During the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Valeri Nichushkin shot to fame, but the Avalanche were stuck in a rut they’ve never been able to escape thanks to a concentration on recency bias.
In a few months, Valeri Nichushkin will probably don a Colorado Avalanche uniform, much to the dismay of some fans.
The problematic winger is presently in stage three of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and is suspended until November. The Avalanche gave Nichushkin an eight-year, $49 million contract after they won their third Stanley Cup victory in franchise history in 2022. The agreement has been an unparalleled fiasco thus far.
Nichushkin, 29, is expected to make a comeback in November, according to an ex-scout for the Russian national team who claims to be a close friend of his. However, he must receive approval from the NHL and NHLPA before he can play. Stated differently, there is no assurance that Nichushkin will be permitted to rejoin the ice simply because the suspension has ended. Naturally, this is dependent on his recuperation, and let’s hope he is headed in the right direction. According to Sergey Fedotov, the scout in question, Nichushkin’s initial enrollment in the Player Assistance Program was attributed to “sleep problems.”
Nichushkin claims that the picture is 95% clear: he is ready to go back in November, trains, consults with a psychologist, and plays the rest of the season. That is all, he said to Sports.Ru. Valeri Nichushkin makes a strong comeback to Colorado in November and begins to play. There aren’t any more queries. He is subject to all exchange prohibitions.
According to Fedotov, Nichushkin is backed by fellow forward Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche, but there may be a few others who would prefer that he give up, including Stan Kroenke, the team’s owner. Having said that, Nichushkin ought to be kept on a very short leash if he does get to put on skates in November. Additionally, the lessons Colorado may take away from this story are not being acknowledged.
Nichushkin Contract has always been dangerous.
The Nichushkin predicament has two sides to it. During Colorado’s Stanley Cup run, he shot to stardom, and of course, decision-making may be influenced by the past. Nichushkin has not played a season, save for a couple of seasons he spent with the Dallas Stars earlier in his career. For the Stars in the 2013–14 and 2015–16 seasons, he participated in 79 of 82 games. In his rookie campaign with the Avalanche in 2019–20, Nichushkin made 65 appearances. He hasn’t surpassed that amount since. However, he was such a star in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs that Colorado felt compelled to give him a big contract as compensation. However, Nichushkin’s career has actually been largely erratic up until his breakthrough season in 21–22. Looking back, the Avalanche most likely ought to have let him go.
‘Well, certainly, it’s easy to say that now,’ a few people may say. Nor would you be incorrect. But Nichushkin didn’t have a great sample size of accomplishment going into that Cup campaign, despite his amazing performance. He was not like MacKinnon, for example, who has averaged 99 points annually since the 2017–18 campaign and recently completed the finest season of his career by earning the Ted Lindsay Award and the Hart Trophy, making NHL history the 24th player to do so. There’s a man now who made that kind of large money. Does Nichushkin belong in the same class as him? Not exactly. He is obviously very talented, but during the past few seasons, his biggest attribute has been his tendency to get into trouble; it isn’t worth $6 million a year. Put more simply, some players—like Nichushkin—deserve that cheque, while others are grossly overpaid. Points 47, 52, and 53 were never worth that much money in the first place.
Although I believe that we should constantly look forward, I am not entirely in favor of looking back, as doing so can help us avoid making the same mistakes in the future. If Nichushkin had walked and Colorado had managed to hold onto Darcy Kuemper, just consider where the team would be right now. Whatever you think of Darcy, supporters have unfairly directed a lot of animosity towards him. Despite having an eye injury, the man faced the greatest goaltender in the world and helped them win three of the four games where they were behind by only one goal. He needed to see an optometrist two or three times a day to retrain the injured eye for the playoffs. Imagine the suffering and anxiety Kuemper must have been feeling as he faced the historically dominant Tampa Bay Lightning, who were trying to become the first Stanley Cup winners to win the championship three times since the New York Islanders in 1983. Although taking the Georgiev path wasn’t necessary, here we are.
To sum up, this contract combined with low goalie costs is the definition of finding hockey equipment in a flea market. It will undoubtedly backfire horribly.
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