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Better Every Day - Jan. 29, 2024 – Vol. 77, Issue 09 - Ken Campbell

When the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets had their little play date in mid-December, it pitted the youngest and second-youngest rosters in the NHL against each other for the first time this season. The Sabres were so bad they probably had to go to bed without a bedtime story that night. The Blue Jackets, just 0.2 years older on average than the Sabres, got to stay up late and play mini-sticks at the team hotel after winning 9-4.

In the NHL, a young team sometimes grows to become a powerhouse. Other times, they go from being a bad young team to a bad older team. But it’s fun to watch the exuberance and novelty, and with the Blue Jackets, the signs of youth are everywhere. They’re on full display five nights earlier at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto when, after playing his first NHL game in his home city, 19-year-old rookie Adam Fantilli goes into the stands to meet hundreds of people who were there to watch him play. There, his father cups his son’s head in his hands, kisses his cheeks and gives him a long, warm hug.

It’s there in the corner stall of the visitors’ dressing room, where Kent Johnson is waiting to talk to reporters after scoring the overtime-winner. Johnson is still too defiant to realize that maybe, just maybe, a short trip to the minors to start the season might have actually been good for him. “I’m a confident guy,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ll ever admit that was what I needed.”

You see it on the ice when the Blue Jackets take a 5-0 lead on one of the league’s top teams through two periods, only to have the sphincters tighten up in a big way, then give up five goals before winning in the 3-on-3 session.

And you see it in a trio of players whose hometowns are separated by more than 1,500 miles in Siberia but who sit beside each other in the dressing room. Yegor Chinakhov, Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov certainly have the NHL talking, mostly to ask how the Jackets keep finding these guys. When Columbus took Chinakhov with their first-round pick in 2020, even the most ardent draft pundits were checking their lists to see if he was eligible.

Each of the three Russian youngsters is interesting in his own way, but the most intriguing might be Voronkov, a 6-foot-5, 240-pounder the Blue Jackets took in the fourth round (114th overall) of the 2019 draft and the guy who plays center on the line. “I don’t know how I can describe him, other than he’s extremely smart,” said Columbus coach Pascal Vincent. “I had a guy in Winnipeg, Dustin Byfuglien, who was completely unique. There was no one like him. I feel Voronkov is that kind of guy because I can’t compare him to anyone in the league right now. I would say that I don’t know what his ceiling is right now. It could be really high.”

Much of the mystery surrounds the fact that Voronkov came to North America this season without even a rudimentary grasp of English. It didn’t help that his conditioning wasn’t up to par when he arrived, and he was sent to the minors to start the season. When he came back up, and the Blue Jackets subsequently instructed him to get a place in Columbus, he said he was seriously considering returning home. At 23, with his girlfriend and everything he knew back in Russia, Voronkov was terribly homesick, even with four compatriots on the roster. It was touch-and-go for a while as Voronkov pondered going back.

But he stayed, and things have gotten better. Things are becoming less foreign with each passing day, and Marchenko translates for him. Voronkov lives in the same condo complex as Marchenko and Chinakhov, and the Blue Jackets are working on arranging the visas to get his girlfriend to the United States. On the ice, he is excelling with his linemates, making great plays and displaying a hockey sense well beyond his years. And he’s starting to fit in. “We joke around a lot, even though it’s not speaking,” Johnson said. “We’re usually just messing around on the ice and in the room. He’s a great guy, and I like him a lot. And he’s learning (English) pretty well. It seems whenever he needs a word, he knows it somehow.”

Pyotr Andreyanov Signs Extension With CSKA Moskva Pyotr Andreyanov, the 18-year-old goaltender selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of this month's NHL draft, has officially signed a 5-year extension with  CSKA Moskva.

It can be easy to dismiss the cultural aspect of all of this, but consider how you’d feel if you were 23 and left everything familiar to you to live in Voronkov’s hometown of Angarsk, which is nearly 2,600 miles east of Moscow and fewer than 400 miles from the Mongolian border. To explain it, Marchenko asks his questioner if he watches North American movies. Then, he asks if the interviewer has ever seen a Russian movie. “Just watch a Russian movie and you will see,” Marchenko said. “It’s all different. Everything is different. It’s a different life. If you haven’t been to Russia, you can’t really understand us.”

But that different life does not include playing in the best league in the world with the best players and having the opportunity to make the best money. While Voronkov was pondering returning, he spoke to people back home, and they reminded him of those things. Having Marchenko and Chinakhov so close to him on and off the ice really helps, too. “Everything is good now,” Voronkov said. “The most important thing is on the ice. I’m feeling more comfortable on the ice and with the team. We’re winning a little more, and things are going better.”

It certainly didn’t take Voronkov long to establish himself on the ice. On the second shift of his NHL career, he drilled an opponent from behind, then stood in and traded punches with him. That opponent happened to be Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj, who had 101 penalty minutes and nine fighting majors last season. Xhekaj definitely got the better of Voronkov, but it wasn’t a rout, and Voronkov finished the game with an assist, which meant he was just a goal shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick. Eleven days later, he got into it with Kevin Stenlund of the Florida Panthers, who was beating a path toward Fantilli after Fantilli nailed Carter Verhaeghe with a hard, clean hit. Since then, Voronkov has displayed a willingness to go to the dirty areas of the ice. “He’s sneaky tough,” Vincent said. “And there’s no fear in his game.”

It wouldn’t be accurate to say Voronkov doesn’t go looking for physical confrontations, but doing so is not a big part of his game. There are videos out there of fights he had in the KHL, and it looks as though he’s capable of handling himself. “I’m not a fighter guy,” Voronkov said. “I want to score goals and get assists and win games.”

"I'm not a fighter guy. I want to score goals and get assists and win games." Dmitry Voronkov

As for his hockey sense, he’s pretty direct, if not a little brash, in his response. “It’s a God-given gift,” he said.

Voronkov has delivered early in his rookie season, but it’s what he represents that has the Blue Jackets excited. He’s a big man who plays the middle of the ice, can score and make plays and displays a high level of hockey sense. There is undoubtedly a tantalizing array of talent and physical gifts that are just beginning to be mined. He’ll never be as gregarious as Marchenko, who has a permanent smile and actually pulled off the “forecheck, backcheck, paycheque” cliché to perfection earlier this season. But the hope is that once he gets over the language and cultural barriers that face him in North America, Voronkov will feel even more comfortable, and that will be bound to display itself on the ice. “You’d have to ask the coaches, but I’m working hard every practice and every game,” Voronkov said. “It’s the NHL. It’s a tough league. I always said, ‘Don’t worry about on the ice. I really like the NHL, and I like the style.’ I want to be better in this league. I want to score some goals and every day be better, and it’s a good challenge.”

Everything is a challenge for Voronkov at the moment, but Vincent has found his transition on the ice to be nothing short of remarkable. Even the mistakes have provided teachable moments that are getting a little easier to deal with as Voronkov grasps more. The Blue Jackets started Voronkov as a winger, but they moved him to center fairly early in his NHL tenure. And his coach hasn’t really shielded him from facing quality opponents. “Even though he doesn’t speak the language, he’s completely part of the team,” Vincent said. “He’ll play tricks on guys, and he’s a fun guy to be around. He loves the games. He loves to be around the team, and he’s a good teammate. So, we’re really, really excited.”

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