The New York Islanders Win The Maxim Shabanov Sweepstakes, And Mathieu Darche Is A Mad Man On A Mission This Offseason
SOPA Images. Getty Images.For weeks at this point, it sounded like a foregone conclusion that Maxim Shabanov would be signing with the Philadelphia Flyers. It seemed like it was just a matter of crossing some T's and dotting some I's on July 1st in order to make the deal happen. The insanely skilled 24-year-old Russian free agent who just got done putting up a point-per-game in the KHL with Traktor Chelyabinsk. Flyers fans all across the Delaware Valley were already getting ready to purchase their Shabanov jerseys.
Then the clock struck noon on July 1st and nothing. The day went on, and we heard more and more teams come into the mix. The Islanders, the Rangers, and the Utah Mammoth were all in the hunt to sign Shabanov. Utah made the least amount of sense, but it's a new team who would like a flashy signing to get fans excited. The Rangers and Islaners made more sense since Russians fucking love New York. And turns out, that's what got the job done.
It's a one-year contract at just under a million AAV. Basically it's an NHL tryout. If it doesn't work out, he costs next to nothing and is only on the books for this upcoming season. There's always a chance his game doesn't translate to North America. For starters, he's aggressively small. He's 5'8", 155 lbs. It's never a good sign when I could look eye-to-eye with a pro hockey player. If you're going to be that short, it helps to be built like a little shit brick house like Cole Caufield. He's never played in North America, he's undersized, and he probably doesn't speak English. The cards are definitely stacked against him on a 1-year deal.
With that being said…he's fucking nasty.
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He's a human highlight reel. The skill is off the charts. Maybe he's not going to be an absolute monster 5v5, but he's immediately going to load up your powerplay. The Islanders had the 31st ranked powerplay last year. They were operating at an abysmal 12.6%. Shabanov isn't going to come in and immediately turn them into the best powerplay in the league, but he can sure as shit help them jump up to middle of the pack.
You think about some of the other highly sought after Russians who have come over a little later into their careers. Guys like Artemi Panarin and Kirill Kaprizov. They're both studs. They both won the Calder Trophy. Granted, it's easy to win rookie of the year when you are 24 and the rest of your competition is 18 or 19. But still. They came in and were studs right away. They've both had 100+ point seasons in the NHL. Maxim Shabanov is thought to be in that same tier. So credit to Mathieu Darche to make it happen for the Islanders. And as a Flyers fan, I hope he's complete dust.