Ken Hitchcock and Playing Russian Roulette

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Enter, Ken Hitchcock. Exit, Russian player. It sounds like a story we’ve heard before, doesn’t it?

Late Thursday night, just days after Hitchcock was hired to take over behind the bench for the Blues, Nikita Nikitin was sent packing to Columbus for Kris Russell. Funny, I thought, a Russian out the door that quickly. Maybe it’s a move just to make a statement. Maybe it’s just because Nikitin sucks. Or maybe it’s more than that.

Hitch’s battle with (probably overrated) Russian prospect Nikita Filatov in Columbus was very well-publicized, with the outspoken prospect complaining about ice time and not getting enough chances. ("You score the game winner with seven minutes of playing time, and it means nothing. The next game you get four minutes of ice time," he told Yahoo’s Puck Daddy.) Hitch took the high road with Filatov, eventually saying, "I really wish he would have just hung in there."

Let me preface everything by saying I’m all for trading Nikitin. He wasn’t any good for the Blues. He constantly looked lost on the ice. There was some evidence that he had marginal puck-moving skills, but overall I think we’re better off not having him than having him. I’m totally fine with this trade.

That said, I was curious after the Filatov ordeal and seeing how quickly NikNik was curbed. So I took a look at every Russian-born (or USSR-born, since times change) player who ever had Ken Hitchcock as his NHL team's coach. What I found could be complete coincidence, or it could be unsettling to a team whose biggest uber-prospect is a 19-year-old Russian and captain of his country’s national junior team.

Eighteen Russian/USSR-born players have skated with Hitchcock as their head coach. EIGHT of them were traded away (not counting Filatov, who was traded after Hitch left), only one of them playing more than 82 games under him before being dealt. Three players left as free agents for other NHL teams after one season or less under Hitch. Three more left Hitchcock's teams (Filatov during the season), after having played 41 games or less, to go play in Russia.

Here’s the list:

I understand that NHL players move around a lot -- and perhaps that's all this is, but other than Zubov, there’s not really a NOTABLE player on that list who doesn’t look like he made a hasty exit (Fedorov, Zherdev,  Filatov being the most notable). Like I said before, it could be complete coincidence, but it seems odd that nearly 45% of Russian players who’ve skated under Hitch have been traded away – and that lots of them got what seems like a pretty quick hook.

If nothing else, I think it’s safe to say that other than Zubov and, to an extent Tyutin, a Russian has never played a significant role on a Hitchcock-coached team for more than a year. I’m not saying he dislikes Russian players – I have no idea about that. I am, however, suggesting that the data show there’s some sort of disconnect there.

And even a disconnect is disconcerting, considering our biggest prospect just happens to be the best young player in Russia. I think Hitch’s notorious reputation with young players, combined with his history with Russian players – and finally, his history with young Russian players – is a legitimate reason to be concerned that Vladimir Tarasenko might turn into less than we’re hoping he’ll be.

I hope I’m wrong and he’s a 100-point scorer who’s a bulldog. I hope he’s the next big thing in Russian hockey and the NHL. But given the data I uncovered by doing some research (by the way, Hockey-Reference.com is awesome), I’m less excited about having Hitchcock behind the bench.