Player Discussion II. Valeri Nichushkin

Gorgeous George

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Bump.

Will Nichushkin be returning to the Stars in 2018 or has he worn out his welcome?

Does a trade look most likely? Not sure why the Stars would protect him against the expansion draft, if they didn't have him a role for him moving forward.

Not sure if the Radulov signing and the change in coaching will be a better environment.

Thoughts?
 

Troy McClure

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Ultimately, the Stars protected him in the expansion draft because they didn't have to expose anyone they otherwise feared losing.

They are holding onto his rights because there is no downside to doing so. If he has a huge year in the KHL, they can then figure out whether they want to deal with giving him another shot or with trading his rights. If he has another pedestrian year in the KHL, then they won't want him back and no one will want to trade for him.
 

serp

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COuple of guys are expiring at the end of the year and realistically what kind of money does Val command 2-3 Million at most and thats beeing generous to him.
 

Troy McClure

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Looks like the Nichushkin whitewashing campaign is in full swing and is gaining ground now that several Stars employees are talking about him. I guess it was inevitable that the PR spin would start to be put out there to make fans think good thoughts about him.

Nichushkin twice ran to Russian media to trash the Stars while he was here. He played like he didn't care his last season here. He twice asked to be traded. He left for the KHL as soon as he could. Despite all of that, there are a surprising number of Stars fans eager to welcome him back with open arms. He does all of that and will be welcome, yet a guy like Brad Richards is still hated all because he didn't waive a no trade clause.
 

Frozen Failure

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I regret buying a Nichushkin jersey and clearly need to only buy Jamie Benn merchandise forever.
 

M88K

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Looks like the Nichushkin whitewashing campaign is in full swing and is gaining ground now that several Stars employees are talking about him. I guess it was inevitable that the PR spin would start to be put out there to make fans think good thoughts about him.

Nichushkin twice ran to Russian media to trash the Stars while he was here. He played like he didn't care his last season here. He twice asked to be traded. He left for the KHL as soon as he could. Despite all of that, there are a surprising number of Stars fans eager to welcome him back with open arms. He does all of that and will be welcome, yet a guy like Brad Richards is still hated all because he didn't waive a no trade clause.

He trashed Ruff, and Ruff Deserved all the trash he got. He played like he didn't know what to do, like a good chunk of the team did.
He asked to be traded because of Ruff. He signed in the KHL near the end of September not "as soon as he could"

Nichushkin's complaints weren't unfounded, Richards came out and said I don't want to waive because it may hurt the team I sign with. Big difference
 

Troy McClure

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Right. There is a difference. Richards was justified to say no and should not be viewed negatively in the least. Modano also refused to waive his no trade clause, and no one craps on him for it.

But Nichushkin's time in Dallas was worse than Sean Avery or Donald Audette. If it was a Dallas Cowboy who did what Nichushkin did, fans and the media would have been all over him for being a cancer who quit and poisoned the team. There would have been press conferences. But since he's a Star, not a word from the media other than Razor throwing a bit of shade via Twitter last summer.

I guess he's clearly going to get a free pass from many fans.
 

Zapp

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But Nichushkin's time in Dallas was worse than Sean Avery or Donald Audette.

Lol, this is so far beyond asinine. I don't get why you have some weird obsession with hating Val, you make it seem like it's personal.

Sure there are reasons to criticize him but you take it way over the top. I see you post more about Nichushkin than anything else in the forums and it's just straight up weird.

I'm glad he's starting to find his groove and I don't see why anyone would try and take one of our prospects showing progress and spinning in a negative light.
 

FirstRowUpperDeck

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Saying "Nichushkin's time in Dallas was worse than Sean Avery or Donald Audette" does seem like a tad bit of overstatement.

At least the first Russian interview could be a case of a young player trusting a reporter, which should never happen.

I will admit his NHL or go home stance at the draft did hint at some "want it handed to me" attitude problems.

Maybe I am just buying the so called whitewash, because I was sort of against him coming back, but Nil never said a negative word about him, and behind the scenes, it looks like they are on good terms, even though Val's first stint didn't go that well here.

