To beat Ovechkin another record Gretzky is the task not only for him, but for the whole country – Alexey Dementyev

And at the end of our conversation, we will talk about those hockey players who no longer need any introduction, and, first of all, about Alexander Ovechkin. Everyone already knows that this is his last season of the National Hockey League, the player himself announced this before the start of the championship, but ahead of him still waiting for Gretzky’s record for total goals. How fast can he close this gestalt in his career?

I am always very cautious about such forecasts, because I always assume that God give health and everything then, Alexander will do. This is the most important thing, because after all, age leaves its imprint on Ovechkin. It's both fatigue and fatigue, but knowing that you have to be the first is very important. And here, no matter how pompous it may sound, the task is not only Alexander Ovechkin, but all Russian hockey. And even our country's task. Because no matter what they say about him, he is an athlete that everyone in all sports knows. We wish him well and he will do the rest.

His club, Washington, for which Ovi has played his entire overseas career, is now changing tactics to suit Alexander. Everyone knows that the team is being updated and the 41-year-old Russian has slightly less playing time and his functions on the ice have changed. Shouldn't that affect his status and authority in the league?

- Of course. His main function remained the same – to hit goals. And now, the last time he plays in a particular city in North America, he is given such a standing ovation. Everyone pays tribute to his talent. And the fact that Washington changes tactics for a player, I don’t think that’s what happens, but the fact that Capitals and Ovechkin have become one of the highest-grossing clubs in the National Hockey League is indisputable. This team has always been in such a concept as the average market. She went top with Ovechkin.

Who will be next, of course, is the big question. Therefore, Washington has its benefits very serious. Ovechkin is really for them a franchise player, around whom everything is built and built throughout this time. Well, the biggest achievement is that his entire career, from the draft to today, and I really hope that he will not be traded anywhere, and he does not want to go anywhere, then he will play for this club, which is connected with him as a family. We all know who Alexander is.

- Perhaps the next club who will become the Top will be Minnesota Kirill Kaprizov, who started this season very powerfully and now leads the list of snipers. Can he really fight for the Maurice Richard Trophy before the end of the season?

I wish him only health, because Minnesota made very serious steps to improve the squad so that Kirill had a good environment and it was easier for him to follow the cherished dream of all hockey players - to win the Stanley Cup, so that the championship ring was on his hand.

In addition to North American players, for example, defender Hughes, Wild signed several Russian players – Yurov, Trenin, Shabanov, who strengthened Minnesota

- Yes, there are four players from our country in Minnesota. They even went out in a few matches as three, at the same time played all together and they did well. I happen to know the Minnesota team owner and Craig Leopold pretty well because he was president of Nashville. We worked together twenty years ago and at that time we had a friendly relationship. Yeah, we could have had a beer tonight. He's a cool, really cool person, even though he's a billionaire. His wife is from the Johnson family, the founders of Johnson & Johnson.

Is Wild really building a model through Kirill?

- Yes, of course. The club understand that after all, Kirill was born in 1997 and he goes to his peak. He literally has two or three years left to be a huge part of the team that can win the Stanley Cup. There’s an unspoken rule in the NHL that if you don’t win the Stanley Cup before you’re 33, you’ll never win it as a star and leader.

That’s who I wanted to personally wish my health is Igor Shesterkin, who received a terrible injury and was out for a long time. Before that, our goalkeeper fulfilled his dream and threw a straight goal into someone else's goal. What do you know about his injury and will he be able to return to his level?

Shesterkin will be back for sure, I have no doubt. I called Igor, but he didn't answer the phone. I spoke to his father Oleg right after the injury happened, and I spoke for quite some time. Passed on all my wishes. After all, he is also a pupil of the “Wings of the Soviets”, as Anton Zelenov trained him in childhood, and then ... By the way, Shesterkin is a player that few people believed in. Igor Efimov, who is now Dynamo from St. Petersburg coaching, was a youth team coach and gave him the way to adult hockey.

- Sorry to interrupt, so what did Shesterkin's father say about the extent of the injury and the timing of Igor's recovery?

- I can't tell you everything, but the fact that the injury is serious and requires serious treatment. Most likely, unfortunately, this season for him is past the box office.

- A good example for Shesterkin should be Semyon Varlamov, our goalkeeper of the Islanders, who showed that nothing is impossible and after two ruptures of cruciate ligaments, if I am not mistaken, returned to the club and now insures Sorokin?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our people are real professionals. Looking on TV at those players who come out to play, ordinary fans sometimes do not understand what these hockey players face. Because today they are idols: they played, scored, reflected the puck, but got injured and finished playing hockey. But they will live with these herbs.

I just know a fair number of hockey players who have already finished playing hockey, and after a while have had surgery to improve their health. Looking at it all, you look at it and you wonder, was it worth it? Probably should have.

- You have represented Vladimir Tarasenko for many years and would like to know if he will be able to find an NHL club or is already considering options to return to Russia?

We communicate with Vladimir all the time - the Russian market has remained with me. We talked to him this summer, with his wife and mother. She texted me today, by the way. I'll talk to her later today after all the meetings. It’s hard to say right now that there’s a definite hint of his future in the NHL. Let's wait for official decisions, because this is what I said at the beginning of our conversation, this is a very sensitive part. To give something ahead of time and pass off as a sensation is still the lot of journalists in the yellow press who are trying to catch something. On the other hand, I am dealing with specific facts.

Especially in the careers of such great and significant people who are valuable to me, even the wrong word. I can't find the right word. It's more than... Igor Shesterkin is just more than a friend.

Is Volody's priority the NHL?

- Of course I am.

- Do you have any information about the future of Alexander Nikishin, the current Stanley Cup winner with Carolina, who is now without a contract?

- There's no information about Nikishin. And it would be better not to discuss it at all, not to speak in a broad format, because sensitivity, again, is a word that can accidentally interfere with it. You don't have to. Let's just congratulate him and his wife Varvara on the birth of a son - this is an important event in the life of any person. God forbid that they stop there.

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