[Signing] Flames sign G Waltteri Ignatjew, 1 year, $870,000 AAV

[McG]

I’ve been pretty glum about the failure to tank properly.

Just wanted to say thank you for the posters in this thread. Made me laugh!

[GullFoss]

I'm just going to call him "ig nasty"

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

It’s not. Finland was part of the Russian Empire until 1917. There are lots of people with Russian ancestry over there. Ignatjew is a very common Russian last name (meaning literally “son of Ignat”); just an awkward spelling evolved over time, similar to Kiprusoff. Michael Ignatieff (former Liberal party leader) has the same last name origin; it’s pronounced same but spelled differently.

True.

I believe the resemblance comes in because (most of) Poland was also part of the Russian Empire at that time. Most of Russia used the Cyrillic alphabet, but the Poles and Finns both used the Roman alphabet. Since Poles are Slavs and Finns are not, when somebody wanted to spell a Slavic name in the Roman alphabet, they would spell it the Polish way.

So the Poles and Finns spell it ‘Ignatjew’, the Germans spell it ‘Ignatiev’ or ‘Ignatjev’, the French spell it ‘Ignatieff’, and the English spell it however they please because they are only going to mispronounce it anyway.

[sketchyt]

Some recent video of him here. The behind the net camera angle is helpful to gauge where he's at. I agree with the calmness. Tracks pucks well, decent mobility, poor puckhandling. Plays a little deep for my liking. We'll see if any of this translates in NA pro hockey.