One of the most disappointing draftees’ in Dallas history has a home in Colorado
While we celebrate the arrival and development of guys like Luka Doncic of the Mavs and Miro Heiskanen of the Stars, these playoffs also hold a cautionary tale that illustrates how easy it is for all this to go sideways.
The Dallas Stars are currently facing the the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL’s Western Conference semifinals, in the league’s Edmonton bubble. The Stars lead the series 2-1. Game 4, which was to be played Friday night, has been postponed like more than a dozen sporting events have been in recent days.
Of the many talented kids our teams have picked since 2000, Avs’ forward Valeri Nichushkin came to DFW with a God-given talent that said he could carry a sports franchise.
He showed that talent right up until the time life got hard, and wound up being one of the most disappointing young players in the last 20 years of our fair city.
Until a young, talented, productive player is popped in the face, you don’t know what he’s going to do.
For Nichushkin, he simply lost it.
In 2013, Jim Nill was a first-year, first-time general manager with the Dallas Stars. He had been hired away from the Detroit Red Wings, a franchise that had a long history of drafting Russian and Eastern European players with almost unmatched success.
Guys like Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Datsyuk, Igor Larianov, Viacheslav Fetisov and a few others that helped make the Red Wings one of the NHL’s premier teams for more than a decade.
For all of their success, the Dallas Stars never got that guy.
Nill was going to change that.
In Nill’s first NHL Draft with the Stars, he had the 10th pick. On the board was Nichushkin, a 6-foot-4 and 210-pound forward of skill and strength.
“He will take your breath away,” said Nichushkin’s former Dallas Stars’ teammate, current NBC NHL analyst Patrick Sharp. “He’s smooth. He had an edge to his game, and a lot of skill.”
Nichushkin’s agent made one demand of the NHL team that wanted to draft him: He would only leave his native Russia to play in the NHL. He would not play in the minor leagues.
Despite the availability of forward Max Domi, Nill went with the Russian.
In his first season, 2013-14, Nichushkin scored 14 goals and 34 points. The Stars went out of their way to give him every opportunity to have success, and put him on a line with talented players Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
The next season, life punched Nichushkin. A hip injury limited him to eight games, and he was a changed man.
In in 2015-16 he was not the same player. The hip had required “shaving,” and while he was warned by doctors it was going to take him a long time to feel the same, the frustration was evident.
Although he had a decent season, he was mad.
“I was there when he was a young kid. He didn’t speak the language well at all. It was hard for him,” Sharp said. “We did our best to make him feel like a part of the team. I know [center] Jason Spezza went out of his way to connect with him and make him a better player.”
It didn’t matter.
Nichushkin opted to sign a two-year contract with a team in Russia rather than return to the Stars for a fourth straight year.
Nill let him go. When Nichushkin wanted to come back after two years in Russia, Nill welcomed him back.
Whatever happened to Nichushkin in his time in Russia, he was not the same player any more.
He was a pro, and defensively responsible, but the part of his game that made him so attractive was gone. In 2018-19, he scored 0 goals with 10 assists while being assessed zero penalty minutes.
That is hard to do for a man that big.
In June of 2019, the Stars had a decision to make: Stay with Nichushkin in hopes that he would realize some of that potential, or cut him and save a lot money.
Money won. They released Nichushkin.
The Stars liked him, but the realized it was not going to happen here.
He signed a one-year contract with the Avalanche in August, and he’s in the right spot. Colorado is deep with talented forwards, and he doesn’t have to do too much.
“Sometimes it takes players a bit longer to develop and reach their potential. I can speak to that personally,” Sharp said. “Not every team can wait. Maybe something clicked for him in Colorado.”
Nichushkin is only 24, and after scoring 14 goals with 27 points this season, he will be offered an NHL contract next season. Although in these playoffs he’s been nearly invisible; in 11 games, he has no points.
Val Nichushkin is an NHL player, who will have a career. It’s just not with the Stars.
He’s also a warning to young players, and their fans, you never really know a guy until he’s punched.
