Nikita Okhotiuk acquired from the San Jose Sharks for a fifth-round pick

The Calgary Flames have completed their Russian Five. OK, it comes with an asterisk, but you get the point.

Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy added yet another Russian defenceman via trade on Friday by acquiring Nikita Okhotiuk from the San Jose Sharks for a fifth-round draft choice. In other recent trades, Conroy brought in two other defencemen in Artem Grushnikov and Daniil Miromanov. Conroy in his time at the helm has also traded for Andrei Kuzmenko and Yegor Sharangovich (who is actually Belorussian).

“I’ve gotta get a dictionary,” Conroy said. “The one thing is, I just tell the scouts ‘Identify the players for me, tell me who we want,’ and it’s just for whatever reason the Russians have been who we identified.”

Okhotiuk, 23, was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the second round in 2019 and traded to the Sharks a year ago in the deal that sent Timo Meier out east. Okhotiuk played in 43 games this season for San Jose, and collected one goal and eight points, along with 44 penalty minutes. He played in 15 games over parts of two seasons for the Devils before being traded, and posted two goals, one assist and four penalty minutes.

“If you go on YouTube, he’s got some huge hits, some big hits,” Conroy said. “He plays hard, simple puck mover, but I think the one thing, he’s a high character individual, talking to people who know him, where he’s played, right from junior all the way up. It’s important for us to bring in different type of players. … With Nikita, he’s going to come in and bring another element, too, play hard, finish checks, moves well, good size.”

Starting with the trade that sent Elias Lindholm to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31, the Flames have acquired five defencemen via trade and two more off the waiver wire (Brayden Pachal and Joel Hanley).

“We brought in different guys, some guys that have played more defensive style-game, some guys with more offensive upside and we’re trying to build it that way,” Conroy said. “Moving forward, we’re going to have a lot of young D and that’s great because they’re going to grow together. Hopefully we find pairings down there and one day they’re pairings in the NHL and we get to where we want to go, being consistently in the playoffs and eventually going to win a Stanley Cup.”

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