Great Filatov Interview!!!

By: Jeff Little • August 25th, 2009

Puck Daddy has a great interview with Nikita Filatov, which you can find here. The young man displays a lot of moxy in responding to some pretty pointed questions from countryman Dmitry Chesnokov about his decision to go to the NHL, despite having offers from the KHL for “…lots more. Times more”, to quote Nikita.

Good news is that Filatov has put on about 17 pounds so far in the off-season, and is looking to add another 5 pounds of muscle or so. Also some great parts showing that he is still a kid — framing Gary Bettman’s letter of congratulations after the hat trick, and calling home to Moscow to get instructions on how to fry potatoes while living in his solo apartment in Syracuse.

Really good stuff, and shows he is committed to becoming a mainstay for the CBJ this year. Interestingly, he mentions that he trained with Ilya Kovalchuk in the off-season, noting that they have the same conditioning coach, and pointedly said zip, nada, nothing about Zherdev, who also trained with them. Interesting . . .

Make no mistake, the KHL will be relentless in their pursuit of Filatov when his entry level deal expires. However, Nikita obviously holds Kovalchuk in very high regard, and you can read between the lines that he wants to make his name in the NHL.

Really good stuff!

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A native of the SF Bay Area, my first exposure to hockey was the SF/Oakland/California Golden Seals, including Charlie Finley and the white skates. Fast forward to the late 1980's when Gretzky and the Kings came up to the Bay Area for an exhibition game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, for which we had glass seats. I was at the first San Jose Sharks game in the Cow Palace, and followed them for their first few pathetic years, before moving to Columbus in 1994. I attended the first pro-NHL rally downtown, and have been a season ticket holder since Day 1, wife & I are active in the Jacket Backers, and son is an avid fan as well. I cover the Jackets for Inside Hockey, and contribute regularly to a variety of hockey sites. I maintain contact with the Jackets organization, and like to dig into stories, bringing a fresh, and sometimes irreverent perspective to hockey.

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