In Pursuit of the 27th Man: Training Camp Stories–Wizards and Meatmen

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NMNHBy9NYE&w=420&h=315]

Every year, training camps (be they for junior teams, NHL teams, or a Young Stars Tournament) reliably offer a pair of interesting story lines: someone always impresses well beyond reasonable expectations; and, someone always tries to make a statement with a stupid, useless exhibition of violence. Last night’s Canucks-Oilers game delivered on both fronts, incidentally by way of a pair of “camp invites” (Vladimir Tkachev and Connor Boland–both on short term, camp tryout deals).

Vladimir Tkachev had 2 assists in a 4-3 OT Oilers rookies win vs Canucks rookies http://t.co/kjXruZBGhA #WayToGoVlad pic.twitter.com/9cMlfMW8i1

— Moncton Wildcats (@monctonwildcats) September 13, 2014

Tkachev

I’ve been on the Tkachev train for a while. I was desperate to see the Oilers use one of their late round flyers on him at this year’s draft. Unfortunately, the Oilers were looking for “skill,” someone with the potential to develop into an impact player. As experience tells us, that means Evan Campbell and Liam Coughlin.

I was very surprised and excited, then, to see the Oilers invite the undrafted Tkachev to training camp this year.

Final note on Tkachev. Here’s his @ExtraSkater numbers http://t.co/Rr35eWKpv9 pic.twitter.com/VkSivKj4AE

— Romulus’ Apotheosis (@RomulusNotNuma) August 13, 2014

Last night, Tkachev didn’t disappoint. In fact, he was easily the break-out star of the game, wowing all with not only his offensive instincts but his defensive acumen. OKC Baron’s coach Todd Nelson, on hand to coach the young stars, said following the game:

The goal Yakimov scored (roof job off a nifty backhand from Tkachev) was an awesome one to watch. Vladdie also fed Gernat on the third goal. They were fun to watch.

Oilers’ head scout Stu MacGregor echoed Nelson’s praise:

He’s a tough little S.O.B. He goes and gets the pucks and he’s pretty good defensively too.

Jonathan Willis was (rightly in my opinion) effusive in his praise of Tkachev:

Vladimir Tkachev. Tkachev was shockingly good in pretty much every area of the game. The tiny forward seemed to make a point of getting involved physically, throwing two hits that I noticed and in each case going a little out of his way to do it. He backchecked like a demon, negating two chances in the prospect and backstopped Mitch Holmberg when the WHL’er got himself into trouble; I also counted two steals on the night. Offensively he was a wizard, routinely gaining the zone with possession and making great passes. He drew two players to him before making a handoff for his first assist; he set Martin Gernat up with a tap-in goal on his second. It was a brilliant debut overall and a strong start at an entry-level contract. His one negative was a doozie, though – a bad pass in overtime that nearly resulted in a shorthanded breakaway.

The player that came to mind watching Tkachev play was Ales Hemsky. A play-maker. A zone entry wizard. A patient, wait-until-there-is-a-good-option-I-can-hold-the-puck-all-day, kind of guy. A player who, despite his reputation as an offensive witch, is more than willing to back-check like a demon.

This is the limited of all limited viewings. One game in a strange, largely inconsequential tournament at the tail end of the Summer. But, Tkachev had a strong enough showing in the 2013-14 season to be draft worthy. Teams left talent on the board for predictable reasons: small, Russian.

If the Oilers needed to see him for themselves, in their silks, to make a decision… the questions should be largely answered by now. Sign the man.

And, the Oilers can do just that–sign him–without so much as using a draft pick or trading an asset. Per the CBA (8.9 b ii; pps. 21-22):

The league-wide precedent for this is probably last year’s signing of Sergey Tolchinsky by the Carolina Hurricanes. Tolchinsky, like Tkachev, was a smaller, Russian forward playing in North America that went undrafted and got a camp invite from an NHL club.

Looking at the entry level contract Tolchinsky signed as a preview, the Oilers are likely to sign Tkachev (if they do and if they don’t one can only assume they are more obtuse than we’ve come to expect) to a cheap deal (cap hit of just under $600K, for reference that’s less than Travis Ewanyk’s current deal).

The best part is that the Oilers can sign Tkachev and send him back to junior for more seasoning without having his name show up on the dreaded 50-man roster (the contracts of players sent back to junior “slide” off the 50-man roster until they turn pro).

Boland

Boland also had me thinking about Hemsky last night. Solely, however, because as the picture above shows, the Oilers decided to put him in Hemsky’s old number (83). Needless to say… I found this discomfiting. Not because of Boland mind you, I just wish the Oilers had enough sense to treat Hemsky with a touch more reverence.

Boland’s big statement last night was a monster of a clean hit on Cordell James. Because this is training camp and because a few of the completely hapless players present will always be looking for an opportunity to impress with violence, Boland was fed his lunch in the form of a lopsided fight with Klarc Wilson.

After the game, Nelson bemoaned the situation:

That’s the way the game is nowadays. Clean hit and somebody thinks you have to fight. I think the officials could have done a better job of managing that situation. I thought there should have been extra minutes (Wilson). But give Boland credit. He went to war for our hockey team. The guys all tapped him on the shoulder. I think everything’s fine (no broken bones).

Neither Boland nor Wilson has much of a shot at the NHL. And, it looks like Boland may be fine after-all. At the time, the word “concussion” popped in my head and I’m sure many others (we may yet hear that word regarding Boland). But, the situation serves as a reminder of one of training camps least redeeming qualities: as long as hockey values violence to such a high degree, players of limited talent will be invited to camp to see if they can impress with their damage.

It reminds me of a story from the 80-81 season training camp as told by Peter Gzowski in his excellent book The Game of Our Lives (I’ve written about Gzowski’s book before here):

Sather likes to run things. Competition throbs through everything he does… Like most competitive men, he enjoys the contest almost as much as the victory. He prides himself on being as scrupulous as he is tough. At the Oilers’ training camp in September, Sather had to bring both these characteristics into play almost daily. One incident involved Dave Archambault, a big, strong, handsome young man from Ontario, who wanted to give the pros a whirl after a successful career in United States college hockey. Like almost all the rookies who won invitations to the Oilers’ camp, Archambault looked impressive on the ice, but to Sather’s expert eye, and to the eyes of the coaches and scouts who worked with him, he lacked the aggressive nature that would have marked him as big-league material. Archambault sensed this. In his final practice he deliberately started a fight; as a result, he broke two bones in his hand on the helmet of a player whose name he did not know. When Archambault returned from the hospital, Sather called him in for a chat and, while Archambault sat with his broken hand pulsing with pain, offered him a contract well down in the Oilers’ minor system, in Milwaukee, for a signing bonus of $4,000 and an annual salary of $10,000. For Archambault, whose college marks had fallen off as his hockey career blossomed, the news meant the end of an ambition he had nourished most of his life; players who go down as far as Milwaukee almost never make it to the NHL.

Every year a story like this comes out of training camp. It is an enormous waste of energy. If you have to earn your spot by subjecting yourself and others to almost certain injury, you either aren’t a hockey player (you may well be a mascot), or your paymasters are obscene (note: these are not mutually exclusive propositions).