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Let’s Talk About Nikita Tryamkin
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J.D. Burke
Mar 11, 2016, 15:00 ESTUpdated:
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Nikita Tryamkin comes to the Vancouver Canucks hoping to fill a need they’ve had for as long as the franchise has existed.
Even at their best, the Canucks lacked a Norris Trophy calibre defenceman. The kind that can disrupt play, shut down the opposition’s best and eat minutes and space alike. No matter how it pains you, think Zdeno Chara. 
Odds are they don’t have one in their system, either. The closest they’ve come in recent memory is Alex Edler. He’s on the wrong side of the development curve too, so don’t expect that prophecy to fulfil itself either.
The next shot down range is at the end of a 6’8 barrel. Tryamkin is 21-years old and brings with him the rarest of commodities in this town: hope. Hope that he can develop into that Norris level defender; hope that the Canucks can hit on a mid-round pick and flip bats a la Jose Bautista. 
Fans aren’t the only ones buying in, either. Tryamkin was so bold as to drop the Chara comparison through a translator no sooner than he landed in Vancouver. Jason Botchford of The Province brought this to the front, putting his own spin on the hype that follows in Tryamkin’s eclipsing shadow… 
The 6-foot-7 (or 6-foot-8) Tryamkin has, in fact, heard it since he started skating. He even models his game after Chara. Of course he does.
“Everybody has compared me to Zdeno Chara, my entire life,” the newest Vancouver Canuck said through a translator. “I have no idea why.”
And that, folks, is Tryamkin’s first joke. Rim shot.
The 21-year-old Russian said he would like to actually surpass Chara, the 6-foot-8 Boston Bruins defenceman.
“I would like not to be Zdeno Chara. I would like to be Nikita Tryamkin.”
Pretty sure being Chara would be just fine, though.
It’s not entirely inconceivable that Tryamkin can fill these shoes. If you were to use their age 21 season’s as a cutoff, Tryamkin comes out ahead.
There might be merits to this comparison. Hell, it probably doesn’t even crack the top-five whacky comparisons on Pat Quinn Way this season. Maybe not even this month. No, there might actually be something there.
By all accounts, Tryamkin can skate well for his size and possesses a shot to match. Like his Swiss counterpart, Luca Sbisa, Tryamkin is often lauded for being able to disrupt play beneath the hash marks as well. We’ve heard it from enough non-Canucks sources to think there might be a shred of validity to that suggestion, too.
Tryamkin’s statistical profile is impressive, if unspectacular, as well. On the one hand, it’s encouraging that Tryamkin has been taking regular shifts in a professional league, against men, since his draft season. It’s worth noting that his production has been steadily rising, going so high as 11-points in 53-games in this, his last campaign.
On the other, it’s a little concerning that Tryamkin was selected in the third-round of his draft+2 season – an ominous sign for a prospect’s hopes of making the show. One also has to mete Tryamkin’s upward trajectory with the relative weight it carries. Tryamkin’s stock is ascending, but this is still his first season north of the double-digit point plateau.
Using stature, age and production based comparables doesn’t add clarity to the picture. Comparables include Victor Hedman, Nikita Nikitin and Anton Belov. So, those before him were either elite bordering on generational, or replacement level bordering on not good enough for the Edmonton Oilers. Although, the Hedman comparison only checks the age and stature boxes, so it’s safe to say that Tryamkin is much more closely aligned to Nikitin.
Realistically, a fifth or sixth defenceman seems like an appropriate benchmark. Anything after that is found money – all the more so given his third-round pedigree. Tryamkin might skate like the wind, hammer pucks like none other and his 71 penalty minutes (almost double his total from the season prior) indicate that nastiness comes naturally, too.
These are inputs – the driving factor in achieving desirable results. Matt Bartkowski has an enviable list of inputs. Frankly, he’s one of the best skating blue liners in the league. Until the sum matches the equal of its parts, it doesn’t matter how well a player can skate, hit or shoot, though.
Neither the Canucks nor their fans will be able to say with any certainty whether they’ve found the next Chara. Not by the end of this season. Probably not by the end of next. Really, though, that’s a good thing. The closer a player gets to their physical peak, the less likely they break from the chains of reasonable expectations and launch into superstardom. 
It’s fun to have that as a possibility. Even if just for a season. The Canucks need to hit a home run at some point. Tryamkin’s got a huge strike zone but there’s a lot of power there too. Just imagine if they connect…

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