Vadim Shipachyov: 3 Fun Facts

He is perhaps the most intriguing player on the Golden Knights.
Vadim Shipachyov.
The 30-year-old Russian has starred for years in the Kontinental Hockey League, where he's regularly outscored former NHL players Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk, and was a linemate of Artemi Panarin.
Yet never having played in the NHL, there are questions about how his game will translate to North America. Although in the process, he has the ability to perhaps be Vegas' top center and a bona fide game breaker.
Here are three fun facts to get to know Shipachyov better.

1. Is an elite playmaking center
Fifty assists in 50 games last season, and 43 in 54 the year before.
Shipachyov can score goals also, although he regularly racks up about twice as many assists. This is just the style of player he is. Shipachyov is quick and fast, prefers passing to shooting, and does so maybe better than any player in the world who hasn't been in the NHL.
When we asked him to describe what can do through a Russian translator, he told us to look on YouTube.
So here you are.
Watch: Youtube Video
2. His English is a work in progress
For the most part, Shipachyov will be joined in Las Vegas by a translator. This person will not only help him at the arena, but also in his everyday life.
Shipachyov isn't exactly all alone in Las Vegas, where he's joined by his wife and daughters. And he doesn't necessarily speak zero English.

At this point, he can speak an occasional word here and there. He seems to be able to communicate through his teammates through hand signals and facial expressions, while on the ice, hockey's hockey, and it's kind of a universal language/
Although watching Shipachyov's English develop, as well as his on-ice play, will be one of the more fascinating Golden Knights storylines this season.

3. Wears No. 87
After all, he was born in 1987.
But from a historic perspective, only five other players in the NHL's 100 years as a league have ever worn this number.
Sidney Crosby, the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is the most known.

The others were Donald Brashear, Liam O'Brien, Pierre Turgeon and David Musil.