Finished the book and The Fish is 100% NOT Chistov.
During the playoffs King specifically talks about having to call up The Fish due to injuries. Meanwhile, he mentions how Chistov is playing in every game.
And if you check Hockeydb, Chistov played every single playoff game.
I think it's obviously Evgeny Gladskikh. I don't know who he is, but he's the only player that is never really mentioned by name in the book.
King makes a point to mention almost every player on the team at some point. But I don't recall him saying Evgeny's name whatsoever despite the fact that he played in 43 of the teams 51 games.
But I found it fascinating that King said that Gladskikh's skill level was close to being on par with Malkin's.
I'm sure there are dozens (if not hundreds) of players in the world who have NHL talent but never made it due to various circumstances.
Igor Larionov wrote an article for the Players Tribune where he claims there are tonnes of KHL players that are more skilled than NHL players.
But the NHL plays a 'dumber' brand of hockey, and loves it's truculence.
So there could be a Datsyuk 2.0 in the KHL who'll never get a chance at the NHL while players like Zack Ronaldo or Dan Carcillo remain gainfully employed and sought after in the NHL.
I also remember Keith Jones commenting on an NBC telecast that when he'd go home in the off-season his childhood buddies would always raz him about how they couldn't believe he made it despite the fact he was the worst player among them.
Jones made no bones about that fact and he agreed with them.
But he always retorted "You're right. But you quit and I kept playing".
Makes you wonder how many more players with NHL talent are kicking around out there.
Maybe they're in a European league, or perhaps working under a car in a garage someplace.
One more story to bore you all (and all over a thread that was dead for nearly a decade).
The late, great Roger Nielsen once travelled to my hometown as a guest speaker for a hockey symposium.
He told a great story about how the hockey world has blinders on and will overlook great talent because they don't 'fit the mold'.
He told a story about a kid that was a dynamic player and destroying his local Junior B league. This kid was very undersized, but he had great offensive skills. Blinding speed, quick hands, great vision and enough sand that he wasn't scared to go into the hard areas to get the puck.
For 2 or 3 years he either led the league in scoring or was in the top 3. He kept trying to get noticed by the CHL but when he became eligible, he was never picked.
Despite dominating the league for 3 years, he never got drafted and at the age of 19 he quit hockey completely, disgusted with being shafted time and time again due to his size.
The kid was also a great lacrosse player so he continued to pursue that avenue of athletics.
Well as fate would have it, the kid had a very late growth spurt and grew to be 6'3" and 215lbs.
He earned a full-ride lacrosse scholarship in the U.S. and got himself a grade A education.
Meanwhile, after his growth spurt, he suddenly was getting calls from CHL teams requesting he come out for a tryout.
He told them all to piss off.
Neilsen remarked how the hockey world might have turned away the next Eric Lindros. His skills were out of this world, but he was shunned because he played in an era where everyone coveted size so much, if you were under 5'9" you had very little chance to do anything.
I remember watching an undesized dman play for the Windsor Lancers University hockey team named
Scott Hillman.
This guy was unbelievable. His skating, passing, vision, shooting - he was clearly their best player.
In fact, he was selected to play in an all-star game pitting the NCAA's best American players vs the CIS's best.
He was the most noticeable player on the ice.
Yet this same kid kept getting passed up for greater opportunities.
Then one year he got a late call to play for an ECHL team.
He recorded 3 pts in his first 3 regular season game and then racked up 7 assists in 7 playoff games.
He never played another ECHL game again.
He went on to have a really nice CHL career recording close to a point-per-game average in that league.
Makes you wonder if he could have made it if someone would have just given him a chance.