If he comes back, and fits in, and scores anywhere near 20 goals, it will simply be like a "free forward talent" given he departed for Russia. Yes, lots of ifs and buts, but I can see a roster full of near 20 goal scorers behind Benn (and if resigned) Seguin next year and beyond.
 

WhatWhat

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Looks like the Nichushkin whitewashing campaign is in full swing and is gaining ground now that several Stars employees are talking about him. I guess it was inevitable that the PR spin would start to be put out there to make fans think good thoughts about him.

Nichushkin twice ran to Russian media to trash the Stars while he was here (1). He played like he didn't care his last season here. He twice asked to be traded. He left for the KHL as soon as he could (2). Despite all of that, there are a surprising number of Stars fans eager to welcome him back with open arms (3). He does all of that and will be welcome, yet a guy like Brad Richards is still hated all because he didn't waive a no trade clause.

(1) He complained about his ice time and wasnt a fan of the coach... he did not "trash the stars"

(2) They offered him more money and more ice time. Can you fault someone for taking that? He is also using those minutes to be one of CSKA's top scorers and the Stars have openly said they want him back so from his stand point it looks to have been a good career move.

(3) People want him back because he is good at hockey and most fans, not you I guess, want good players on their team.

Im not sure if you are aware but typically you aim to put the best players possible on your team and usually adding a good player makes the team play better. I know its a tough concept to grasp but Ill give you a bit of time and Im sure you will be able to put 2 and 2 together to figure out why many Stars fans are excited at the possibility of him playing for us next year
 

WhatWhat

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Right. There is a difference. Richards was justified to say no and should not be viewed negatively in the least. Modano also refused to waive his no trade clause, and no one craps on him for it.

But Nichushkin's time in Dallas was worse than Sean Avery or Donald Audette. If it was a Dallas Cowboy who did what Nichushkin did, fans and the media would have been all over him for being a cancer who quit and poisoned the team. There would have been press conferences. But since he's a Star, not a word from the media other than Razor throwing a bit of shade via Twitter last summer.

I guess he's clearly going to get a free pass from many fans.


I think the bigger story would be that a football player left the NFL to test his luck at ice hockey in a foreign country.


There is no comparable football league so your attempted argument falls flat. If there was an NFL 2.0 in the world that could offer very quality pay then you probably would have people use that as leverage
 

WhatWhat

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Lol, this is so far beyond asinine. I don't get why you have some weird obsession with hating Val, you make it seem like it's personal.

Sure there are reasons to criticize him but you take it way over the top. I see you post more about Nichushkin than anything else in the forums and it's just straight up weird.

I'm glad he's starting to find his groove and I don't see why anyone would try and take one of our prospects showing progress and spinning in a negative light.


He has this insane hatred for Nichushkin and I agree its weird. The mere thought that someone MIGHT have once had a positive thing to say about Nichushkin and Troy will be right there trying his best to tell you that he is trash. I dont get his fascination with it either but its one thing you can be sure about on these boards and on twitter is that if you mention anything good about Nuke Troy will sneak into the conversation and try to make him look like the devil incarnate
 

Troy McClure

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I think the bigger story would be that a football player left the NFL to test his luck at ice hockey in a foreign country.

There is no comparable football league so your attempted argument falls flat. If there was an NFL 2.0 in the world that could offer very quality pay then you probably would have people use that as leverage
My argument is a player who runs to the press multiple times to complain about his team and who demands trades would be hated by fans and would be under serious media scrutiny if he played for the Cowboys (or Leafs, for that matter). He lucked out that he was drafted by the Stars where his antics get ignored by fans and swept under the rug by the one person in the local media who covers the team.
 

