. This is just unacceptable.

exactly, they cannot say "want to play in the best hockey league in the world, suck it up and play."

 

[hlrsr]

I am not a Benning supporter. Read my first post on this forum. He's made horrible moves, but this is definitely not one of them, nor was the management at fault. Take off the rose coloured glasses for once and see the player was at fault for being a drama queen. Not every screwup is because of management.

For me the issue isn't really just that he's gone. You're right, he might be a drama queen and at the end of the day if he doesn't want to be here, he's not going to stay.

That said, when management touts this player (very recently) as a future piece to get excited about and he turns around and bails while citing coaching issues that we've heard before, it's really hard to think that they were entirely on the ball about the situation. Their track record is far too bad for me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[mossey3535]

Yeah, meant to say across the world haha, but the flurry of text just came without edit.

My response was directed at people blaming management for asking him to play like Pronger. I don't see an issue with that at all.

As for your bolded response, I don't see how that's relevant. What do you mean management should do a "better job"? Besides, the coach is fired. He's back at square 1 like the whole roster to earn the trust of the new coach.

This isn't any different than teams like the Cowboys hiring a guy to basically follow guys like Terrell Owens around. It isn't just Russians, many young guys need some babysitting nowadays.

Even on 1040 where they were trying character assassination all day (which Ferraro said "sounded like a Vancouver lynch mob") they mentioned bringing in Russian community members to help out the early Russian players we had. Since we haven't had any Russians for a long time, why not do that again?

As for playing like Pronger, besides the fact that they should be trying to develop assets to the best of what they ARE rather than some archetype, is that playing like Pronger today is impossible. Stuff he got away with you can't generally get away with, and you definitely can't get away with doing as a Canucks player. They could have at least picked a more contemporary player.

 

[krutovsdonut]

Their track record is far too bad for me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

i bet it's not as bad as you think it is if you weren't already not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

that being said, i think this does stick to management. even if tryamkin's a crybaby, he's a crybaby they want on their team. they and ownership bear some responsibility for not mounting a full court press charm offensive to get him happy enough to re-sign. vancouver is not that bad a town and a lot of people would roll out the red carpet for tryamkin if asked. so make him the toast of the town. whatever it takes.

 

[mossey3535]

i bet it's not as bad as you think it is if you weren't already not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

that being said, i think this does stick to management. even if tryamkin's a crybaby, he's a crybaby they want on their team. they and ownership bear some responsibility for not mounting a full court press charm offensive to get him happy enough to re-sign. vancouver is not that bad a town and a lot of people would roll out the red carpet for tryamkin if asked. so make him the toast of the town. whatever it takes.

I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, but the sheer mass of mistakes they've made is inexcusable.

They can change my mind but they'd have to pull a LOT of Goldobin/Bieksa moves. I'm not talking 1:1 here because I think it might be nigh impossible, but this is just another example of a poorly managed situation.

 

[CherryToke]

Never draft a Russian again please. Might have to change my username to that.

 

[arttk]

i bet it's not as bad as you think it is if you weren't already not giving them the benefit of the doubt.

that being said, i think this does stick to management. even if tryamkin's a crybaby, he's a crybaby they want on their team. they and ownership bear some responsibility for not mounting a full court press charm offensive to get him happy enough to re-sign. vancouver is not that bad a town and a lot of people would roll out the red carpet for tryamkin if asked. so make him the toast of the town. whatever it takes.

lol, it's not bad if you ignore everything they have done. This is just another line item on a long laundry list of fails this management has managed to put up. There should be no benefit of the doubt for this management group.

 

[Fatass]

lol, it's not bad if you ignore everything they have done. This is just another line item on a long laundry list of fails this management has managed to put up. There should be no benefit of the doubt for this management group.

Listening to Pierre McGuire this morning on 1040, and he said this should be a learning experience for the Canucks to make certain the team has a plan in place for each foreign player in order to make the player and his family feel comfortable and at home. One of the show's hosts said he asked the Canucks if there was such a plan for Tryamkin, and he didn't get an answer. I assume that means there was not a plan for Tryamkin. I sure hope the BIG GUY comes back in a year or two, and (if he does) we have a plan to accommodate him and his wife.

 

[Pastor Of Muppets]

Could he just be making these excuses because he didn't want to come out publicly and admit that he just missed his home, his language, and his wife didn't want to live in Vancouver? He might've wanted to make it sound like his reasons were hockey related rather than personal to keep his options open moving forward. Also, the Olympics may have had something to do with it and I doubt he wants to be overly vocal about that since his name is not Ovechkin. It sucks that he left and I really hope he decides to come back and play in a Canuck sweater for a long time.

