Pavel Datsyuk: from ugly duckling to swan

KHL.ru’s series telling the stories behind the legends of the league continues with Pavel Datsyuk. At the start of his career, he was largely overlooked, but he finished as a Triple Gold Club member.

From a torn jersey to a World Championship

At the start of his career, young Pavel Datsyuk ran into many challenges. At the age of 15 he was left without his mother. In late 1993, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Pavel returned from a tournament on Jan. 23, and his mother died the next day. At the time, Datsyuk gave up on hockey. But only for a couple of weeks. They say he was frightened to disappoint his father, who was distraught over the loss of his wife. Datsyuk senior slumped into depression and lost his job.

The Datsyuk’s lived in a modest apartment in Yekaterinburg. Every day, Pavel caught tram #13 to practice, which is why he later chose to play as #13. After his mother’s death, there was almost no money. Coach Valery Goloukhov helped out. He got Pavel into the Olympic Reserve School, where he would at least get four meals a day.

In 1996, coach Vladimir Krikunov returned to Russia from Slovenia. This became a turning point in Datsyuk’s career. Krikunov took the job at Spartak Yekaterinburg and brought a group of young prospects to play for the first team. Soon they were in leading roles: Datsyuk, Denis Sokolov, Alexei Bulatov, Maxim Krayev, Alexei Simakov and others.

Krikunov recalled how Datsyuk showed up for his first practice in a ripped jersey. “The first time I saw the guy, I was amazed. Datsyuk really didn’t look like an athlete. there was something awkward about him, clumsy even, he seemed to walk like a pelican,” the coach said. Other coaches had similar first impressions of Datsyuk.

Datsyuk had no contact with the Team Russia program, neither at u18 nor u20 level. As a result, he never came to the attention of NHL scouts. So he wasn't drafted until 1998, and that at #171.

A few months before that draft the Yekaterinburg club, now known as Dynamo-Energiya, was relegated from the top league. But it made an immediate return to the Superleague the following spring. The regular season was pretty average, with Dynamo-Energiya scraping into the sixth and last playoff spot. But in post season, competing with the six weakest top division clubs for one of four tickets to the big league, Yekaterinburg produced a sensation and took top spot ahead of CKA, CSKA, Spartak, Krylya Sovietov, Torpedo, Khimik, Sibir and Traktor. With 27 (11+16) points in 22 games, Datsyuk was the top scorer in post season.

In pre-season, Krikunov moved to Ak Bars. In conversation with Alexander Yakushev, he advised the head coach of the national team to invite Datsyuk to camp ahead of the Karjala Cup, saying that he didn’t have a player as good in Kazan. At first, not many knew what this player was doing on the national team. Krikunov said that Yakushev was astonished by a rising hockey star who had been completely missed by the national program’s scouts. But within a couple of sessions, there were plenty of wingers clamoring to play with Datsyuk and the legendary Yak-15 recognized the center’s talent.

303 games 233 (71+162) points
2002 Bronze medal
2018 Olympic gold
2002, 2008 Stanley Cup winner
2005, 2017 Russian champion
2005 MVP Russian Superleague playoff
Oldest goalscorer in a Gagarin Cup game (42 years, 233 days)
2005, 2016, 2010 Bronze, silver and gold medallist at the World Championship
2013, 2017 KHL All-Star
2017 Gagarin Cup winner
2018 Triple Gold Club member
2018, 2021 Winner of the Sergei Gimayev award for loyalty to hockey
May 20, 2012 Won the World Championship with Team Russia, scoring a goal in the final
April 8, 2005 Won the Russian championship with Dynamo Moscow

However, this was not the end of Datsyuk’s travails. In Dec. 1999 he damaged his knee ligaments. Instead of playing at the Baltika Cup in Moscow, he found himself on the operating table. After surgery, nobody advised the player how to recover. As a youngster, he had no idea how to do this himself. As a result, his leg barely straightened and it looked like Datsyuk might have to quit. At one time, they say, he could only walk with the help of a stick. Once again, Krikunov came to the rescue. He persuaded the Ak Bars management to pay $100,000 for Datsyuk and put two trained and experienced massage therapists to work on his injured leg.  He underwent rehabilitation, spent time on the Dead Sea coast in Israel. Six months later, Datsyuk was back in the game.

The following season, at last, the whole world saw Datsyuk’s true hockey level. He played on Ak Bars’ first line with Dmitry Kvartalnov and Sergei Zolotov. The same combination also played for Team Russia at the Euro Hockey Tour. In spring, Datsyuk was called up for his first World Championship. In that tournament, Russia reached the quarterfinals before losing to Sweden in overtime. In the summer, Datsyuk accepted an offer from Detroit.

A Redwings legend

We’ve already talked about Krikunov’s first impressions of Datsyuk. Detroit GM Ken Holland had a similar reaction. It’s said that when Holland first saw Pavel, who couldn’t speak English at the time, he had no idea who this was – and even wanted to call security to remove the player from the arena.

