There was an article a few days a go in the Journal in which Terry Jones or Jim Matheson wrote a great piece on Yakupov, and how he feels much more confident this year, and looks like a more complete player. At the end he noted how he had to wait until Yakupov left the ice at practice, in which he was the last guy on the ice by a significant margin, working on different things.
At one point the Oilers PR guy came to him and told him the media was waiting for him, he said along the lines of "I don't care, I practice."
Even the Older Oilers Media members, who didn't like him when he came here, have changed their minds on him.