This is what I'm thinking....as Ray Ferraro pointed out 'what's he going to say as his reason for leaving the NHL..because he was homesick?'....no,he's going to use ice time (which is null and void because he eventually got his regular shift,and the offending coach got canned).

If he had issues just with Vancouver,he could have simply asked for a trade..but at the end of the day he just does not want to be an NHL player..simple as that.

 

[Petrichor]

Listening to Pierre McGuire this morning on 1040, and he said this should be a learning experience for the Canucks to make certain the team has a plan in place for each foreign player in order to make the player and his family feel comfortable and at home. One of the show's hosts said he asked the Canucks if there was such a plan for Tryamkin, and he didn't get an answer. I assume that means there was not a plan for Tryamkin. I sure hope the BIG GUY comes back in a year or two, and (if he does) we have a plan to accommodate him and his wife.

If his reason for leaving is family or personal related, I have zero issue with that at all. That is totally understandable.

However, if it was hockey-related like coaching or management requests like he said in another interview, then yes, I take issue with that.

Regardless, I agree and hope he comes back in a couple years to be a mainstay on the defence. I really enjoyed watching him play.

 

[arttk]

Listening to Pierre McGuire this morning on 1040, and he said this should be a learning experience for the Canucks to make certain the team has a plan in place for each foreign player in order to make the player and his family feel comfortable and at home. One of the show's hosts said he asked the Canucks if there was such a plan for Tryamkin, and he didn't get an answer. I assume that means there was not a plan for Tryamkin. I sure hope the BIG GUY comes back in a year or two, and (if he does) we have a plan to accommodate him and his wife.

How many more learning experience should this management group get? They ****ed up McCann, Virtanen and then now Tryamkin. Goldy looks jaded too at the end which is pretty amazing considering how little time he spent with us. And what point do they actually LEARN and don't **** things up again? These guys fail with the most basic things like don't say dumb **** in front of the mic to every conceivable scenario like filing the wrong year count in a contract, not knowing CBA, not even having a consistent plan amongst themselves and etc.

These ****ing idiots are incompetent and have shown it consistently for the past 3 years. We need to move the **** on and get rid of them.

 

[xtr3m]

Listening to Pierre McGuire this morning on 1040, and he said this should be a learning experience for the Canucks to make certain the team has a plan in place for each foreign player in order to make the player and his family feel comfortable and at home. One of the show's hosts said he asked the Canucks if there was such a plan for Tryamkin, and he didn't get an answer. I assume that means there was not a plan for Tryamkin. I sure hope the BIG GUY comes back in a year or two, and (if he does) we have a plan to accommodate him and his wife.

Every day brings a new learning experience with the two we have at the helm. They learned their lesson! They will never lose a towering 6'8" Russian defenseman ever again!

Lindenning: how to lose assets in 89 different ways.

 

[dwarf]

I read that article before posting and although asking him to be Pronger is a bit of a reach, I don't think they were too hard on him. In the beginning of the year when he arrived and the media asked him if he was similar to Chara, he replied he wanted to be better than Chara. And everyone was like "I like his aggressiveness"

This is a guy who is really confident (read: cocky) in himself, but once management gives him expectations of being Pronger, all of a sudden the fanbase is like "oh no, that's ridiculous! He's just a little kid, don't force him to play a different style of game". The guy put himself in that situation in the first place. The guy had 4 years of professional hockey in the KHL before coming to the NHL. This is not a child anymore, but his complaints on ice time, ice distribution, management requests is very childish. And really, are people going to use "ice time distribution" as a complaint? Willie is fired. That excuse is bogus.

If someone paid me a million bucks to play Pronger style. Guess what? I'll do it. Or at least TRY to do it. Not fly half way across the country because the team didn't listen to me.

I am not a Benning supporter. Read my first post on this forum. He's made horrible moves, but this is definitely not one of them, nor was the management at fault. Take off the rose coloured glasses for once and see the player was at fault for being a drama queen. Not every screwup is because of management.

The Canucks invested in him because they thought they were getting a tough player who was hard to play against. People complain about Gudbranson not being tough, yet Tryamkin gets a free pass? I don't think so.

You make great points, however I do feel there is a ton of blame that can be placed on Benning and this regime.

They did not have to draft a Russian in the first place.

Everyone knows, that drafting a Russian means that he has to make the NHL, get paid outrageous dollars, or they go home.

This is on Benning, and his learning curve. The real idiot is the owner who fired the last guy.

