Nasty Nikita a bright spot for Canucks

[yave1964]

Decimated by injuries and overall lack of talent and depth on the blueline last season the Canucks brought over draft pick Nikita Tryamkin for a cup of coffee. He stuck with the team although a healthy scratch early this season but as injuries have mounted he made it into the lineup and is likely there to stay.

  He is without a doubt the hardest hitting open ice hitter in the game today and at six foot seven and two hundred and thirty pounds when he hits you it leaves a mark.

 

 Earlier in the month he drilled Andreas Athanasiou on a clean hit, it is not Tryamkins fault that at his height his elbow and shoulder are higher than most players. Athanasiou has not been seen or heard from since, he may be buried under the ice at the Joe.

  Then he got into a rumble with tough guy

Zach smith of Ottawa who took exeption to Tryamkin drilling Chris Kelly on an open ice hit.

 He

caught Jamie Bennall alone carrying the puck behind the Canuck goal a few nights ago and leveled him, absolutely hit him in the way that you are not allowed to hit superstars. But the biggest was last night against Arizona, former Canuck Brad Richardson was crushed by Tryamkin and was carted off on a stretcher with a broken tibia and fibula. He left on a stretcher.

 

 

  Tryamkin (pronounced Tram-Kin) has destroyed Athanasiou, Benn, Kelly, fought with Smith, and now Richardson literally over the past two weeks.

  I love the guy. He actually makes watching a Canuck game seem like it is not a prison sentence.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Very nice post, @yave1964

I had NO CLUE about this guy.

If he can avoid overdoing things and/or the stupid penalties, he may be an NHL mainstay yet.

 

Right now, the Canucks have nothing to lose by playing him with regular minutes. But it will be interesting to see how (and if) he evolves and Vancouver starts to win again, if they will continue to put their trust in him.

 

Some guys, like Gudas, Kronwall, Ott, just to name a few, don't offer too much in the way of production, and really don't seem to have too many redeeming qualities as hockey players, other than to offer sheer intimidation and physical destruction on the ice due to the manner in which they play.

 

And players like that, if they can reign in their craziness, CAN be very valuable to a team, and carve out very nice NHL careers for themselves.

 

This Tryamkin guy might fall into that vein. Again though, we will have to see if he evolves or not and whether the Canucks (or anyone else) sees fit to continue having him log minutes for them.

I may watch some more Canuck games now just to see what this guy is up to.  Up until your post, I only would watch a game involving the Canucks if it involved another team I actually liked!

 

You know, this Tryamkin reminds me of another Russian....you may or may not remember him, he was in the NHL for only a short time before going to the KHL and is still playing there today.

 

Forward Evgeny Artyukhin.

Giant of a man, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6'5 or so, and a NON fat 260 pounds. The guy was so big and strong, that even regular checks from him sent lesser guys flying into the 5th row.

 

He oftentimes was given penalties due to the brutality of his checks. Some penalties were justified, some were not (like you said about Tryamkin, not his fault he is that much taller and heavier than most of his opponents), but the thing was, he would go nuts on officials sometimes and that reputation would always precede him and he became "that guy you LOOK to give a penalty to".

 

He would have made an EXCELLENT career NHL 3rd or 4th liner had he been able to keep himself under control, but I think he was frustrated by certain things in the NHL and that, along with his gained reputation of being "unsafe" led to him leaving for the KHL.

 

He played for the Lightning in the mid to late 2000's. Then for a couple other NHL teams shortly after that before departing for Russia where he continues to terrorize and rack up the PIMs over there.

 

If Tryamkin can avoid the pitfalls of being a freight train type player in a league that values speed and skill more than ever, he could make an nice NHL living yet.

If not, he may soon find himself relegated to the AHL in the long run, or even out of North American hockey altogether.

 

He certainly bears watching though.

 

 

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Tryamkin was very highly regarded in Russia and by the Canuck organization as a whole which the truth is I take with a grain of salt, Benning being the worst GM in the game this side of Mike Milbury. The hope is that the offense will catch up to his defense but my opnion is that you either can or you cannot. He is a mountain, he loves hitting, he seems impervious to pain, I think offensively from what I have seen that 25 points and a decent first pass is the best he can offer but that is certainly good enough to stick around.

  I do remember Artyukhin, great hitter, now in the KHL and likely there for good. Solid responsible player. Good 3rd liner.