Egor
Sidorov will be calling Saskatoon home for the foreseeable future.
Egor Sidorov (#19) celebrates scoring for the Blades on April 8.
Sidorov
just finished playing through his rookie season at right wing for the Saskatoon
Blades appearing in 53 regular season games posting 23 goals, 12 assists and a
minus-two rating in the plus-minus department. He also had a goal and two
assists in the five post-season games the Blades played against the Moose Jaw
Warriors in falling 4-1 in a best-of-seven first round series.
Sidorov is
a European import player from Vitebsk, Belarus. Due to Russia’s war with Ukraine
that started on February 24, Belarus has faced sanctions due to supporting
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Thanks to instability
in that part of the world, Blades general manager Colin Priestner confirmed
that Sidorov, who will turn 18-years-old on June 18, will be remaining in
Saskatoon.
“He
(Sidorov) is going to stay here for the summer,” said Priestner. “We’re working
with immigration right now on it.”
The Blades
2021-22 campaign officially came to an end last Friday, when they fell 6-3 to
the Warriors in Moose Jaw in Game 5 of their first round series. At the conclusion
of that setback, the Blades had to face the reality of Sidorov’s life situation
away from the rink in a more definite way.
Sidorov, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 164 pounds, was selected by the Blades in the first round and 20th overall in the 2021 CHL Import Draft. He made his Blades debut playing in the team’s regular season opener for the 2021-22 campaign on October 1, 2021 in a 7-1 loss to the Warriors in Moose Jaw.
Since that beginning, Sidorov became a fan favourite with his energetic and infectious upbeat demeanour. He arguably had his most memorable night with the team this past Feb. 12, when he scored a hat trick in a 6-2 win over the visiting Regina Pats at the SaskTel Centre.
In that contest,
Sidorov had more points than Pats 16-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard, who
finished that outing with one goal and one assist.
Egor Sidorov scored 23 regular season goals as a rookie.
“He
(Sidorov) really wants to be here,” said Priestner. “His parents want that too
for him, and it would be dangerous to send him home.
“He is
going to be an amazing player next year for us, and let’s just hope everything
works out with the immigration status.”
Besides
becoming a fan favourite, Sidorov is very popular with his Blades teammates.
When he has been chosen for post-game radio show interviews with Blades
play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk that are done in the SaskTel Centre in front of
an audience, usually eight to 10 Blades players follow Sidorov up to act as a
cheering section.
The Blades
teammates offered that support due to the fact Sidorov usually could only give
simple one sentence answers to interview questions for much of the season.
“He
(Sidorov) is extremely well liked in that group,” said Priestner. “He didn’t
speak a word of English six months ago, and now we did an exit interview without
Google translate completely with him.
“It is
amazing. He is a great kid. He doesn’t like what is going on over there.”
On April
27, the CHL announced that players from Russia and Belarus will be ineligible
for the upcoming CHL Import Draft, which will be held on July 1 via conference
call. That decision was made due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the
support of Belarus.
Players
that are already on the protected lists of CHL teams from Russian and Belarus
are not affected by that decision. They will remain eligible to play in the
three major junior circuits that fall under the CHL umbrella that includes the
WHL, OHL and QMJHL..JPG)
Blades fans enjoy cheering for Egor Sidorov.
Back on
March 2, the CHL cancelled the 2022 Canada Russia Series, where all-star teams
from the WHL, OHL and QMJHL face a touring Russian junior team. At that time,
the CHL condemned Russia’s actions involving military force in Ukraine.
Before CHL
sanctions, Russian and Belarusian teams were banned by the International Ice Hockey
Federation from its events at all levels until further notice because of the
ongoing war in Ukraine. The sport’s governing body removed Russia as host of
two major events in the upcoming world junior championship and the 2023 world
men’s championship.
Sidorov
played for Belarus’s under-20 team at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Division IA
Championship that ran from December 12 to 18 in Denmark of that year. In helping Belarus top that event with a 5-0 record, Sidorov recorded two goals, one assist and a
plus-one rating.
At the
moment, that marks the last time Sidorov has been to Europe.
Priestner
said Sidorov told him how Russia and Belarus signed a treaty for greater cooperation
in 2000 forming a Union State. Under that agreement, Russia basically has been
able to control Belarus.
Priestner
said teams in the CHL wants to help the Russian and Belarusian players that
came over to play in either the WHL, OHL or QMJHL before the war in Ukraine
started.
The Prince
Albert Raiders, who are the Blades archrivals, have two Belarusians on their
roster in netminder Tikhon Chaika, who turns 19-years-old in August, and
left-winger Vladislav Shilo, who turned 19-years-old in March. 
Egor Sidorov (#19) hugs Blades goalie Nolan Maier.
“They’re
all kind of working under that same let’s keep them here,” said Priestner. “Sending
them back is not likely a good outcome for them.”
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------
If you like what you
see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like
this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the
DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for
stopping in.
