Igor Shesterkin became the third Russian goaltender to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender. Previously it was directed by Sergey Bobrovsky (2013, 2017) and Andrey Vasilevsky (2019).
– Shesterkin declared himself at junior and juvenile level. How did he stand out from the other goalkeepers?
– It’s hard to say that Igor stood out at youth and youth level. On the contrary, he had a lot of stuff to make him a top goalkeeper in the end. First of all, the mentality: he is very focused, knows what he wants, understands things that can be improved, pays attention to details. Calmness and composure in the execution of his work are essential. With the technique he has and that he has acquired over the years in hockey.
Igor is one of the greatest goalkeepers of our time. I am very happy that he is a representative of our Russian school. Along with such giants of the world goalkeeper art as Vasilevsky, Fleury and other goalkeepers, he managed to rise to prominence. I’m sure that’s not the last word in his hockey career. “Vézina” is what he was aiming for, the confirmation of his progress in hockey.
Speaking of Igor, of course, you have to start with the fact that he studied in a very good school in Krylia Sovetov, there was an excellent coach Igor Efimov, who gave him the basics to understand the game. we spoke with this coach about his team, he always singled out Igor Shesterkin as a reliable, calm and confident goalkeeper. When we started working together, I myself saw all the qualities the coach was talking about. Igor’s attitude to these things, the clues given to him were very important.
– If, in principle, to recall the year of birth in 1995, then Shesterkin was not in the leading roles of the national team. There were other strong goalkeepers: Serebryakov, Bocharov, Sorokin. Over the years, they have carved out a place for themselves on the national team. But it so happened that, by chance, Igor entered the national team in the 95th year for a tournament in Sochi. Arrived there as the third goalkeeper, he finished first in the tournament, posting a simply unique result. For me, Igor’s game was very bright, confident and intense.
Speaking about his abilities, achievements, you need to understand that everything comes from a family in which there are excellent relations, very kind and calm parents. Never heard a harsh word from them. In general, everything led Igor to be balanced and calm.
– Igor is one of the few who managed to gain a foothold in SKA after a massive exchange with Spartak. Thanks to what qualities was he able to play?
– In a hockey career, changing teams is an inevitable condition. There are hardly any players who wouldn’t move from one team to another. And the transition is always stressful. It’s one thing when he moved from the Moscow Wings to Spartak. It’s still the same city, just slightly different logistics.
In this case, it was a huge plus that Igor did not go to Spartak alone, there were other players of his birth year with him. It was the first step.
On the transition to SKA, we must dwell separately: this was discussed very seriously. And with Roman Rotenberg, and with Andrey Tochitsky. There were enough applicants, SKA has many opportunities to attract players. After listening to the arguments, including my own, after hearing the opinion of the leaders of their scouting service, based on their personal knowledge, the SKA leadership decided to invite Igor into their system.
It is difficult for me to talk about other hockey players who participated in this exchange, but who did not manage to establish themselves in the SKA, since I did not represent their interests and did not particularly follow the course of their career. But for Igor, after such a step, new opportunities opened up.
– In SKA he had strong competitors – Mikko Koskinen and Magnus Hellberg. To what extent did such competition benefit Igor?
– Already at the age of 19-20, Igor showed a very serious conscious game, he could be the first number. But here we have to take into account the point of view of both the coaching staff and the club management, who believed that the team needed those strong goalkeepers who were then – Hellberg, Koskinen. These keepers could be relied on more for stability, but no one ever canceled Shesterkin’s prospect, and he tempered himself in competition with solid goaltenders.
– Yes, maybe it was a difficult time, but in the career of a hockey player, you always have to earn your place in the sun and move forward. Igor has a strong character, he went to his goal, made his way to his dream. He not only became an Olympic champion, won the Gagarin Cup, and also won the love of St. Petersburg fans.
– In St. Petersburg, he was gradually brought into the main team – how much did this help him gain confidence in his abilities?
– It is worth paying tribute to the attention that Igor received when he entered the system of the SKA of St. Petersburg. It’s always hard to tell in advance whether this or that player will become a star and play, but the club’s management showed patience and goalkeeping coach Rashit Davydov treated Shesterkin with special care – in many ways. respects, this gave the result.
