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Sergei Samsonov was dealt from Boston to Edmonton at the trade deadline for Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a 2006 second-round draft choice.
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Samsonov's skills a
boon and a burden
By Larry Wigge | NHL.com columnist
Mar. 22, 2006
For some players, there's a magical now-you-see-them-now-you-don't skill. It's like a snapshot. A flash. A glimpse of talent that pulls you out of your seat and makes you look to this player for bigger and better things.
Sergei Samsonov is one of those gifted individuals who catches your attention with a blink-of-the-eye move. He's also one of those players who often has trouble reaching those lofty expectations that everyone has for him. Ask Boston fans and they'll tell you that the magic is an aberration, that he disappears with far too many injuries or into a long period of inconsistency.
There is clearly more than meets the eye with this wonderfully skilled player packed in a 5-foot-8 package of contradictions.
And now that Samsonov has a clean slate with the Edmonton Oilers after being traded by the Boston Bruins for centers Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and a second-round draft choice in 2006, we have already seen a few glimpses of an abracadabra that has Edmonton fans thinking the days of Oilers' playoff successes may be returning again.
Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969. The longtime NHL columnist for The Sporting News, Wigge is now an NHL.com columnist and a frequent contributor to the website.
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After getting one goal and two assists of the pretty spectacular variety in his first three games after coming to the Oilers in a March 9 trading-deadline deal, Samsonov made his home debut a special one, when he made a couple of dazzling moves after roaring into the Calgary zone. A broken stick laying on the ice above the right-wing faceoff circle and couple of jaw-dropping moves on the Flames' No. 1 defensive pair of Dion Phaneuf and Roman Hamrlik -- Hamrlik tripping over the broken stick and then colliding with Phaneuf while Sergei had the twosome spinning from side-to-side trying to keep up with him -- led to Samsonov setting up Shawn Horcoff's winner in overtime for a crucial 3-2 comeback victory.
"He's so dangerous," Horcoff said with a giant grin on his face. "It's not hard to get mesmerized watching him."
"Wow!" said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish. "It was like he was one of those slalom skiers from the Olympics, darting around the flagpoles. Amazing."
Samsonov is 27 now. He's not the kid who burst onto the NHL scene in 1997-98, after being Boston's second choice (behind No. 1 overall Joe Thornton) and eighth-overall pick in the Entry Draft, to become Rookie of the Year with 22 goals and 25 assists. He's not the same Sergei, who scored 29 goals in 2000-01 and again in 2001-02 to reach his career high.
Poof! This is Samsonov in transition, from playing in only eight games in 2002-03 in an injury-filled season, just 58 games in 2003-04 and only three games in Russia in 2004-05 before getting 18 goals and 19 assists in 50-some games for the Bruins this season before the trade to Edmonton.
"It's always a shock when you get traded," Samsonov said, sounding like a veteran of deadline deals -- even though this is the first time he's ever been traded. "I've heard the rumors all season."
Sounding like a stone-faced killer being interrogated or a guy who had just had enough in Boston, Samsonov said, "After a few minutes, I just shook off the shock and started packing my bags. I guess I look at this as a new chapter in my life. I've been traded to a team in the thick of the playoffs and I can't wait to help them out."
So much for the Boston expectations, from high first-round pick to being overshadowed by second-round sensation Patrice Bergeron, who came right out of the 2003 draft to get 16 goals and 23 assists in his rookie season and follow that up with more than 20 goals and 35 assists already this season.
Obviously, the Oilers hope Samsonov can provide the same kind of magical transformation that Joe Thornton did after Boston traded him to San Jose back in late November.
While some shake their heads at Samsonov because of his size, others simply marvel at his skills and overlook the lack of height because he's actually really thick and strong and hard to knock off the puck.
Oilers' teammate Shawn Horcoff comments on Sergei Samsonov:
"He's so dangerous. It's not hard to get mesmerized watching him."
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"I remember how scouts chirped about his size the same way they did when Paul Kariya was drafted in 1993," Ottawa Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "He may not have the speed Paul had through the neutral zone, but his speed with the puck in close quarters while swiveling from side-to-side is breathtaking."
I guess what we're saying here is that he's a player who can make a move and chew gum at the same time. Or skate with the puck and make moves and plays and shots at a high rate of speed without losing the puck. I remember being in Boston for a game several years ago and seeing Samsonov do this drill in practice that blew my mind.
