What happened?
On the afternoon of October 16, sensational news arrived from North America. The Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Collegiate Hockey League (USHL) announced on their official website that they have added Russian forward Ivan Ryabkin to their roster. To make room for the 17-year-old Russian, forward Jake Mehrens was traded to the Sioux Falls Stampede.
“We are excited to add Iván to our program. We hope that Ryabkin will come to us in the coming weeks after competing with the Russian national team (the tournament will be held in St. Petersburg in early November). We still have a few steps to go before Ivan can put on the Lumberjacks uniform, but so far everything looks promising,” said student club president Steve Lowe.
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What’s so sensational about the news?
The very fact of the Russian player’s departure abroad does not cause any sensation. The borders in our country are open and each hockey player is free to independently manage his future professional destiny, if he is free from contractual obligations in his home country. The problem is that just a few months ago Iván signed his first professional contract with Dinamo Moscow.
They were very difficult and long negotiations. Ivan is considered the top talent in Russian hockey due to his age. After graduating from the Dynamo hockey school in the spring, he seriously considered the option of going abroad. However, the management of the capital club, at the cost of enormous investments and efforts, managed to keep Ivan in Russia. Ryabkin signed a three-year contract with Dynamo and received very favorable financial conditions.
This should be discussed separately. According to Sport Express, the 17-year-old striker signed a contract with Dynamo with a salary of 5 million rubles per year. Goalkeeper Maxim Motorygin, 22, who is currently the blue and white number one, currently has the same contract with the Club. One of the key forwards of the Muscovites, 19-year-old Yegor Rimashevsky, receives only 2 million rubles more. In Ivan’s case, we have a promising forward who was given that contract up front after a powerful season in the MHL.
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Is Ryabkin really that cool?
Last season, Ryabkin really exploded in the MHL. In 44 regular season games, he scored 24 goals and had 34 assists for a total of 58 points. This was the second-highest finish among under-17 players in league history. The record holder is Matvey Michkov with 84 (55+29) effective actions. For example, Nikita Kucherov himself, before turning 17, scored 54 (29+25) points.
Ivan Riabkin
Photo: Yuri Kuzmin, foto.khl.ru
Ryabkin was also solid in the Kharlamov Cup. Despite the fact that his team did not manage to overcome the barrier of the first round, Iván himself scored 6 (1+5) points in five games. After such a season, the Russian striker’s stock skyrocketed even more abroad. According to numerous experts, the 17-year-old forward is one of the top favorites in the upcoming NHL draft and should be at least in the top five, if not higher.
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What went wrong next?
After signing a contract with Dynamo, blue and white coach Alexey Kudashov took the young talent as part of the main team to a preseason training camp in Minsk. Here the first problems began. There has always been a lot of publicity around Iván in the press. And how can we not talk about a person who, from a very early age, was led according to the standard set by Kucherov? Journalists do their job promoting talented hockey players and they must do it in a professional manner.
But Ivan overestimated his strength and capabilities and arrived at Dynamo’s training camp in poor physical shape. Later, Ryabkin himself confirmed that he actually arrived at the training camp overweight. It is even difficult to imagine whether it was possible to start a worse career in the team of such a demanding specialist as Kudashov. At the same time, no one gave up on the striker. Ryabkin was treated humanely and until the end of August he played several test matches for the Dynamo first team.
The 53-year-old Kudashov always carefully brings young hockey players into the core. To find a place in the first team, a young player needs to go a long way. But in this case, he was willing to step on his own throat, giving Ivan more opportunities than others, realizing the depth of his talent. However, in addition, a chain of unpleasant events works against Ryabkin.
Dinamo is objectively ruining the start of the Championship and, therefore, the situation at the Club is beginning to get out of control. The capital club faces the greatest challenges this season, because the squad was prepared to fight for the championship. And after the initial defeats, all the people at the Club urgently needed to correct the situation. At a time like this, the last thing any major organization will think about is giving playing time to young players. In addition, Ryabkin himself at that time certainly did not add whists with his behavior in the team. And another story happened in which Ivan and his entourage should not have interfered.
