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As Ivan Miroshnichenko works to graduate to the NHL, he has Alex Ovechkin’s sticks and a lot more in Hershey to help him

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Ivan Miroshnichenko after his AHL debut with the Hershey Bears
📸: Ian Oland/RMNB

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HERSHEY, PA — When Alex Ovechkin made his NHL debut on October 5, 2005 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the first overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft looked like he belonged immediately. On his first shift, Ovechkin broke the glass with a big hit and scored twice in the game, including his milestone first NHL goal.

But it was Ovechkin’s qualities as a player that made it evident he would endure and become a star. Ovechkin was passionate, competitive, powerful, and aggressive as a player. He had personality and immediately commanded respect from the team’s veteran players — not because of his talent — but how hard he still worked despite it.

Down in Hershey, Ivan Miroshnichenko shares some of those same Ovechkin characteristics and even some of the same gear. Miro’s just less prolific with his scoring early on his North American hockey career. The 19-year-old, first-round pick from the 2022 NHL Draft (20th overall) has 6 goals and 13 points in his first 21 minor league games in North America — good for sixth best on the Hershey Bears.

Miroshnichenko’s ascension to the NHL someday seems less a matter of skill or talent, but more timing and seasoning. He’s learning a new system, adjusting to North American hockey, and getting a better grasp on the English language.

Like many of the Caps’ Russian prospects before him, Miroshnichenko has Ovechkin in his corner, too. The Capitals’ captain is Miro’s favorite player and someone who he models his game after.

That may explain why, when I asked Miroshnichenko about his hockey sticks after his North American debut with the Hershey Bears — a 3-0 loss to the Belleville Senators — he flashed a huge smile. Over the last year, he has come so far both in his personal and professional life. In a lot of ways, his new twigs symbolize that journey and all the support he has behind him.

Using Ovi’s sticks

Comparisons to Ovechkin have followed Miroshnichenko since his Draft Day: the two Russian players are both aggressive shooters that like to throw body checks. They even play the same position — left wing — made unique due to their right-handedness. During Miroshnichenko’s first on-ice appearance at Development Camp over the summer, Capitals prospects and trainers paid homage to the pair’s connection, pranking Miro by swapping his white skate laces for Ovechkin’s signature yellow ones for a practice.

Miroshnichenko would get the chance to play with Ovechkin that fall, returning to Washington for Rookie Camp and Training Camp. He played both of his preseason games on Ovi’s right wing on the first line and showed instant chemistry, recording two assists and posting some of the best numbers on the team. At five-on-five (31:43 TOI), the Capitals saw 62 percent of the shot attempts, 67.1 percent of the expected goals, 67.9 percent of the scoring chances, and 66.2 percent of the high-danger chances with Miroshnichenko on the ice.

He would make the NHL’s Opening Day roster for the Capitals’ 2023-24 season. Shortly before the Capitals’ Opening Night game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he was one of the team’s final cuts and sent to Hershey. Before making his way up to Central Pennsylvania, Miroshnichenko had dinner with Alex Ovechkin. He left with parting gifts.

 

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“The first time I came to Washington, Ovi told me, ‘Take my sticks and start playing hockey,'” a smiling Miroshnichenko said in Russian and translated into English by Bears’ defenseman Dmitry Osipov. “But obviously it didn’t go the way I planned. The first few practices I struggled a little bit with them. I eventually got a feel for it and now I like using them.”

The new sticks with 100 flex took some time to adjust to. Ovechkin’s blade is notorious for its boomerang-like curve on the blade that allows shots to ramp up quickly. But it can also make stick-handling a puck an adventure, especially for those not used to them.

Only two non-Capitals players have played with Ovechkin’s curve in the NHL: Martin Frk and formerly Mika Zibanejad. TJ Oshie also played with Ovechkin’s twigs off-and-on early in his Capitals career.

Miroshnichenko has accumulated both Jetspeed sticks and the Ribcor model that’s been a staple of The Great Eight’s arsenal since the 2017-18 season. Eventually, he adjusted to the new curve, and recently got a shipment from CCM with twigs sporting his own MIRO63 on the shaft. The sticks remain the same model and have the same curve that Ovechkin uses.

