Malyavin thrilled with transition to Brandon

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This article was published 05/04/2023 (532 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a second straight season of transition, Andrei Malyavin fell in love all over again.

The Russian defenceman, who turned 19 on Jan. 30, skated in 59 games with the Brandon Wheat Kings this season, contributing six goals, 21 assists and 30 penalty minutes with a plus-minus of -15.

Things fell into place off the ice too.

“The team was great,” Malyavin said. “I love Brandon, I love the community, I love my billets. I think it’s awesome. I feel comfortable since I came here.”

Brandon added the Canadian Hockey League veteran — but Western Hockey League rookie — with the 34th pick of the CHL import draft last July after the Ontario Hockey League’s Sarnia Sting waived him to pick up Latvian left-winger Sandis Vilmanis and Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher.

The Sting took him with the 22nd overall pick in 2021.

The CHL currently forbids teams from drafting Russian or Belarusian players due to the invasion of Ukraine, but players who had already been drafted or were already in the CHL were allowed to continue.

Malyavin said there isn’t a big difference in the hockey played in the WHL and OHL, although he said there are more good players out west.

“I think this season we have so many good players in this league,” Malyavin said. “More than last year in the OHL. We had 13 players who played in the world juniors with Canada and so many ’05s who will be drafted in the first round. It’s a good year for the WHL. They’re hard to play against.”

In Sarnia last season, the five-foot-10, 181-pound defenceman scored twice and added 11 assists and 10 penalty minutes in 44 games. With that experience under his belt, he thought his WHL debut went fine.

“I think it was a good season,” Malyavin said. “I played good. After the injury I wasn’t happy with my game but overall I think it was good. I will do better next season. I was better than last season, 100 per cent.”

There certainly was some adversity for the friendly teenager, who billeted with goaltender Nick Jones.

On Dec. 28, Malyavin took a high hit from Jaxsin Vaughan that earned the Regina Pats forward a five-game suspension. It knocked Malyavin out of the lineup until Jan. 20, a span of eight games.

“When I fell, I don’t remember what happened,” Malyavin said. “I just remember (athletic therapist) Zach (Hartwick) standing beside me with a towel and I saw blood. When I came into the dressing room, I asked him ‘Can I play?’

“When I looked in the mirror, my nose was broken and times three bigger than usual. I was all in blood. It was bad.”

He admitted it took time to find his game again as he recovered from the head injury.

“It was hard to get my confidence,” Malyavin said. “I lost nine games and it’s not my first concussion. It’s always hard to come back after a concussion. A lot of guys say they have a problem with confidence sometimes and I had the same.

“After a month, I felt great and I think I finished the season strong. My last 10 games were probably my best games of the season.”

When he was on top of his game, Malyavin showed the ability to skate his way out of trouble in the defensive zone, and was also able to create offensive opportunities with the puck on his stick on the rush. He said that’s an important part of his game.

“I love skating with the puck,” Malyavin said. “Usually I just pass to a forward … or just rush and try to create something. I like to get the puck on the blue-line and fake the forward left or right and go to the middle more because you can’t score or create chances from the left or right side, you need to be in the middle.

“I love to shoot for the forwards to tip or just shoot the puck when the goalie is screened.”

When Belarusian forward Zakhar Polshakov was asked about Malyavin’s game in the Wheat Kings board room on Wednesday afternoon, he was quick with a deadpan response.

“He’s a bad player,” Polshakov said, setting the pair off into laughter. “He’s probably the best D on our team, for me. He creates a lot of chances in the O-zone. That’s a good part.

“He looks like a good player in the future.”

Malyavin, who is an only child, doesn’t come from a hockey family. He grew up in Voronezh, a city of more than a million people located 515 kilometres south of Moscow in southwestern Russia.

In 2018-19, Malyavin joined the Lokomotiv-2004 Yaroslavl U16 squad, which is located nearly 800 kilometres away on the north side of Moscow. Malyavin, who is comfortable speaking English, made a pledge at the start of the season to speak only English in Brandon.

However, he and Polshakov became close friends, with Polshakov quipping “I spoke to him only in Russian,” prompting another round of laughter from the pair.

“It was so nice,” Malyavin said of having Polshakov on the team. “He’s one of my best friends. We talked every time in the dressing room, in the gym, on the bus. We spent so much time together. It’s a lot of fun.”

Belarusian and Russian are different languages, but Polshakov also speaks Russian.

Malyavin still hasn’t decided yet if he’s going home this summer, instead spending time in Brandon with Polshakov, who also isn’t sure about his plans.

But there is one thing the Russian defenceman knows. He can’t wait for next season to begin.

“I’m so excited,” Malyavin said. “I think we’ll have a good team. I’m sure we’ll be in the playoffs, 100 per cent. I want to win a Memorial Cup with this team.”

ICINGS: Jake Stuart, who the Wheat Kings selected with the second overall pick in the 2022 WHL U.S. draft, has made the United States National Team Development Program’s U17 roster for next season. The 16-year-old forward had 63 points in 63 games this season for the Los Angeles Jr. Kings U15 program.

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