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What was the boiling point?
As a result, the Dynamo coaching staff decided to send the hockey player to the Junior Hockey League, where Ryabkin was able to get a lot of playing time, accumulate statistics and increase his confidence. But Ivan himself does not need to increase his confidence. He is no longer interested in playing at the MHL level. Instead of becoming the leader of the MHC Dynamo, the hockey player became its anchor.
In eight MHL regular season games he had eight assists. These stats could be considered good for some mediocre player, but a talent of Ivan’s level should simply dominate in the MHL. Like Ivan Demidov did in the SKA youth team. Show yourself. If you get three, four or five points in a match, Kudashov will have no choice but to invite you back.
Ivan Riabkin
Photo: Sergey Babunov, photo.khl.ru
Instead, in the same eight games, the 17-year-old forward managed to accumulate 20 penalty minutes. Ryabkin was angry at the very fact of being in the MHL, lost his composure and collected unnecessary fines. And it all led to the fact that the head coach of MHC Dynamo, Artur Talipov, transferred the talented hockey player to the reserve. As a result, the situation developed in such a way that one of the main favorites of the 2025 NHL draft stopped going on the ice even in the MHL.
What’s next?
In the end, Dynamo decided to take a compromise step and send the player to the VHL. Many things came together here. Ryabkin himself could get the long-awaited opportunity to play with adult hockey players and the club could evaluate his current prospects. By the way, the main attention is now on the VHL team in Dynamo. Just in the last two weeks, goalkeeper Evgeny Yaroslavlev, as well as forwards Nikita Buruyanov and Artyom Chernov were transferred from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
But abroad the alarm was already sounding loudly. Evidently, the North American representative of the hockey player Maxim Moliver played a very important role in what happened. The agent of New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin apparently felt that he was in a lot of trouble lately and decided to take the hockey player to North America, convincing Ivan that he was developing incorrectly in Russia. Information about the hockey player’s upcoming move to Muskegon seems like an obvious tool of pressure on the best Russian club. This is also not hidden by renowned journalists in the United States, who in their articles hope that Dynamo will simply give in and release the player from his current contract.
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But control of the situation is now 100% in the hands of the blue and white sports director, Alexei Sopin. As they write abroad, although Russia is now prohibited from participating in international competitions, the IIHF still has jurisdiction regarding international transfer of contracts. Since Muskegon and the USHL are under the auspices of the United States Hockey Federation, there are transfer rules that must be followed for Ryabkin to be eligible to move overseas.
What is the position of Dinamo Moscow?
At the moment, the situation is such that Ivan will not be able to play in the USHL unless he terminates his contract with Dynamo Moscow, as there is an unspoken memorandum of mutual respect for contracts between North America and Russia. Dynamo itself has no intention of letting the player go. Especially after a wave of information was launched in their direction from abroad.
If Ryabkin himself was so dissatisfied with his position in the club, then it was possible to go to the management and agree on everything humanely. For example, Igor Chernyshov did this last summer. The 18-year-old hockey player also had a contract with the club. According to Russian hockey laws, which cannot be ignored by player representatives, their desire to leave the club with a valid contract must be notified at least 16 months in advance. Otherwise, you won’t even have a chance to redeem your deal.
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But people can always agree on everything, as Chernyshov did with his agent. Dynamo met the player halfway without ruining his career, since Igor wanted to leave. He bought the rest of the contract and quietly went to the United States. Ivan could have done the same, but in the end, less than a year before entering the draft, he found himself in an extremely unpleasant situation, from which he needs to get out as quickly as possible. Now Ryabkin is at the disposal of the VHL team, preparing for his debut in the second most important league in Russian hockey. I would like to wish Ivan to focus on hockey and start showing the talent he has on the ice as soon as possible.
