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Nick Paul heard the information the opposite evening and stays shocked that his pal, Nikita Kucherov, has requested to be traded.
Like most of us, like virtually all of hockey, he didn’t see this coming.
“I don’t know something concerning the contract, concerning the cash, concerning the circumstances,” the Maple Leafs first-year centre stated. “I’m as shocked as anybody about this.
“I don’t know the main points to be trustworthy. I don’t know his enterprise. It’s not my place to know any of that. However I do know him. I imply, I skated with him each summer season for years and I do know the period of time he places into his career and the way a lot I realized from him. I do know he research issues within the sport that nobody else research. I realized issues from him.
“I like him. I’ve at all times appreciated him. Me and Kuch are fairly shut. He’s a terrific man. I like him rather a lot.”
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Nikita Kucherov is among the nice mysteries of the Nationwide Hockey League. He performs a sport that will require a doctorate of some type to clarify.
He skates much less and does greater than any excellent participant in reminiscence. Wanting sad is his expression of selection. Speaking to anybody outdoors his dressing room — the media for instance — is one thing different gamers do, however not Kucherov.
What does Nikita Kucherov need?
The story was once that you simply check in Tampa for much less cash than you’d receives a commission wherever else it’s due to the advantageous taxation legal guidelines within the state of Florida. However taxes be damned on this circumstance. Kucherov desires to be paid and, greater than that, he desires to be revered.
His agent, Dan Milstein, has provided a listing of 10 groups that will settle for a commerce to — and the belief being {that a} deal would go hand in hand with a brand new contract.
As of Monday, Kucherov was a two-time Hart Trophy winner, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, a participant so adept at playoff time that he as soon as scored 93 factors over three consecutive post-seasons. However, proper now, he’s forty third within the NHL in wage.
On the final yr of an eight-year contract that appeared huge eight years in the past.
Now the query: What’s subsequent? Tampa Bay normal supervisor Julien BriseBois stated he has no intention of buying and selling Kucherov. Apparently, Kucherov has no intention of staying.
This can be a very unusual time within the historical past of the NHL. Gamers are taking extra management of their careers and their circumstances than ever earlier than.
The multi-time Vezina Trophy winner, Connor Hellebuyck, pressured his approach out of Winnipeg, that coming after Brady Tkachuk pressured his approach out of Ottawa and earlier than that Quinn Hughes all however pressured his approach out of Vancouver.
However who forces their approach out of Tampa? Who doesn’t wish to play for Jon Cooper and with Andrei Vasilevskiy? And now the final participant who desires to be front-page information is now front-page information.
“I don’t actually know what’s occurring there,” stated Darren Raddysh, the Maple Leafs defenceman who scored 20 targets final season, with so many coming off excellent passes by Kucherov with the Lightning.
“Being right here, it’s arduous to know what’s occurring in Tampa. I understand how critical he takes his profession. I understand how critical he takes his craft.
“When you get to know him, you realize all he does he make himself higher. He works on his sport on a regular basis. If everybody got here right here, that will be wonderful. I do know this, what folks see from the skin is him being grumpy, however when you realize him, you realize he’s not like that.
“He desires a sure perfection from himself. And he has a approach of doing that.
“It’s humorous, I used to be simply speaking to the blokes right here about him. I stated there’s no approach he would ever go away Tampa. And every week later, it comes out that he’s requested for a commerce. Reveals what I do know.”
How may Nikita Kucherov make historical past?
A chunk of hockey historical past: Many Hart Trophy winners have been traded, however none of them have been traded the yr after they gained the Hart.
Wayne Gretzky gained eight Hart Trophies and one yr later was dealt to Los Angeles. Different Hart winners corresponding to Phil Esposito, Chris Pronger, Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Fedorov have been dealt after they gained the Hart, however not the yr after.
“To listen to of a participant of his calibre wanting out, that’s one thing,” Paul stated. “You must perceive, every little thing that he does is unbelievable.
“I realized a lot from him. It’s arduous to clarify his stage of considering however he is aware of what he’s doing earlier than anybody else is aware of what he’s doing. He taught me to decelerate as an alternative of dashing up, to make extra time for myself utilizing the ice.
“Typically he would go it to you and also you wouldn’t know the way you bought the puck. You’d by no means see him taking a look at you and there, you’d get the puck. It’s so troublesome and so easy, it appears, for him.”
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And now the query: In an NHL with salaries escalating, how a lot do you pay one of many High 5, perhaps High 3, gamers on this planet?
“I’m all about gamers getting paid,” Paul stated. “However I don’t know what he’s on the lookout for or what they’re providing.”
Yet one more factor from Paul: “I’d like to see him right here. Who wouldn’t need him?”
ssimmons@postmedia.com