 

[Pump n Dump]

Gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you know Canada and Russia are separate countries.
Tryamkin was tougher than Gudbranson, but that's irrelevant. He didn't want to come back, and the reasons don't really matter.

But yet you go on to blame management?

He fulfilled the terms of his contract and didn't make a fuss in the local media. How is that throwing a hissy fit? Where is the obligation to stay here? If management wanted him to stay then they should have done a better job of keeping him around. If they didn't think he wanted to play here they shouldn't have drafted him. He's under no obligation to you, the fan, or to management, who is merely a potential employer among many. I guess Auston Matthews was being a real ****** for playing in Switzerland instead of North America.

If Tryamkin wasn't prepared to put up with the minimal challenges to his ego he was dealt here he should never have accepted the contract. There, am I doing it right?

If Tryamkin just said that he prefers playing in the KHL, that would be fine, but he made a lame attempt to blame his "it's not a step down" move on the Canucks. For that he may be criticized, albeit only mildly. Otherwise, I agree that he doesn't owe us anything. The truth is he could never become the player everyone here hoped he would if he couldn't accept being pushed. It's disappointing for Canucks fans, but it is what it is.

 

[DanCloutiersFiveHole]

Yeah, meant to say across the world haha, but the flurry of text just came without edit.

My response was directed at people blaming management for asking him to play like Pronger. I don't see an issue with that at all.

As for your bolded response, I don't see how that's relevant. What do you mean management should do a "better job"? Besides, the coach is fired. He's back at square 1 like the whole roster to earn the trust of the new coach.

It's the same hill they died on with Zack Kassian. Trying to get him to play like some prototype they had in their heads because of his size when he has good talents like his passing and offensive vision. Somebody already discussed why the Pronger style isn't going to work in today's NHL but to further the point why would you not allow him to be the player that suits his personality? I don't see them forcing Edler to watch tape of Pronger, or Sutter to watch tape of literally anyone because he is the softest player in the league. I get it, he's a young guy, but that doesn't erase the fact that these guys have a bias for what they want from guys with size and it isn't skill.

It's entirely relevant. At the end of the day, he chose he doesn't want to play in the NHL. He came over here, meaning he was willing to give it a try. As with most things in life, you're out to lunch if you think the only reason he left was because of playing time under a fired coach.

Things management should have been doing in this situation to ensure he extended include: help him acclimatize to NA life outside the rink; help his wife acclimatize to NA life; regularly check in to make sure his state of mind was in the right place WRT living here; regularly check in to make sure there were no misunderstandings between him and the coaching staff WRT his role on the team; honour the terms of the contract WRT AHL reassignment requests (if they simply suggested it, then the next item is what is most important); refrain from making public comments that turn the city against him; ensure that he knew he was a valuable piece of the team moving forward and that the coach knew and treated him as such; proactively replace a coach (who they were planning to fire anyways) that has a negative impact on young players; ensure that he and his wife are able to cope with any homesickness

They may very well have done some of these (some of them they obviously didn't) but you asked for the relevance and that's it right there. This was a player that they needed to convince to come here from a situation that he was satisfied with (KHL). The fact is that he came over, gave it a try, and obviously wasn't happy with it. You can't blame the player for being unhappy. If you wan't to say **** it it's just a 3rd rounder that's fine too, but that's not the way to run a business. This guy has potential, and they should have been doing everything they could to make sure that he was happy here.

 

[DanCloutiersFiveHole]

But yet you go on to blame management?



If Tryamkin wasn't prepared to put up with the minimal challenges to his ego he was dealt here he should never have accepted the contract. There, am I doing it right?

If Tryamkin just said that he prefers playing in the KHL, that would be fine, but he made a lame attempt to blame his "it's not a step down" move on the Canucks. For that he may be criticized, albeit only mildly. Otherwise, I agree that he doesn't owe us anything. The truth is he could never become the player everyone here hoped he would if he couldn't accept being pushed. It's disappointing for Canucks fans, but it is what it is.

He fulfilled the terms of his contract, so no that's not equivalent.
They wanted him to come here, not the other way around. That's the all important thing people are missing. He came, and for whatever reason he didn't like it. If there's blame to be had, then it's with management. I'm not suggesting they made some huge error, and he may just have been dead set on going back home. I don't even know if this is a situation where blame can be assigned. He may just not want to be an NHL player. But blaming Tryamkin is like blaming a FA for not signing in your city, or for a player retiring, or for a college player wanting to finish his degree.
He chose to go home.
Do I wish he had stayed? Of course. But the character attacks around the city are ridiculous.