[gvitaly]

I'll get things started
Rookie Dinner/Party

• You spent 4 years in North America but never made it to your rookie party?

  Well, I made it to one

• In the AHL.

  Yeah, in the AHL, but I missed three rookie parties in the AHL. One because of an injury in the first year when I was supposed to host it myself. The second year, I made it. The following 2 years, I got called up to the NHL when the rookie party was happening for the guys. And in the NHL, for the first year, obviously I wasn’t there during at that time. The second year I was supposed to go, but I got sent down to the AHL two days before the rookie party.

• Did you already pay the money?

  Well, they refunded me.

• Again, just to make it clear. Usually, there are two to three rookies per season. They always pay for the dinner — it's a tradition in NHL teams. And for one person, it’s about $5,000–$7,000, right?

  Yeah, around $5K to $7K.

• So, you paid the money as part of the tradition, but since you couldn’t be there, they gave it back. Does that mean you still have to go to a rookie party next year?

  Yeah. You’re still considered a rookie until you go through it. So even if, say, someone comes from the KHL at 28 years old, he still has to go through it.

• Yeah, he’s still in. What kind of things have you seen or had to do at a rookie party?

  At the rookie party... I had to direct traffic in the middle of the city. Ours was in Tucson — Arizona’s farm team, where Vlad Kolyachonok played.
  It’s a desert, super hot. Our rookie party was in January, and it was like +30°C The theme was goth. We had to dress up as goths.
  
  So I had leather, a black wig with long hair, black lipstick, a nose ring. My black leather jacket, a black tank top... there were seven of us.

• Seven goths in Tucson, yeah?

  There were a bunch of tasks we had to do. My group was me, Yan Kuznetsov, and Adam Klapka We had to drink different stuff and send it all in the group chat. It was like a report for the veterans, who were sitting in a nearby bar watching us. We got points for everything. There were two teams, and the one that got the most points got a reward. I don’t even remember what the reward was. I was directing traffic, I did push-ups on the road. A police car drove by — I stepped out and started doing push-ups right in front of it.

• And the traffic directing — was that like at an intersection?

  Yeah. I acted like a traffic cop at a crossroad. The light would change, and I’d wave cars through, signalling them where to go.

• And all this dressed as a goth?

  Yeah, in full goth costume. People were honking, waving, smiling. I was showing red light — stop; green light — go.

• Who gives the tasks?

  The veterans make them up. I think they prep for a couple of weeks.You get the task in chat, do it, send the video, and get points.
  

• Who ended up winning?

  Our team. We completed an “impossible” task. Me and Yan Kuznetsov — we went to the University of Arizona.Our task was to sneak into a lecture, sit through it, and ask the professor a couple of questions.

• You entered a random university lecture?

  Yep. Sat in the lecture hall. I was filming the whole thing in my goth outfit. We sat next to some students and started talking to the professor. Yan Kuznetsov sat in front of me so I could film better. He asked a couple of questions — I asked what the topic was.
  
  It was some kind of math class. We asked the questions, then said: “Sorry, we have to go,” and left. The whole lecture hall was laughing, and the professor had no clue what was going on. That’s how we won. That was the most “impossible” challenge.