This story is nothing new, but Nikita Gusev is once again trying to make it to the NHL. The Russian forward, whose contract with Dynamo Moscow has come to an end, has not yet decided on his place of work and is still hoping for a second (or third) chance to prove himself in the strongest league in the world.
“I am worried about Gusev’s future career. He found his team at Dynamo, showed smart and beautiful hockey and became the best in the league. In my opinion, there is no point in shaking, but, apparently, the dream of the NHL is still pressing on Nikita,” commented three-time Olympic champion Vitaly Davydov on the player’s appearance in the United States.
New Jersey, where the forward made his National Hockey League debut, agreed to give Nikita a platform for “self-realization.”
Then in 2019, Gusev went abroad as the undisputed best player and main star of the KHL – in the last season before his move, he became by a wide margin the top scorer of the regular season and only the second hockey player in the history of the league after Sergei Mozyakin, who managed to score 100+ points in a year, including playoffs. It’s hard to imagine where SKA would have ended up in the Western Conference final if not for Nikita, who scored almost 50 more goals than the team’s second-leading scorer Sergei Plotnikov, so dominant was Gusev’s performance that year.
Therefore, his desire to prove himself among the best was completely justified, and no one would understand it if Nikita, who had clearly outgrown the KHL level, had not strived to take the next absolutely logical step in his career. And even then he was in the prime of his life, and his age (27 years) seemed ideal for immediately breaking into the NHL and spending more than one successful year there.
Nikita Gusev in “New Jersey”
Photo: Joel Marklund/Zuma/TASS
The reality, unfortunately, turned out to be harsher: despite a relatively good first season as a “devil”, Gusev’s stay in the NHL turned out to be grey. The Russian was never able to adapt to the demands of the league, which is why he first lost his place in the Devils’ lineup, then did not put down roots in Florida, which was still far from the championship title, and in the off-season he did not impress the Toronto management while watching and eventually forced to return to his homeland.
The return to SKA did not go according to plan either: Nikita spent two good seasons, but nothing more, which led to the termination of his contract a year ago. At some point, the relationship between the player and the club completely deteriorated, which even resulted in the forward being moved to the reserve during the playoffs – it is hard to imagine that this would happen anywhere outside St. Petersburg (although there are exceptions, of course), and in the Northern capital such stories of recent years are not something surprising.
The season at Dynamo became a kind of reincarnation of Gusev: five years later he again became the top scorer of the season, barely reached one hundred points for the second time in his career and set a new record for the number of effective actions in a regular season and, as expected, received the award for the most valuable player of the championship.
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Does this mean Nikita is ready for another NHL run? Hardly.
There is no doubt about his status in the KHL: Gusev is a recognized master who has already proven more than once that he is one of the main, if not the main pearl, of this league. This is a real creator who can work a miracle in someone else’s third and whose non-standard moves look easy on the Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh platforms; a very talented player, who achieved a lot during his career and definitely inscribed his name forever in the history of Russian hockey.
But Nikita is one of the cases of the so-called “product for internal use”: the KHL style allows him to create as he did in Ugra, his first stint at SKA and Dynamo, but the faster, simpler and more direct pace of the game, which is preached in the NHL (and which did not suit Gusev in the second stint in St. Petersburg), requires more commitment on both sides of the ice, and this is where the forward “burned out” in North America.
If Nikita was still unable to adapt to these demands at 27, what can we expect at 32, which he will be in less than a week? American players of his (or around his) age, who have not managed to establish themselves in the NHL, but at the same time have ambitions greater than vegetating in the lower leagues, often move to Europe and the KHL in particular, as Sheldon Rempal and Nic Petan are clear confirmation of.
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Considering that during the opening of the NHL free agent market Gusev never found a team for himself, and even rumors about the interest of at least one team in him did not appear, it can be concluded that the forward will be a starter in the next season not abroad suggests itself – it is definitely not worth waiting for a generous offer on the other side of the world.
Three years ago, Vladimir Tkachev tried to make a place for himself in the NHL, but quickly ended up in a farm club, after which he returned to the KHL and this summer, even after the best season of his career, despite another possible departure, he decided to tie his future with Avangard.
Gusev’s desire to make it to the NHL is commendable, but perhaps it’s worth finally admitting that the dream of being there again is unrealistic and also staying in a place where you are so valued and loved?
