Vancouver Canucks: Nikita Tryamkin in Review

Nikita Tryamkin has joined the Vancouver Canucks and after three games played, there’s a lot to like.

I had the pleasure of going to Nikita Tryamkin‘s Vancouver Canucks debut versus the Colorado Avalanche and I left that feeling night impressed. Impressed with Tryamkin, not the Canucks. Aside from their improving draft position, there’s not a lot to like about the Canucks lately.

Tryamkin though… He’s a big boy, that part is definitely true. The TV screen doesn’t do him justice — when he steps off the bench, you know he’s on the ice. You can’t not notice. Maybe in part because he kind of just steps over the bench like a regular human steps over left out toys on the living room floor.

I like this guy already

In that game, a lot of what I noticed was his play away from the puck, which you probably didn’t get to see a whole lot of from home. If the puck was on the boards, there was Tryamkin moving towards the boards to either intercept a pass or keep the puck in the offensive zone. If his D-partner moved forward to join the rush, Tryamkin floated more to centre to cover for both sides. If an Avalanche player moved ahead of the play for an outlet pass, Tryamkin followed him and shut down the passing lane.

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Those little things have a huge, huge impact on a game and more importantly, a season. In an age where an enormous amount of games are decided by a single goal, shutting down plays through smart positioning is a seriously underrated asset.

I don’t think Tryamkin is ever going to be a big point producer. Even his first NHL career point was a pretty generous assist. However, I do think he has the hockey IQ and awareness to be an effective and reliable shutdown d man. He reminds me a little of a young Christopher Tanev. A very big, Russian Chris Tanev.

His size is another thing, I’ve seen him hit a couple of guys now and each time, the guy he hits just kind of falls down or into a bench, whatever. Those guys are probably not wanting to feel that a second time, though. The more impressive thing is there’s been a few guys who have taken a run at him and those guys too, just kind of fell down.

I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the only time he’s been laid down on the ice so far is block a shot. Oh yeah, he blocks shots too. And a sprawling Nikita Tryamkin is closer to nine feet of Russian that opposition has to get around than his upright 6-foot-7 frame.

His play is mature

His passing is effective. He looks like he leans more towards the safe plays rather than the throw it to centre for a breakout pass that players like Ben Hutton and Luca Sbisa are more apt to do, with varying success. The important thing though is there’s no hesitation in the plays he makes. He gets the puck and right away can send it back out and unlike Sbisa, it isn’t a frantic throw it away move, it’s a legitimate, smart play.