The sticks aren’t the only things Miroshnichenko got from Ovechkin. Miroshnichenko rocks much of the CCM model gear that Ovechkin uses, including his helmet and pants, which he first debuted during Training Camp. He also added white laces to the front of those pants, another staple of Ovechkin’s style.

 

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An impressive debut

Miroshnichenko’s first regular-season game in North America came on a big night for the Hershey Bears. The team held a long pregame ceremony on Opening Night for their banner raising. Each new member of the 2023-24 team was individually announced to the Giant Center crowd, including Miroshnichenko and fellow forward prospect Alexander Suzdalev.

Then the Bears’ Calder Cup championship players and coaches received their championship rings and grouped up in a semi-circle to watch their title banner be raised to the rafters.

Miroshnichenko looked on from the blue line. The ceremony gave the Russian forward a taste of the spoils he could get if he helps the Bears repeat. It also established the team’s high expectations for him, particularly on a veteran squad that knows how to win.

Once the puck was dropped against the Belleville Senators, the Bears’ established stars looked slow and seemed affected by the pregame hoopla. Miroshnichenko did not. He played at a different speed and led the team into battle.

Every time he had the puck in the offensive zone, Miroshnichenko tried to put a shot on net. AHL shot attempts aren’t publicly available stats, but Miroshnichenko looked darn right Ovechkian in the first period. His best scoring chance came on the power play, where he boomed a one-timer from The Ovi Spot (the left circle) on the power play, garnering a noise of anticipation from the Bears’ crowd. The shot hit low on the goalie’s leg pads and bounced away. Miroshnichenko also landed several big hits throughout the night.

“I feel like it went pretty good, pretty decent,” Miroshnichenko told me. “Obviously, it’s a quick change from my experience (in Russia). It’s a quick game, lots of battles, and I had a lot of shots but unfortunately didn’t score. Overall it went in the way I wanted it.”

But there was one disappointment. “Hopefully, I’ll score next game,” he said.

On the night, Miroshnichenko was credited by the AHL with four shots on goal and two PIMs in the Bears’ 3-0 loss. But his impact was much greater than that.

“I like the fact that he has the confidence to put the pucks on net,” Bears head coach Todd Nelson said. “I think he probably had eight shot attempts in the first period alone. He can really shoot the puck well. I like the fact that he wants to bring it, because a lot of times guys want to make cute plays and try seam passes.

“I thought he was one of our best players tonight, bottom line,” Nelson added. “He competed hard. He was dangerous. When he was in the offensive zone, he was dangerous, and he almost had two or three breakaways just from getting in behind their defense. I thought he played well.”

Miroshnichenko also gained instant respect from Bears’ captain and two-time Calder Cup champion, Dylan McIlrath, for some of the little things he did away from the puck.

“I liked how he had about, I don’t know, like 20 shots,” McIlrath said. “What I really liked, he laid out for a blocked shot. I mean, obviously that’s not his game, but he was doing everything. He wasn’t just one dimensional out there and he was creating chances. Really exciting player. He’s obviously learning the language, so we’ve got to get him accustomed to being part of the team. But he seems like a good kid, and I’m looking forward to the future for him.”

Learning English

The Hershey Bears made an unheralded move in late September that is providing huge dividends for Miroshnichenko’s development. The team signed 27-year-old rearguard Dmitry Osipov, a native of Moscow, Russia, to a professional try out. Weeks later, the Bears inked Osipov to a full-blown AHL contract.

Not only does the 27-year-old Osipov provide depth, size, and physical play on the backend, the seven-year AHL veteran is also operating in some ways like an unofficial coach, serving as a mentor and translator for Miroshnichenko and Bogdan Trineyev. Osipov’s experience and perspective helps the young forwards understand the Bears’ system and defensive side of the game better.

When Miroshnichenko was recently a healthy scratch against the Bridgeport Islanders on November 19, Osipov was the one he joined upstairs in the rafters to see how he could improve. A game earlier, Miroshnichenko appeared lost in coverage on an Islanders’ goal.

“Just as in the same case as [Hendrix Lapierre] last year,” Nelson said, explaining his decision to sit the forward ahead of the game. “There’s some missed assignments. I just want him to go up there and sit with Osipov and just watch the game from up top. Sometimes when you go up top and watch the game, it kind of slows down your mind. This guy’s only 19-years-old, so this is an investment in his NHL career.”

