News Article: Makarov Likely to Return to Russia in 16-17
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Husko
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signalIInoise
killed by signal 2
CaseyMitts37
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NotABadPeriod
ForFriendshipDikembe
- Oct 28, 2006
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In some ways it's a good thing because that's one less decision Murray has to make.
Still has to decide what to do with Lieuwen. Assuming they get a vet backup and let Ullmark get a starter's workload again in Rochester, then if they sign Kasdorf, there may not be space for Lieuwen unless they let Kasdorf get work in Elmira.
Still has to decide what to do with Lieuwen. Assuming they get a vet backup and let Ullmark get a starter's workload again in Rochester, then if they sign Kasdorf, there may not be space for Lieuwen unless they let Kasdorf get work in Elmira.
Zman5778
Moderator
It wouldn't shock me at all if TM moves on from Lieuwen. Let Ullmark/Kasdorf get starts in Rochester next year.
RazielMoshman
Registered User
Wow, this does come as a shock. People seemed to have a high opinion of Makarov after last season. Surprised to hear that his fallen out of favour. Not disagreeing, just interested. However it's not like we don't have goalie prospects so, bye.
I think that Kasdorf will be signed and start the year in Elmira. He needs action too, and I'm not sure that backup duty behind a guy who also needs lots of action would be the best way of transitioning him to the pro game. There's also the injury factor. What if one of the three guys above him goes down with an injury. I suppose they could sign someone, but why not just sign Lieuwen to begin with. 12W 8L 2.63 GAA .918 SV% does not seem horrible and he has been improving of late. He's in the top 20 in the AHL right now for GAA and when I looked at it - in the top 10 for SV%
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Jim Bob
RIP RJ
We had a minor league Marty vs Mika vs Miller and Makarov ended up being Mika.
sabrefan27
Registered User
Paxon
202* Stanley Cup Champions
You're thinking of the season before. He was lousy last season and has been lousy this season. It was a foregone conclusion they won't be re-signing him.
Alessandro Seren Rosso
Registered User
An english translation of the article is going to be published very soon, I'll post a link once it's out.
EDIT: As promised: http://thehockeywriters.com/andrey-makarov-not-happy-in-rochester/
EDIT: As promised: http://thehockeywriters.com/andrey-makarov-not-happy-in-rochester/
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SoFFacet
Registered User
Going to be a bit awkward between Makarov and Lieuwen for the rest of the season..
Yatzhee
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- Aug 5, 2010
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Thanks.
And I have a question. To our Russian fan base.
We have a large Russian immigrant community here in WNY, what, if any, are Russians thoughts on why, outside of Molginy, do no Russian players stick here?
Surely there are talented Russian players that would not mind playing for Buffalo.
I think it might just be (1) that we haven't had very many Russians play for us, (2) we haven't had very many good Russian players play for us for any length of time, and (3) we weren't the final destinations for some folks. When you think of Sabres players that settle here, it seems like they fall into one of a few categories: (A) Spent most of their career here. i.e. Ray, Barnaby, Smehlik, Gare, etc. (B) Finished up their career here and decided this area was a good one to settle down in. Craig Rivet immediately comes to mind here. (I mean... he played so long for Montreal!)
I was curious if this would bear out. So I went through all Sabres rosters from '91 to 2001 to see what manner of Russians we've had, how successful they've been, and what happened to 'em.
- Yuri Khmylev: Drafted by Buffalo, played 3.5/5 NHL years for Buffalo, returned to Buffalo after retirement. Currently in organization as pro scout. Attractive daughter also in organization family.
- Viktor Gordiouk: Drafted by Buffalo, played 2/2 partial NHL years for Buffalo, then IHL, then bounced back to Russia.
- Sergei Petrenko: Drafted by Buffalo, played 1/1 partial NHL years for Buffalo, then bounced back to Russia.
- Denis Tsygurov: Drafted by Buffalo, played 1.5/3 partial NHL years for Buffalo, then LA Kings for one more partial year, then bounced back to Russia.
- Andrei Trefilov: Played 1.5/6 partial years for Buffalo, mostly a journeyman with little success anywhere, then back to Russia.
- Alexei Zhitnik: Technically Ukrainian. We know this story. Great career here in Buffalo. Lives on Long Island (where we traded him). He did have one more stop, but this kind of feels like the Craig Rivet situation.
- Maxim Afinogenov: We know this story.
- Peter Skudra: Played one game for the Sabres. Journeyman.
- Vladimir Tsyplakov: Played two partial seasons for the Sabres. Then back to Europe.
- Dmitri Kalinin: Played 8/10 years for the Sabres, then back to Russia.
Mogilny aside, the NHL players who had the most success were Zhitnik, Khmylev, Afinogenov, and Kalinin (probably in that order). They spent most of their time here. 1/4 remains in the area. 2/4 are reasonably organization affiliated.
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That all aside, if we look at the number of Russians drafted by the Sabres since Mogilny...
Viktor Gordiouk (1990), Mikhail Volkov (1991), Yuri Khmylev (1992), Denis Tsygurov (1993), Sergei Petrenko (1993), Sergei Klimentiev (1994, Ukrainian), Alexei Tezikov (1996), Maxim Afinogenov (1997), Dmitri Kalinin (1998), Artem Kryukov (2000), Denis Denisov (2000), Vasily Bizyayev (2000), Maxim Schevjev (2002), Denis Yezhov (2003), Pavel Voroshnin (2003), Vyacheslav Buravchikov (2005), Mikhail Grigorenko (2012), Nikita Zadorov (2013)...
That's 19 total Russian picks including Mogilny (unless I've missed one, which is possible). Most of those players were late round picks who never played a game in the NHL. Bold for the ones with any kind of NHL career (five total). Italicized for players currently in the game. Only three were drafted in the first round (Kyukov, Grigorenko, Zadorov). Most of these were drafted before 2003 and many of them in the period between Mogilny and 2000 when Mogilny, Bondra, Bure, and company were doing their best work.
For sake of comparison... I count only 21 total Russians drafted by the Maple Leafs during that same period. The Rangers have drafted 32 total Russians during that same period, but 24 by 2000 (including six in one year!!) and only eight since then. The Red Wings have drafted 23 total Russians during that same period, but 18 by 2000 and only five since then.
Going by the eye test, with the exception of the real dynamite players drafted by the Red Wings and Rangers in the early 1990's, most of these players haven't done much of anything at all. Even the stars were mostly late round choices, and many recorded zero NHL points.
I should probably check out a few more teams and see what else pops up.
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Which is to say that I don't know that your contention that the Sabres do particularly poorly with Russians is true.
MackAttack26
Registered User
Man, no wonder Murray doesn't like Russians. 
Makarov comes across in that interview as a total ***.
Makarov comes across in that interview as a total ***.
Why be in Buffalo when there is a truly vibrant Russian-speaking community in Brooklyn? Or Miami?
OscarsCards
Spooky action at a distance
Or maybe you are russian who played for Sabres?
Skudra is Latvian and he played 27 seconds in October 20, 2000 game against Ducks.
Apologies, Oscars. The site I was using for research only differentiated some players who were born in what was then considered "USSR." I listed the ones that were broken out as Ukrainian and Latvian where possible. ;(
