Koshechkin to stay in Russia ... for now

Vasily Koshechkin, the 6-foot-6 goaltender who played for Russia in the 2007 world championships and whom the Lightning believes is almost NHL ready, apparently will play the last season of a two-year contract in Russia. Agent Jay Grossman said Koshechkin's contract was sold by Lada Togliatti to Kazan and Koshechkin "felt obligated'' to finish out his contract.

Koshechkin was the 233rd pick of the 2002 draft. Both Grossman and the Lightning said a rumor Koshechkin demanded a contract clause stating he would be allowed to return to Russia if he was not assigned at least to AHL Norfolk is false.

I'll have more on this in Thursday's paper.

   

Comments

[Jessie]

Hey Mike I say that because he needs to not only adjust to the game style here but life in general in the NHL. Im sorry for not agreeing that goalies are the same everywhere but they arent.

I will be so pissed if Denis is still on this team next season. I will be even more pissed if they play him. He was useless and killed this team last season. We paid alot of money for him and lost a great players for this guy that was supposed to come in as our no.1 goalie. He sucks and get him out of Tampa!

[SarasotaBill]

Yo Mike 13! Very right on about European skaters having to adjust their game to the North American style. Same game but different. Smaller surface, more physical, and the rest.

Goalies for some reason, as far as I've seen, seem to adapt best. Nevertheless, they have to get used to the same things.

People often say the European game is much faster. I guess that depends on how you look at it. North and south it is. You will never see a trap there because the surface is way too big for that to be played successfully. But in the tighter quarters of the NHL, you will see several times the amount of the "bang, bang" type plays you will see there. Speed is all over the European game but the quickness you see in the NHL is unsurpassed!

Tougher for a skater to get used to than goalies. Goalies still have to make adjustments. Good ones can make them. Most do. Simple case in point, the Lightning signed both Holmer an Norrena last off season. Both had decent years, and I believe both will be better this year. If you could ask either one, I'd guess both would say they had to make adjustments and more are on the way.

A little more specific, when VK shows up here he will have to make several adjustments. New country, left friends and family at home, new language, new game. Oh well....... that's the price that is paid to play with the elite. He'll probably be fine. We hope anyway.

I may be off on exactly what you were questioning as far as goalies go but I think the real question is "can he play in North America?" "Is he NHL ready?" We know he can play there, but the question remains. Can he play here?

Guess we will know in a year or so.

[Tim A]

I was kind of looking forward to seeing a 6'6" Goalie. The intimidation factor alone could have been worth something. As far as stuck with Denis, I don't know but they had better make some teams some good offers on him or we are going to be eating 3 mil a year. They should trade him for another 3 million a year back up or something. Three way deals are done all the time that send players to teams that feel that they can take a chance. We are the ones that need to take a chance at this point. I feel like Feaster has obligated us at this point to stay with Holmer unless he can't take the pressure of being a bonafide number one. Time will tell but Feaster will have to do what he can to take the pressure off the goalie and put a defense on the ice that can play in the new NHL. No clutching, no grasping, no hooking, a fast physical presence that can intimidate the heck out of the big forwards like Nathan Horton who make a career out of killing the Bolts.

[Mike13]

Having not played, I may be missing something important in this equation, but I don't know if I buy that business about GOALIES needing experience in North America before jimping to the NHL.

I do believe that skaters need the experience, but goalies get to face some pretty nasty shooting angles and open ice in Europe. I guess the smaller ice surface leads to more vision problems for goalies. Perhaps that's it.

Sorry to see that Koshechkin will not challenge for a job on the Bolts. It takes some of the pressure off of Denis and Ramo --which is probably a bad thing. I guess we'll see.

I personally believe that Feaster will be unable to pull off a trade involving Denis and we will end up giving him a completely undeserved shot at taking the starting job back from Holmqvist. Only time will tell what Jay has up his sleeve, if anything.

[Jessie]

I dont understand why everyone is so upset with Denis. I hate to break it to yall but it was Feaster who made a bad deal. He is the one who signed him with those bad stats from Columbus. No one seems to want to remember that Feaster has taken oh so many steps running this team into the ground. Now he has taken steps to try to fix things but i feel like its too little too late.
As for Koshechkin staying in Russia isnt going to help him in the NHL. He needs to come to the U.S. and get some experience that will help him when he gets to the NHL.

[F.T.B.S.]

Layer after layer of all these young, quick gloves and we have to vomit watching Denis squander a 2-1 game? Don't promise a second chance with a better defensive sceme, because ridding ourselves of Marc should be a huge part of that.
Throw an imperative in there and jettison #30 somehow, some way, and do it today!
Since the 18 skaters don't care about playoff Home Ice early in the Fall as they should, I'd prefer to watch Ramo and/or Boutin cut their teeth in Oct-Nov-Dec because it goes down as valuable on-the-job training.
Staring down and getting pants'd by an Ovechkin goes a lot further toward maturity than an entire season on the bus.
Ramo can handle it.

Why wait for an injury to force the "pucker factor"?

Go Bolts!

[Joe]

Kazan would be a good place for Marc Denis - Koshechkin needs some experience playing in North America before taking a stab with the Bolts. A team just cannot have enough viable or developing goalies in its system. As for Russian hockey, its a case of "been there, done that" for Vasily.
I'm sorry that he is slipping through the net and will miss a good opportunity.