Besides his on-ice development, Miroshnichenko has spent his time in Hershey learning English.

“They found somebody that helps me and hopefully by the end of the season I’m going to be comfortable to be able to speak and talk without a translator,” Miroshnichenko told me. “Obviously now it’s just finger pointing and drawing to try and explain the situation.”

A Bears representative called Osipov a “giant help” to Miroshnichenko in that regard. Not only does he translate for him when speaking to the media, but Osipov also helps with communication to and from coaches.

“Miro’s English is getting there,” Bears forward Mike Vecchione said. “He understands a lot and his hockey IQ is high so when he sees the drills or something he quickly picks things up.”

Miroshnichenko and Trineyev also work with a local English tutor throughout the week to have a better foundation of the language.

“The biggest difficulty changing from Russia to North America is just the small inconveniences of living in a hotel, not having a car, the language barrier,” Miroshnichenko said. “Those little things of trying to communicate with the outside world, outside of hockey. That’s obviously a little hard for me. Besides that, everything is learnable and I’m going to overcome that stuff in the near future.”

Those lessons have already started paying off: Miroshnichenko was able to give a brief speech to his teammates in October after scoring his first pro goal in North America.

Beating cancer

No story about Miroshnichenko is complete without understanding his past and how it prepares him for the future. Projected to be one of the top picks in the 2022 NHL Draft — Bob McKenzie had the Russian forward ranked sixth overall in his midseason rankings — Miroshnichenko’s life was turned upside down in February 2022.

During a routine mid-season checkup with his Russian team, Miroshnichenko learned that his blood test results had not come back clear, forcing him to travel to Germany for further testing. The doctors in Germany diagnosed the Russian forward on his 18th birthday with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“It was a shock, initially. I couldn’t really say anything,” Miroshnichenko said to Jesse Liebman last month. “My season was going quite well and everything was going the way I had wanted.”

Miroshnichenko described the early symptoms during a 2022 Russian-language interview with Match TV’s Pavel Lysenkov. “It appeared as itching, coughing, sweating,” he said. “I didn’t understand. How could I know what was the reason? Well, I cough – I drink syrup. I began to get very tired, very winded at the games.”

Instead of spending the last four months before the draft getting a final chance to show off his skills and improve his draft stock, Miroshnichenko was grappling with his own mortality and trying to fight back thoughts that his hockey career could be over.

Miroshnichenko underwent four rounds of chemotherapy, losing his hair in the process.

“The second one was the most painful for me,” Miroshnichenko told Lysenkov. “I went to the hospital to lie down. I could no longer be at home. After the second course, they said that everything was clean. I went through the third and fourth courses of chemotherapy calmly, with joy.”

During this time, Miroshnichenko rebuilt himself from the ground up, finding hope in other athletes’ journeys with the disease.

“I decided that I needed to pull myself together and be positive,” Miroshnichenko later told Liebman. “I read on the Internet that athletes have already defeated this disease. A Canadian snowboarder had been ill with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but he returned to sports. Now he wins and enjoys life.”

A conversation with Hockey Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux added to his sunny attitude during the grueling recovery process. Lemieux spoke with Miroshnichenko in a video chat after the Russian teenager got the news about his diagnosis. Lemieux himself was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in January 1993, but eventually made his own comeback.

“We talked for about 40 minutes,” Miroshnichenko said in the Match TV interview. “Mario told his story, and it was very cool to talk with such a person. He also went through all this, suffered from Hodgkin’s disease. He returned to hockey, played at the highest level again. His example is inspiring.”

A week after his final treatment in June, Miroshnichenko was selected 20th overall by the Capitals and walked the stage at the NHL Draft.

When asked how he was feeling about being picked about the Capitals, Miroshnichenko responded “super!”

“It’s just a tremendous feeling,” Miroshnichenko said then through an interpreter. “Such a great organization. They’re so many great Russian players in this organization. To join them, it’s a tremendous honor.”

