Forward of the hockey club “Spartak” Mikhail Maltsev said he expects to make his debut for the team in the upcoming Fonbet KHL championship match against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
Maltsev, 25, signed a contract with Spartak on Tuesday until the end of the current season. The meeting between Torpedo and Spartak will take place on December 19 in Nizhny Novgorod and will be the first for the red and whites after the December holidays.
— What are your expectations from continuing your career at Spartak?
— The expectations are the most serious, I can’t wait to help the team! I want to help Spartak maintain its leading position, achieve good results this season and aim for the Gagarin Cup, of course!
— Ilya Kovalchuk signed a contract with the club the other day. Maybe this also influenced your decision to continue the season at Spartak?
– It was exactly my decision. Although I remember very well how I played with Ilya Valerievich in the same trio – yes, this happened only a few times, but it is not forgotten! So this news was also a plus. In general, it’s great that the Spartak team is very playful – I understand that this style comes from the coaches, cool and talented players. I can play not only in the center, but also on the side. But generally speaking, playing throw-ins is one of my strong points.
— You have spent the last five years abroad. How long do you think it will take to adapt to the KHL and the new team?
— Adaptation is of course necessary, but I don’t think it will take much time. You have to get used to the team’s tactics a bit and build chemistry with your teammates. I think after the first training sessions and the first matches everything will start to work out. I plan to play the next match against Torpedo. Plus, I’ve gotten into a good rhythm of play – I played my last AHL game on Wednesday, less than a week ago. It’s great to already know a lot of the guys on the team. I have probably known German Rubtsov and Yegor Zaitsev for a very long time. We played a lot for the Russian national teams depending on our year of birth – Egor was the captain of our team at the World Championships, I was an assistant, and Hero and I were often placed together, there is something to remember “, the Spartak website quotes Maltsev as saying.
Maltsev played overseas in the New Jersey, Colorado and Los Angeles systems. The forward has 56 games and 9 points (6+3) in the NHL and 171 games in the AHL with 115 (51+64) points.
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL championship matches on the channel, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
Official website of HC “Spartak”
Source : MatchTV
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