He would place three pucks on the ice in the shape of a triangle, spacing the pucks about 18 inches apart. Standing at one side of the triangle, feet about shoulders' width apart, he would stickhandle a fourth puck through the open sides, the object being not to touch one of the other pucks while not losing control of the fourth puck. And in this high-speed drill that helped develop foot and hand-to-eye coordination, he would often complicate the drill by circling around the triangle and do a 360-degree spin-o-rama move and start back around it like he was making his way through a maze with ease.
"It's a drill I saw Alexei Yashin do many years ago back in Russia to help him improve the quickness of his hands," Samsonov told me.
With that kind of skill, it's no wonder that Viktor Samsonov, Sergei's father, quit his job as an electrician in Moscow to help his son's hockey career. Viktor would transport Sergei to practice and games first-class and would drive a taxi at night to help pay the bills.
"Dad pushed me to be the best player I can be," Sergei remembers. "He quit his job to help me. Both my parents did a lot for me. They helped me move to Detroit to play in the International Hockey League so that I would be more ready for the draft and my NHL career."
Pat Burns, who won a Stanley Cup coaching the New Jersey Devils in 2003, was Samsonov's first NHL coach. He knew exactly what kind of talent Sergei was.
"I was working in TV in Canada when I saw Sergei in an IHL playoff game," Burns once told me. "He scored four goals and stood out even though he took a beating from players 10 and 15 years older than him. I knew then that he could adapt to the NHL because of his speed, but I never knew he was so mature."
I asked if Samsonov reminded Burns of anyone. He surprised me when he said his dedication and focus was just like Ray Bourque's. Funny, but shortly after Samsonov moved to Boston, Bourque asked him if he wanted a lift to the FleetCenter. Samsonov accepted, and he began riding with Bourque on game nights. He also began to watch every move Bourque made.
"I remember seeing him working hard as hell in practice after 20 years in this league, which told me I had to do the same," Samsonov remembered.
Samsonov said Bourque was so focused that many nights there would be no chatter on the way to the game other than picking Ray's brain about how to beat the opponent for that night.
"No music. No talk about sports other than hockey," Samsonov smiled. "Life was good back then."
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Samsonov credits his work ethic to playing with former Bruins' teammate Ray Bourque,
whom he studied as a young player.
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That father-figure conversation ended after Bourque was traded to Colorado late in the 2000 season. But the veteran influence was still with Samsonov for his 29-goal seasons in 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
The Bruins always had to push Samsonov to shoot more. What they didn't know about him was that as good a goal scorer as he is, he's probably a better passer. In other words, he's a double threat deep in the other team's zone.
"He can put the fear of God into a defense when he's going, because they have no idea what he's going to do next," Thornton told me earlier this season when we were talking about center-wing combinations that seemed made for one another.
The skills and instincts are God-given. How else could you explain the Gretzky-like numbers that Samsonov had when he was 16 and was scoring 110 goals and 72 assists in a 50 games for a Division 2 team in Moscow?
"In his first few years in Boston, you don't have to talk to Sergei, you just had to put him on the ice and put him in a situation to succeed," Florida Panthers General Manager Mike Keenan told me a short time ago. "With good instinctive players that's how it is. When I coached him in Boston, I knew he could be a game-breaker. All I had to do was get him in those situations." After hearing that, I remembered another thing that Burns once told me.
"If he doesn't have the puck, he's just little Sammy skating around out there," Burns said. "This isn't the Ice Capades. We need to help him be better as coaches."
Samsonov remembers those early days in Boston well.
"The toughest part about coming here was learning English," Samsonov said. "It was frustrating just going to the supermarket or the mall. But Ray (Bourque) helped me with a lot of that. He showed me how to open a bank account, how to shop, everything."
One day before the trade deadline, former Detroit Vipers GM Rick Dudley was in St. Louis scouting for the Chicago Blackhawks. Players who might be traded were mentioned. Lot of them. Suddenly, someone mentioned Samsonov.
"When I brought him over to the IHL, I knew he was special," said Dudley, who is renown for his talent evaluations as general manager in Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Florida. "He was the most mobile hockey player I've ever seen. And because of that, he made plays that would make you shake your head. He's still one of those people who at some point in time during a game, you're going to say, 'WOW!'
"His teammates on that Detroit team would have killed for him, because they realized early what a great kid he was. I saw guys who never fought before, step in to try to protect this kid."
Samsonov is no longer a kid, but he still has the legs, vision, and temerity to go into the corners, grab the puck, and wheel out with his heart and head set on scoring.
Just a few of the glimpses, the flashes, the snapshots that Sergei Samsonov has already displayed in his first few games with the suddenly re-born Edmonton Oilers.
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