At the time, Detroit could claim to have the most stellar roster in NHL history. It was almost impossible to break into that team. But the next person to be seduced by Datsyuk’s skills was the legendary Scottie Bowman. In his final season in the NHL, the eight-time Stanley Cup winner decided not to send him to the taxi squad even though he already had an offense widely regarded as the finest in the world: Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille, Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov, Chris Draper and Darren McCarthy, Chris Maltby and Thomas Holmstrom.

In this company, Datsyuk did more than hold his own. He played on Hull’s line, on the direct request of the veteran forward. Pavel regularly supplied his star colleagues with great passes. Hull finished with 40 goals and Datsyuk won the Stanley Cup in his NHL rookie season. Right away, journalists, pundits and fans fell back on the metaphor of the ugly duckling turning into a swan. Soon, Datsyuk got his enduring nickname – the Magic Man.

Jan. 13, 2013 First KHL All-Star appearance
Sep. 21, 2012 Joins CSKA during the NHL lockout
April 6, 2017 Gagarin Cup winner
July 8, 2016 Returns permanently to Russia, signs with SKA
Feb. 25, 2018 Wins at the Olympics and joins the Triple Gold Club
May 23, 2018 Wins his first Sergei Gimayev prize for Loyalty to Hockey
June 5, 2019 Signs contract with Avtomobilist
March 10, 2021 Scores on Avangard in a playoff game, becomes the oldest goalscorer in a Gagarin Cup game (aged 42 years, 233 days)

Datsyuk spent 14 seasons with Detroit and became a club legend. He won another Stanley Cup in 2008 and returned to the final in 2009. Pavel’s last season with the Red Wings was in 2015-2016, helping the team make the playoffs for a 25th successive time. Since then, Detroit has not made one playoff.

Datsyuk wanted to return to Russia back in 2015. That summer, Pavel underwent a complex operation to rebuild a virtually destroyed ankle using someone else’s ligament tissue. But the club’s management persuaded him to remain in Detroit for another season. In 2016, Datsyuk had a further year remaining on his Red Wings contract. Holland once again urged the player to stay in the NHL but this time Datsyuk was determined to go home.

Homecoming

Datsyuk never cut his ties with Russia. Even before 2016, he played in his homeland during NHL lockouts. In 2005, he helped Dynamo win the championship under the coaching of his old mentor Krikunov. In 2013, he played in the KHL All-Star Game, giving two assists. He also put on masterclasses in Yekaterinburg and linked up with the national team. In the Olympics alone, he played five times. His first attempt brought bronze in Salt Lake City. And in his final Games in 2018, he won gold. Datsyuk played at seven world championships, and won medals of all colors: gold, silver and two bronze. In Sochi and PyeongChang, and at the Worlds in 2016 and 2018, he captained Team Russia.

In 2016, Datsyuk singed a contract with SKA.

“Of course it wasn’t an easy decision. I gave many years to Detroit. But I’m returning with a light heart because I’m coming home, to my motherland. Thanks to this I have many positive emotions.”

Pavel Datsyuk

As with the Stanley Cup, Pavel won the league’s biggest prize in his first year. In the playoffs, SKA lost just two games. Unfortunately, Datsyuk suffered a serious injury during the playoffs and missed the closing stages. However, his role in the locker room was just as significant as his contribution on the ice throughout the season.

Datsyuk spent another two seasons with SKA before fulfilling a widely-held dream and ending his career where it began, in his native Yekaterinburg. He spent two seasons with Avtomobilist. In 2021, Datsyuk was awarded the Sergei Gimayev prize for Loyalty to Hockey for the second time. After the closing ceremony, he said that he had not made a final decision about his future. Pavel spent a long time thinking over his next move: at first, a decision was expected for the start of the season, then in the fall, then before the trade deadline. It wasn’t until the following summer that Datsyuk finally confirmed he was hanging them up.

Datsyuk remains close to his beloved hockey and his hometown team.

“Pavel Valerovich is our curator. He has his own youth development section within the club system. He gets to every game, comes to practice with us, he helps and advises. I would like to express my personal gratitude to Pavel and his assistant Alexei Bulatov.”

Alexei Simakov, Datsyuk’s former team-mate and later head coach of Avto’s juniors

Datsyuk doesn’t only get on the ice in practice. He continues to play in exhibition games, still delighting fans with his skills. He featured in Danis Zaripov’s farewell game, for example. And, rolling back the years, he was on the scoresheet once again.

Factfile

Pavel Datsyuk

Born July 20 1978 in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg)

Career: 1996-2000 – Spartak / Dynamo-Energiya (Yekaterinburg), 2000-2001 – Ak Bars, 2001-2016 – Detroit (NHL), 2004-2005 – Dynamo Moscow, 2012-2013 – CSKA, 2016-2019 – SKA, 2019-2021 – Avtomobilist.

Honors: Gold (2018) and bronze (2002) medallist at the Olympics, World Championship gold (2012), silver (2010) and bronze (2005, 2016) medallist, Gagarin Cup winner (2017), Russian champion (2005, 2017), Stanley Cup winner (2002, 2008).