Dmitry Afanasenkov coaching - and showing off - at development camp

On the South Rink of the Ice Sports Forum, a familiar face skates in alone on goaltender Connor Ingram at Tampa Bay Lightning development camp.
The shooter closes the gap with the puck on his forehand. He makes a quick move at the edge of the crease to try to dangle Ingram out of position. His first attempt is denied at the post by the right leg of Ingram, but he sweeps the rebound around the outstretched stick of the goalie and deposits the puck inside the opposite post.
Dmitry Afanasenkov still has moves, despite not having played in a NHL game for more than a decade.
He makes those moves now while wearing coaching warmups.

Afanasenkov is one of a handful of instructors guiding Lightning prospects through the five-day development camp. The former Lightning player who spent parts of five seasons with the Bolts and was a member of Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup-winning squad in 2004 is a skills coach with the team, teaching and then drilling the prospects on their stick handling.
"I'm enjoying being on the ice with the guys, show them drills and kind of have fun, see how they get better," Afanasenkov said following Thursday's session at the Ice Sports Forum. "For me, it's a way to stay in hockey."

Afanasenkov only recent got into coaching. Last summer, he worked with Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov while Kucherov trained in Tampa during the offseason. Kucherov mentioned how Afanasenkov helped him with his game to Lightning management, who then invited him to Syracuse to work with the American Hockey League team. That led to a role at this year's development camp along with another invitation to come back to Syracuse this season.
"He's very good with the guys," Lightning director of player development Stacy Roest said. "He gets their attention. He knows. He corrects them. Those are all pretty good qualities of a coach."
Afanasenkov was a Third Round selection of the Lightning in the 1998 NHL Draft and had his breakout season in 2003-04 when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup, scoring six goals and adding 10 assists in 71 games. The Arkhangelsk, Russia, native played two more seasons in the NHL before returning to Russia to finish his career, last lacing up the skates in 2013.
He now lives in Tampa year round. He's a regular at Lightning alumni events. And now, it would seem, he's got a burgeoning coaching career in the fold too.
"I work with lots of youth hockey in the area, with junior Lightning organization. I love working with the kids," Afanasenkov said. "It's a little bit different, but the pros, they're just sucking everything in you show them right away. Now it's just kind of fun to see how guys improve a lot, how they like it because I think skills now is a big part of the game, skating, what (skating coach) Barb (Underhill) is doing. You're putting the skating and stickhandling all together. I think it's the main thing in the hockey game right now."
At development camp, Afanasenkov explains a move he wants the players to perform and demonstrates. The players work to perfect the skill during drills. Then they test their skill going one-on-one against a goalie.
Afanasenkov jumps in the line and takes a turn too. Even at 38 years old, his stick handling leaves many of the campers slack jawed.
"When you're in a smaller group, it's easier to, one, watch all the players and, two, for the players to ask questions to you," Roest said. "And I think what he does is basic stuff to start off, to warm you up, he teaches you kind of why you have to do this. It's the old cliché, before you can run, you walk. I like that. You break it down, it's very basic stuff. And the other thing he's very good at it, you watch him out there with his stick, which makes the players go, 'wow.' And the energy is fantastic. It's good."

Afanasenkov has noticed a dramatic shift in the style of hockey being played from when he was in the NHL, a shift the Lightning have been at the forefront of. The game has opened up, allowing the smaller, speedier player the opportunity to showcase their skill. In his day, a player like Yanni Gourde might not have been as successful, his skill buried by a larger player allowed to use his size to impede. Now that some of those impediments have been taken out of the game, that skill is allowed to shine.
And it's Afanasenkov's job now to teach it.
"I wish when I was playing in the American Hockey League they have that program like they do right now in Syracuse," he said. "It's just fun. I was there a couple of times, and guys like it, they smile because a little bit changes for them too from the drills and they can kind of relax, feel the puck. I wish when I was growing up I had the same thing. It's why all these guys coming from the farm team start to score up here because they have lots of real good coaches and…they're working on all the skills and all the stuff, teaching the guys up there. When they come here, they're already prepared. I think it's really, really good stuff."
Afanasenkov doesn't know if he's ready to make coaching a full-time gig. But he's more than happy to offer his stick-handling expertise anytime it's requested.
"I love it," he said. "It's just fun being on the ice. I still get to show all the moves. I like it. Until I can't skate anymore or can't move my hands, I'll still do it."