Polshakov hopes to extend WHL journey

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This article was published 18/04/2023 (881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Zakhar Polshakov’s focus remains on being a major junior player in North America.

The Belarusian forward, who turns 20 in September, is one of five 2003-born Brandon Wheat Kings players who will be competing for three spots with the Western Hockey League club next season, including two other forwards, Brett Hyland and Dawson Pasternak, and defencemen Logen Hammett and Kayden Sadhra-Kang.

Polshakov, who sat down for an interview last week with his friend and teammate Andrei Malyavin, is fighting to remain a Wheat King despite being what’s referred to as a “two-spotter,” a player who would take up both an import and overage slot.

“I’m going to rest and start a little bit of workouts with Andrei,” Polshakov said. “I still want to play in this league and for sure I want to play in Brandon. I like this city. I have friends (here) but we’ll see.”

Brandon’s last two-spotter was goaltender Jiri Patera in the 2019-20 season.

The Wheat Kings added Polshakov in the Canadian Hockey League import draft in 2021. The Wheat Kings officially had the 29th overall pick, but the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the Hamilton Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League both passed, making Polshakov the 27th player selected.

By coincidence, he was taken five picks after the OHL’s Sarnia Sting grabbed Malyavin, who was put on waivers and drafted by Brandon in 2022.

Polshakov, who served as captain of Belarus’s entry at the world under-18 hockey championship during the 2020-21 season, signed with Brandon in mid-July, but his visa got tangled up in diplomatic channels, forcing him to miss Wheat Kings training camp and the first nine games.

In his rookie campaign, the five-foot-11, 179-pound forward played 55 regular season games, contributing five goals, 14 assists, 20 penalty minutes and a plus-minus of -12. He had an assist in five playoff games.

With the benefit of time, Polshakov now understands how big the transition was for him.

“Of course it’s tough but I felt OK after a few months,” Polshakov said. “You’re a hockey player. You should be ready for all this stuff.”

In 63 games this season, Polshakov had nine goals, 22 assists, 40 penalty minutes and a plus-minus of -10, often playing against the other team’s top players.

He was also perhaps his team’s most snakebitten player around the net, with an assortment of great saves, goal posts, bouncing pucks and blocked shots denying him more goals.

“After a game, it’s hard but the next day I feel OK,” Polshakov said of his bad luck. “I know I should score more. It’s hockey. Maybe in the future I’ll score more. It’s the hockey gods.”

Instead, Polshakov proved to be an invaluable defensive forward. He said his game simply had to adapt to do what was asked of him, and he enjoyed all the little things he could do to help the team win.

“I think it changed a lot,” Polshakov said. “In Belarus I scored more, assisted more, created some chances. Here I do different work but I still love it. Of course all guys want to score and assist but who can do this work like PK, faceoffs? It’s a big part of a game.”

Among the 10 players who took more than 100 faceoffs for the team last season, including the departed Jake Chiasson and Trae Johnson, the Belarusian’s 57.2 per cent success rate easily led the Wheat Kings.

He was successful in 667 of his 1,267 draws, up from a season earlier when he won 503 of his 944 faceoffs for a 53.2 per cent efficiency, which were all team highs.

“First of all, it’s probably my parents, my dad, he taught me,” Polshakov said. “He gave me some secrets. I know the guys who take faceoffs in the league and sometimes I watch those guys, how they play, and first of all, just how they put their stick on the ice.

“I like to put the stick second, even in the O-zone, and I win more faceoffs in the O-zone. I put my stick second and it’s easy for me because I know where he puts his stick. It’s just little secrets that help.”

Both Polshakov’s father Alexander and grandfather Valeri played and coached in Belarus, and the forward speaks to his parents every day.

Malyavin said Polshakov is a good player.

“Faceoffs, PK, he has good vision, a good passer,” said Malyavin, who noted his quiet friend has a great sense of humour speaking Russian.

Belarus is an eastern European nation bordered to the north and east by Russia, on the south by Ukraine and on the west by Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The country is home to 9.3 million people, with Minsk, the capital city of two million and Polshakov’s hometown, located in the centre.

CHL teams aren’t currently allowed to pick Russian or Belarusian players due to the war in Ukraine — a decision announced a year ago — but players who were already signed were allowed to return.

While he is a long way from Minsk, his billets James and Monika Montgomery have done everything they can to make him feel at home since he arrived in October 2021 and never left.

That included inviting goalie Tikhon Chaika of the Prince Albert Raiders and forward Vladislav Shilo of the Winnipeg Ice for Christmas both years, and Shilo stayed in Brandon last summer at the Montgomery home as the two prepared for the 2022-23 season.

“They are great people, great people,” Polshakov said of the Montgomerys. “They are probably the best people I have met in Canada.”

And as it turns out, the Montgomerys made some friends too.

“They like those guys too and invited those guys for Christmas,” Polshakov said. “Not me. They invited them.”

Since all the Belarusian players around the league are about the same age, Polshakov knows them all. But he was especially close with Shilo and Chaika.

And this year he had the bonus of another Russian speaker he could speak to in a language he is more comfortable in, although his English is now quite good.

“It’s great,” Polshakov said. “I know those guys over 10 years, maybe more. We always talk and keep in touch. I love those guys.

“Andrei is my new friend. We never knew each other before he came here but he’s my new friend.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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