November 22, 2000

Shastin Yegor:
Top pick of the 2001 NHL Draft?

It wouldn't be a great surprise if I tell that Russia with its hockey players is a "Treasure Island" for NHL scouts. Approximately 70 athletes of the former Soviet Union now play in the world's best league and each year NHL draft brings to the North American hockey system dozens of some other new names from Russia. The 2000 Draft has absorbed 46 Russian-based talents. Seven of them are top 20 choices. The coming 2001 NHL Draft promises to turn out to be not less successful. The scouts keep on hunting for the heads of talented youngsters like Ilya Kovalchuk and Igor Knyazev of Spartak Moscow, Stanislav Chistov and Alexander Perezhogin, Alexander Svitov and Yegor Shastin of Omsk Avangard.
Eighteen years of age Yegor Shastin is the son of the well-known Soviet forward Yevgeny Shastin who has been playing with Kiev Sokol and now is working assistant coach with Omsk Avangard. 
On the question if his father anyway influences his play he responses, "Yes, of course. He is my coach and I'm his solder on the ice. He makes no allowances for his son. I'd rather say vise versa. Of course he can give me some useful pieces of advice and explain something but our relation is within the borders of teacher-pupil model. Only at home we try to forget about hockey though it is very difficult to do in the family like mine."
In his childhood Yegor often attended hockey games with his father. When he was three years old his father presented him with skates and a stick. It was New Year's time. At first he has started skating with much older boys and only then he has been enlisted in the newly formed group of Anatoly Sidnyukov to whom he is much obliged for learning him to play the hockey he demonstrates now. So he started his hockey career in former Soviet republic Ukrain, the place where his father has been playing, and only at the age on fourteen he moved to Omsk Avangard.

Though Yegor lives in Russia and plays for its national team this time he considers Ukrain his homeland and when he has some spare time he visits his mother and brother who live there.

Some people may doubt his potential on hearing that he made his pro debut in senior level hockey with Avangard Omsk at the age of sixteen. They may say, "It's his father who pulled the strings for his son! There is dozen of other skillful Russian guys who can be on his spot but not this boy!"

I wonder what they would say after getting to know that he was not once called-up for the national team of Russia and had been marvelously playing under different coaches.
In the 1998 he was invited to try-out for the Russian Team. It was Five Nations Tournament held in Finland where young Russians took the first place with five points gained. Shastin was among the best players of the tournament with 4 games played, 2 goals scored and 3 assists. He also ended up with a good +/- rating +3. 

Later he was also playing for Russian National Team at the 2000 Under-18 JWC in Switzerland. Unfortunately that time he got only silver after a terrible loss to Team Finland in the final. Yegor was the leading scorer on the Russian squad with 6 games played, 7 goals scored and 4 assists. Finally he was acknowledged the best forward. Last season this skillful forward scored 5 goals and made 5 assists in 33 games of the Russian Hockey Championships. It's his third season in the senior level hockey.

Despite his young age Shastin goes on to amaze hockey experts and annalists with his mature play at the international arena and also with Avangard Omsk. Though he scored the only goal and enjoyed 7 assists in the Russian Hockey Championships he goes on to work hard on the ice and that's the thing what for his teammates respect him. He is the leader of Junior Russian National Team! Does it mean something when the guy scores 2 goals and makes 2 assists in 4 games played at the recent Four Nations Tournament in the company of outstanding NHL draftees? What would you expect of the player who is only 18 years of age? In such like cases Russians usually say, "Toli eschye budet!" This means, "Who knows what may happen the next season. Maybe Russian hockey will have the next Kharlamov, Yakushev or Maltsev in the person of Yegor Shastin?

Let's wish him to overpass the achievements of his father who is the honorable member of Vsevolod Bobrov's club (club named after legendary Russian player and head coach of the Soviet Team which has been playing 1972 Summit Games) and to become the highest possible pick at the coming 2001 NHL Draft.