A new very comprehensive Solovyov interview has come out. It had a lot of interesting stories. That said it's over 2 hours so I probably won't be translating the whole thing.
You can watch it with auto-generated subtitles if you feel like it.
The topics discussed are:
Returning to Belarus after 4 years - meeting the parents etc.
Solovyov in the AHL - this one mostly talks about Solo being Americanized and comparing AHL to KHL
The crime town of Stockton - some crazy stories here about what the players had to go through in Stockton
A bunch of Belarus/Dynamo topics I fast forwarded
The heart rate of NHL players during a shift
Being drafted in the NHL
Contract with the Flames
Solo being overweight - losing extra weight with Mitch Love after practice
Battle of Alberta - here he talks about the fans, the rivalry, the intensity of the insults and how it feels sitting in the penalty box in the opposing rink
Stanley Cup final - The quality of the Panthers team, playing against them, and who he was cheering for
His car accident during his NHL debut - he gives a couple more details here than last time.
Sharangovich - discusses Sharky's status with the team very broadly
Rookie dinner - the cost, missing his rookie dinner, rookie assignments he and Kuznetsov had to do and record for the vets, etc.
The benefits of playing in Canada - here he discusses his car, and what he had to do in exchange for leasing it for a year free of charge.
Plans for the season
The best choice of Solo's life : marrying his wife, instead of leaving to NA by himself
Since he's still only a prospect, I just wanted to gauge interest and see which topics I should get around to first, or if it's better to just do a Coles Notes version without sticking to the exact text. The other option is to just throw the Russian transcript into chatGPT and just make minor corrections to the text, instead of rewording sentences to keep the tone of the conversation.
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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.
Last edited by gvitaly; 07-20-2025 at 07:06 AM.
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It's in the USA. You're currently playing in Canada. I’d really like to talk to you about how the team moved. And especially, to discuss the situation in the wonderful city where you played—Stockton. Minsk, Belarus—our clean, safe, bright, beloved city. Then you fly to Stockton.
I’ll tell you—even Mogilev is a safe city compared to it.
So, what was Stockton like?
Well, man, Stockton... It’s hard to explain in just a couple of sentences. On our team, they told us about a couple of unwritten city-wide rule that after sunset, during nighttime hours:
1. You shouldn't walk anywhere on foot.
2. At stop signs or red lights—if you saw a suspicious person or car, it was acceptable to run the red light without stopping. Like, if someone shady was walking toward your car or a sketchy car was swerving near you, you could just speed to the highway. Once you’re on the freeway, it’s peaceful—there are patrols monitoring speed and law enforcement. So, nothing happens there.
You know how American cities are laid out—they’re all built around the big highways. The freeway runs from Los Angeles, through Sacramento, and up north all the way to Canada. So you hit the freeway and you’re good. But in the city itself, yeah—it was dangerous.
Where did you and your wife live?
We lived in a gated area. Our apartment complex was called “The Pavilions” in Russian. These were two-story buildings with big apartments on both floors. We lived on the second floor—you’d walk up a stairway and that’s our place.
We joked that our front door was like the doors we install in bathrooms in Belarus. I’m serious—you could kick it down with half a tap. We honestly didn’t know what we’d do if someone broke in.
So, you were scared?
I tried not to think about it, but yeah, it was unsettling. Some guys lived in elite neighborhoods—those had barbed wire on the fences and armed guards around the perimeter. It was really secure. No strangers could just enter.
We had one guard and a gate that would open or close. I never saw his face, and I doubt he was some massive bodybuilder, but thank God he was there. If someone suspicious came in, he’d probably call someone right away.
Still, even with that guard, something happened. Two Slovaks were living there—one later went to the NHL, the other stayed with us in the pavilions[I assume that's Ruzicka and Pospisil]. His apartment was deeper into the complex; mine was closer to the entrance gate.
In the mornings, I’d drive to pick him up, and one day he came out and said: “Drive straight and turn right.”
I drove, turned—and behind the wall, where the railroad tracks were, I saw two cars up on cinder blocks, windows smashed on the driver’s side. They had been robbed—wheels stolen, cars left on bricks. You know like they could do in some remote villages in Russia back in the day.
Wow.
Yeah. Another time, I came back from a game—we had, and still have, a dog I had to walk, while my wife was preparing food. So I took the dog out, and I heard gunshots. It started with a couple of shots but quickly turned into bursts of automatic fire. I turned around immediately to head back home. I didn’t make it far before I heard sirens—lots of them. Police, ambulances, the whole works.
Next morning, the Slovakian guy and I went to see what had happened. It turned out that just 300 meters from our apartments, a 16-year-old high school football team captain was shot dead. Insane.
After that, we understood it was serious. There had even been an incident at one of our games—a gang showed up, and then another rival gang came. Some sort of standoff. They didn’t want to let us leave the arena. When they finally did, we were escorted by five or six police officers with their weapons at the ready.
That was in March, and two weeks later they officially announced that the team would be moving to Calgary—to be based in the same city as the main team.
So your families asked management to move the team?
Exactly. My wife said that in the wives’ group chat, the veterans’ wives asked around. Then the captain’s wife and assistant captains’ wives—more experienced women—talked to their husbands, and the players went to the front office to formally request a move. They said, “It’s impossible to play here anymore.”
It was that unsafe. They would’ve accepted any city in the U.S.—just not Stockton. After Belarus, that must have been unimaginable.
Totally. After I heard about the kid being shot—my wife said after sunset I wasn't even allowed to walk the dog anymore, even in our gated community's grounds.
So, what was your attitude about it?
I have a bit of a different outlook on life. My wife sometimes doesn’t get it.
As in “A brick could fall on your head too.”?
Yes. But yeah, we lived behind a fence. Still—stray bullets could hit you.
We saw cars with bullet holes drive around town. When we first arrived, they housed us in a hotel right next to the arena, which was near the river. Across the river was a red zone, we were strictly forbidden from going there.
So it's actually outlined on a map?
They gave us printed maps that marked this no-go area.
What were those maps a part of?
Like a camp brochure—with pictures of the players and contact info. And a city map with red zones. You weren’t even allowed to drive through that area— not even pass through it.
That’s insane.
Ask anyone—Vlad, Kolichonoko, Klim that was in Abbotsford. One time I tried to talk to Klim after a game, the team’s equipment manager came running:
“Ilya, get to the locker room immediately!”
Because one of those gang confrontations was happening again. Klim was taken straight to the bus. The bus drove into the arena itself, which they don't usually do. It was escorted by three police cars to the highway. They loaded up the players and left very quickly.
You didn’t get to talk to him because of a gang fight outside?
Yeah. I had to send my wife home without me. We had only one car back then. She was sitting at there at the parking lot waiting for me. She called me like: “What’s going on? There are cops everywhere, are you alive?”
I told her: “Baby, just get out of there. Follow the team bus out with the police escort”. She left safely. My teammates gave me a ride home after.
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I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you don't exactly have the same mindset as a Stockton gangster does.
Yeah...yeah.
Solo is just there to play hockey and try and win a big league job, dodging bullets isnt usually part of the gig.
Furthermore, 'big guy' or not, guns can be a considerable equalizer in regards to size and....cocaine is a hell of a drug. So...coked out lunatic with a gun probably doesnt care much about Solo's size.
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Solo is just there to play hockey and try and win a big league job, dodging bullets isnt usually part of the gig.
Furthermore, 'big guy' or not, guns can be a considerable equalizer in regards to size and....cocaine is a hell of a drug. So...coked out lunatic with a gun probably doesnt care much about Solo's size.
Solovyov Interview
