The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently dead last in the league in shooting percentage at 7.89%. They are, however, 12th in shots on goal, just above the New York Rangers. Fun, right? Here's hoping the kids laugh at this statistic and take the SNES for all they're worth.
Anyway. Here are some fun facts about Nikita Soshnikov, so that we are better able to fan him, taken from this article and various other sources.
- Soshnikov is 22 years old
- He was born in Nizhny Tagil, the largest battle tank manufacturing city in the world.
- He is ten time zones and more than 8,000 kilometres away from his hometown.
- Soshnikov was chosen in the sixth round, 123rd overall of the 2010 KHL Draft by Atlant Moscow Oblast.
- March 20, 2015, he signed as an undrafted free agent to a three-year, entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- He takes two English lessons a week with a tutor whenever hockey allows.
- Soshnikov made his NHL debut on February 29, 2016 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- He scored his first NHL goal on March 2, 2016 against Philipp Grubauer of the Washington Capitals.
- He has recorded a point in three of his last five games. He has also registered 20 hits in his last five games.
- He has registered fewer than 10 minutes of icetime per game as recently as November 2014.
- Evgeny Namestnikov (dad of Bolts' Vladislav Namestnikov), Atlant’s assistant coach and a European scout for the Leafs, discovered him.
- On the bus rides following road games with the Marlies, he studies shifts on an iPad.
- His father Dmitry watches him through an internet despite having to get up in the wee hours of the morning to do so.
- Yuri Trubachev taught him how to swing wide during the shootout.
- Larry Tanenbaum told him he was proud of him after his first shootout game winning goal./