JohnnyHockey

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My argument is a player who runs to the press multiple times to complain about his team and who demands trades would be hated by fans and would be under serious media scrutiny if he played for the Cowboys (or Leafs, for that matter). He lucked out that he was drafted by the Stars where his antics get ignored by fans and swept under the rug by the one person in the local media who covers the team.
I remember when Radulov ran away from a hockey team and Nashville AND Montreal fans were telling us he's a terrible teammate and doesn't deserve to be in the league. Since he's been here people have loved him. I don't understand the Nichuskin hate. Put up equal numbers to Janmark at a much younger age, and was completely used a whipping boy despite being forced to play "musical lines" every night and never being able to build chemistry with anyone. Yeah, I'd be pissed too. Ruff deserved everything Nuke said about him.
 

Troy McClure

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I remember when Radulov ran away from a hockey team and Nashville AND Montreal fans were telling us he's a terrible teammate and doesn't deserve to be in the league. Since he's been here people have loved him. I don't understand the Nichuskin hate. Put up equal numbers to Janmark at a much younger age, and was completely used a whipping boy despite being forced to play "musical lines" every night and never being able to build chemistry with anyone. Yeah, I'd be pissed too. Ruff deserved everything Nuke said about him.
Why would I hate a guy who did bad things to another team? But you should go see what Preds fans say about him. They are not happy at all and don't like him or what he did to their team.
 

WhatWhat

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Why would I hate a guy who did bad things to another team? But you should go see what Preds fans say about him. They are not happy at all and don't like him or what he did to their team.

They are mad because he left and never came back. He never had any intention of coming back to the preds and he made that clear. How do you not see the difference. Nuke fully expressed that Ruff was a large part of him leaving. He also said he liked playing in Dallas and would come back to the team with a new coach. He then further showed that he had interest in coming back by signing a 2 year deal in the KHL. He could have signed a deal that brought him to 27 and said "screw the Stars im coming back when they dont have my rights" but he didnt.


Nuke butted heads with a coach who was a horrible coach and got canned because his system was a complete mess. He has expressed interest in returning since the day he left and management has expressed interest in having him back since the day he left. If you can't see the difference between the Nichushkin situation and the Radulov one and how those difference would lead to Dallas being happy to have Nichushkin in the NHL again but Nashville being sour about it then that is on you and your inability to comprehend how the situations differ
 

RussianSpy

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Personally, I think the only thing fans have a right to be mad about is his demand of NHL playing time his rookie year or going back to the KHL. I also think the fans have a right to be mad at the Stars in signing him to his ELC, and not letting him return to Russia.

Val should have been in Russia from day 1. He wasn't ready for the NHL or AHL. European players develop best in the European leagues. Im not upset he went to the KHL; he needed to be in the KHL from the beginning. I think both Nill and Val realized he needed to be in the KHL (if he can't produce in the KHL, he won't produce here and it kills Val's contract negotiations here. If he does produce, then the Stars get a developed NHL ready Val) and that's why neither side is upset at the other.
 

WhatWhat

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Personally, I think the only thing fans have a right to be mad about is his demand of NHL playing time his rookie year or going back to the KHL. I also think the fans have a right to be mad at the Stars in signing him to his ELC, and not letting him return to Russia.

Val should have been in Russia from day 1. He wasn't ready for the NHL or AHL. European players develop best in the European leagues. Im not upset he went to the KHL; he needed to be in the KHL from the beginning. I think both Nill and Val realized he needed to be in the KHL (if he can't produce in the KHL, he won't produce here and it kills Val's contract negotiations here. If he does produce, then the Stars get a developed NHL ready Val) and that's why neither side is upset at the other.


This has been stated about 50 000 times. He didnt say give me minutes or im going back to the KHL. He had a contractual obligation to return to the KHL if he didnt make the NHL team. We were not allowed to send him to the AHL even though Im sure Nill would have love him there for a year or 2
 

RussianSpy

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This has been stated about 50 000 times. He didnt say give me minutes or im going back to the KHL. He had a contractual obligation to return to the KHL if he didnt make the NHL team. We were not allowed to send him to the AHL even though Im sure Nill would have love him there for a year or 2

Not exactly. He created the contractual obligation, not the team. His contract stated he would either play for the NHL team or he would return to KHL. I'm not sure if that is what you were saying, just clarifying. But either way, fans can be frustrated about that obligation being mandated by Val's camp.
 

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