Miroshnichenko spent that summer in the gym working to regain his strength. By October 2022, he was cleared to return to practices with Omsk Krylia, Avangard Omsk’s VHL affiliate. On November 6th, 2022, Ivan Miroshnichenko played in his first hockey game since his cancer diagnosis, surrounded by fans with signs celebrating his return. He spent the 2022-23 season between different teams in the Avangard Omsk organization playing in 39 games between the VHL, MHL, and KHL.

A year after his cancer diagnosis, Miroshnichenko proved how far he had come and how much work he’s done behind the scenes, scoring in the Hershey Bears’ Hockey Fights Cancer game.

Like a young Ovechkin, Miroshnichenko cut to the center of the ice and fired a wrist shot that found the back of the net.

The trauma that Miroshnichenko endured rebuilt his perspective to not take anything in his daily life for granted. It gave him a new and deeper love for the sport of hockey and helped him appreciate the journey more.

“I will prove that [the Capitals] did not make a mistake with the choice,” Miroshnichenko told Lysenkov. “But this must be done step by step. And first, play in Russia. Climb the stairs – MHL, VHL, KHL, national team. Everything has its time. And whatever happens, it’s all for the best.”

Ovechkin went through his own personal challenges in his youth, too. Ovechkin’s older brother Sergei tragically died in a car accident when he was young.

“It was a tough moment, it was a tough moment for my parents, but it is what it is,” Ovechkin said in the summer of 2018 after winning the Stanley Cup. “You can’t take time back. You can’t change time so we just move forward. But I think it was very important for me personally because he’s the guy who, he’s my brother obviously. You can’t change it, but he motivated me to play hard and I gave what I can on the ice.”

Fourth line

Since being scratched, Miroshnichenko has found himself skating on the Bears’ fourth line with veterans Riley Sutter and Matt Strome. Some prospects would take that as a demotion, but for Miroshnichenko, Nelson’s decision provides him more resources to improve his game and further fast-track him to the NHL.

Sutter, himself another one of the Capitals’ final cuts of Training Camp, has some pop offensively and is one of the better defensive centers in the AHL, proving his worth in the Hershey Bears championship run. During the playoffs this past spring, Sutter’s fourth-line trio with Beck Malenstyn and Mason Morelli was arguably the team’s best of the playoffs. The pivot is also a member of the hockey famous Sutter family that has won many Stanley Cups.

Since being placed on the fourth line on November 22, Miroshnichenko is scoring more and playing more defensively responsible.

The Russian forward has two goals and three assists in six games, notching back-to-back multi-point games for the first time in his career on Nov. 29 and Dec 1. He also is a plus-seven in plus-minus. Sutter is also surging with three goals and three assists after the move and Strome has chipped in three assists.

“I feel like I’m going to learn as much as I can from all of the older guys and there’s a lot of experience in the room,” Miroshnichenko told me. “Especially, a lot of coaching staff that played the game, it’s a lot of good advice.”

The defending champion Bears are on a nine-game winning streak and have the most standings points in the AHL by six. They’ve given up the second fewest goals (49) in the league and scored the third most (74). The team arguably has the deepest roster in the league.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Capitals are a team in transition as Ovechkin and the team’s veterans continue to enter the twilight of their careers. Nicklas Backstrom stepped away from the team in November. The Caps sit third in the Metropolitan Division, but are one of the worst teams offensively in the league, suggesting help is needed.

At some point, Miroshnichenko will get a chance to show what he’s got in the greatest league in the world.

“I think just learning the North American style. That’s all,” Nelson said on how Miroshnichenko can improve. “Just getting his reps in, getting accustomed to how we play over here. He’s a young kid, he still has lots to learn, but you can see his talent level. He can shoot the puck and his compete is there.”

“He’s going to develop really well with us and make the next step soon enough,” Vecchione added.

While eager to reach the NHL, Miroshnichenko had plenty of appreciation for the lessons he is learning in Hershey. “I hope to continue to improve my strength and work on weaknesses that come up, but focus on strengths and use those strengths to the best of my ability,” he said. “We’ll see where it takes me.”

When we were finished speaking for the first time, Miro posed in front of the Bears branded background. He smiled. A second later, he grinned even wider and gave a double thumbs up. Even after being sent down and losing 3-0 in his first-ever AHL game, Miroshnichenko still found plenty to smile about.

 

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