In general, there are many elements to Igor’s success, and I don’t think anyone can single-handedly take credit for all his accomplishments. It is a complex of participation of these people who helped him to recover.
Of course, the opportunities that opened up for SKA played an important role. At the age of 19, Igor signed a very serious contract for his age, and it was his contract that became a breakthrough for this age group. But here it is important to realize that the management of the club saw a clear prospect for this player, otherwise this contract would simply not exist.
– Shesterkin moved to America, winning the Gagarin Cup and the Olympics. It turns out that for a career it is better to leave as an adult – so there are more chances to play at the base of the NHL club?
– Each hockey player has an individual starting age in the NHL, so it is difficult to give a universal opinion on this question. I will say this: if earlier the first draft picks could immediately bring results in NHL games, then among those who were chosen not so long ago, one can only remember Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid – the rest of the top second-draft picks are in the shadows, needing to prepare physically and mentally to fully compete with current NHL players.
– In my opinion, the optimal age to start playing in the NHL is 20 to 23 years old: remember Malkin, Tarasenko, Ovechkin, Panarin, they all started there at around that age. As for goalkeepers, in addition to physical and mental preparation, you have to “mature”. So I wouldn’t change anything about how far Igor has come: he left for the NHL in time, managed to mature as a person, and as an athlete, he did it in a great system. Everything is on the rise, and Vézina, with a huge margin over its competitors, confirms the correctness of the stages chosen by Igor.
– Even as a young man, Shesterkin was distinguished by a good stick game, he even scored goals in the MHL. How did he pump this skill?
Everyone pays attention to their good stick game now. When Igor played at Krylya Sovetov and Spartak, we discussed with him that playing with a club is an integral part of a goalkeeper’s job. He said that when he left the gate he missed the puck, made a mistake, and I replied that he shouldn’t worry that mistakes always happen, but there will definitely come a time when he will play with confidence and there will be no more problems. Gradually confidence came to Igor, and this game with a stick, which he now shows, pleases.
– As I understand it, the goalkeeper’s stick game is divided into two elements: when acting as a sixth outfielder and when playing aggressively in front of goal. You can recall situations from the past playoffs, when Igor lacked such aggression – for example, in the series with Pittsburgh. We discussed this point with him, and later it was nice to see that it helped him. So we can’t say that he has reached perfection in anything – you always have to grow, there has to be a gap, because you can and must become better. And it is this quality that makes Igor more skillful day by day.
– Shesterkin won Vezina by a record margin – has he really grown so much as a goalie?
– The success of a goalkeeper is based on many elements: technical equipment, knowledge, people around him and what they say and suggest. When there is an agreement with these people, it helps the goalkeeper to grow in his profession. Well, good luck no one has undone.
The key moment in Igor’s development as a class goalkeeper in Russia was probably when SKA management – Roman Borisovich Rotenberg and Andrey Valeryanovich Tochitsky – drew attention to him as a player and a person and allowed him to move to St. Petersburg. When time passes, it’s always easy to say about a hockey player, “How could you not notice? But at that time, when a young person is only eighteen or nineteen, believing in him and he has a perspective, giving him a chance, it’s really worth it. Maybe it can be called luck.
– Now in the NHL there are a lot of Russian goalkeepers in leading roles. It turns out that the goalkeeper training system in Russia is the most powerful in the world?
– I am happy that the Russian school of goalkeepers is recognized in the NHL, it is now really number one in the world. You can joke all you want that good goalkeepers in Russia grow because good defenders don’t grow, but the conditions we’ve created, those coaches working, those talented guys training, everything that says a lot.
We have a growing galaxy of goalies, few people know them yet, but in the future they can compete with Shesterkin and Vasilevsky in the NHL. There are such guys among field players who are able to compete in performance with Kaprizov, Ovechkin and Tarasenko.
Probably, the ban on signing foreign goalkeepers, introduced some time ago, gave an impetus to development, and therefore this season eleven Russians served as goalkeepers in NHL teams at once . We can only be happy for the guys, enjoy their game and expect them to win Vézina too.
Text: Andrey Petrov
Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
