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Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Der-Arguchintsev, Amirov, Marner & More – The Hockey Writers

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In this edition of Toronto Maple Leafs News & Rumors, I’ll look at two Maple Leafs’ prospects who have recently come from the KHL. One is Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, who’s recuperating from a bone bruise, and the other is Rodion Amirov, who will be playing for Team Russia during the upcoming World Junior Championships in Edmonton starting on Christmas Day.

Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Timashov, Gauthier & Future Possibilities

Finally, I’ll look at what Mitch Marner has to say about two of his new teammates – Joe Thornton and Wayne Simmonds.

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Item One: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev Injured His Knee in KHL Game

Yesterday, Joshua Kloke of The Athletic reported that Maple Leafs prospect Semyon Der-Arguchintsev had suffered a knee injury (a bone bruise) during a KHL game on November 29 that put him out for four weeks. (from Maple Leafs Prospect Report: World juniors, injury updates, rising stock, more, Joshua Kloke, The Athletic, 15/12/20).

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Peterborough Petes, SDA, OHL
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev with the Peterborough Petes (CHL Images)

Der-Arguchintsev was the Maple Leafs third-round pick during the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and is perhaps as well-known by Maple Leafs fans for playing with budding star Nick Robertson as for his own skill. Der-Arguchintsev (who’s known for short as SDA) scored 12 goals and 63 assists (for 75 points) as Robertson’s teammate with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL last season.

At the end of October this year, Der-Arguchintsev was loaned to Torpedo of the KHL. During the 10 games he played there before his injury, he’s scored a goal and five points.

Der-Arguchintsev reported that, “At the end of the day I was still happy with my team here and I was happy to play some hockey. My coaches put me on the ice a lot in situations where I could be successful. During the games, I tried to shoot the puck more and tried to get into the middle of the ice (more) than I did in the OHL.”

Related: Maple Leafs’ Forgotten Ones: Jyrki Lumme

Assuming there’ll be AHL play this season, that’s Der-Arguchintsev’s likely destination.

Item Two: Rodion Amirov Is Causing Buzz with Maple Leafs Brass

The World Junior Championships are scheduled to begin on Christmas Day in Edmonton, and one of the gifts Maple Leafs brass can’t wait to open is watching their first-round draft pick Rodion Amirov play for Team Russia. Amirov was Toronto’s 15th overall at the October NHL Entry Draft.

Amirov has already shown he can play on the international stage. At the Karjala Cup in early November, which is a tournament usually played by European men’s professional teams, the Russians played their junior team against professionals from Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Not only did the Russian Juniors win all three games, but Amirov led all goal scorers with three in those three games.

Rodion Amirov Team Russia
Rodion Amirov of Team Russia (Vincent Ethier/LHJMQ)

Although Amirov has only scored five goals and totaled eight points in 23 KHL games this season, Toronto’s director of amateur scouting John Lilley doesn’t seem concerned. 

Lilley noted, “The KHL is a difficult league to play in as a young guy. It’s low-scoring, and I think he has done well. It makes him better because he has to be aware of his surroundings on the ice and rely on his sense and speed and skill because he is playing against men. When you get isolated in a one-on-one with a 28-year-old ex-NHL player and you’re growing, and you’re young … he has done a good job of finding ways to have success despite still getting stronger.”

Related: Six Add Scoring Depth, Leadership with Signing of Fluke

Although no one’s certain when Amirov might join the Maple Leafs in the future, there is a buzz within the organization about that possibility. (from “Lilley, Leafs scouting staff ready for live look-in during world junior tournament,” Terry Koshan, Toronto Sun, 14/12/20).

Item Three: Mitch Marner Looking Forward to Playing with Thornton and Simmonds

Yesterday, Mitch Marner was a guest of the Tim & Sid Show on Sportsnet. During the show, Tim and Sid asked Marner about his thoughts about the newcomers on the Maple Leafs’ team. He was especially excited about playing with the new guys and had specific thoughts about Joe Thornton and Wayne Simmonds.

When Patrick Marleau was a teammate of Marner and Auston Matthews, it was widely known that he took the two then very-young Maple Leafs stars under his wing. In fact, he sort of adopted them. They spent holidays with the Marleau family and obviously talked hockey – lots and lots of hockey.

In fact, Marleau was so appreciated by the duo that, during the NHL All Star Game in San Jose in 2019, Matthews paid tribute to Marleau during the skills competition by removing his own jersey to show a Marleau jersey underneath it.

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The threesome built a great relationship when Marleau was in Toronto. During the interview, Marner was asked if he called “uncle Patty Marleau” to ask for “the lowdown on Joe Thornton.” Marner hadn’t reached out to Marleau since Thornton was signed; however, he noted that Marleau had spoken lots about Thornton from the time the two played together with the San Jose Sharks.

Just after Thornton signed with the Maple Leafs, Marleau tweeted this message:

From Marleau, Marner learned that Thornton liked to keep things “light” and have a great time. But Marleau had also shared that Thornton was competitive on the ice and played hard to win. When Marner heard Thornton had signed, he texted him to say how excited the team was to have him.

Marner had played with Wayne Simmonds for Canada at the 2017 world championships. He believed both Simmonds and Zach Bogosian would be great on-ice examples for the group.

Marner noted that they were “Guys that every single night come to play. They can do a lot of different things, throwing the body, fighting if need be, but at the same time having the ability to make skillful plays.”

Marner spoke with Simmonds after the power forward had signed and knew he was excited to be with the team. Marner believed Simmonds “wants to prove to everyone that he’s still the player he was.”

Toronto Maple Leafs Mitch Marner Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews
Toronto Maple Leafs Mitch Marner and Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

Marner has been practicing with Simmonds and reports that he looks “like a beast out there.” Specifically, Marner noted that when Simmonds was working down low and has the puck, it’s hard to get it off him. He’s a “big, big man” who can control the puck around the net and seldom misses from close-in. Simmonds has impressed him already.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

With the World Juniors coming, the decision made to keep Robertson at the Maple Leafs training camp is interesting. It would be a bit interesting for me to know who made that decision.

Related: Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2020-21 Roster: Who’s Staying, Going & Coming?

There’s no doubt that Robertson is absolutely all in with his attempt to make the Maple Leafs roster. It might be that the Maple Leafs are committed to having him on that roster; or, on the other hand, it might have been totally Robertson’s decision not to play for Team USA in Edmonton, and the organization shouldered the decision to deflect any bad feelings by Team USA away from its young prospect.

Whatever the reason, it will be interesting to see Robertson’s final landing spot this season. I, for one, would love to see him in a Maple Leafs uniform.

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Here’s what we know about the allegations against Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara

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LOS ANGELES –

Only a week has passed since the Los Angeles Dodgers abruptly fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter and constant companion of their new $700 million slugger, Shohei Ohtani.

But the biggest story of baseball’s spring is still murky — and shocking — as the regular season begins in earnest Thursday.

The scandal encompasses gambling, alleged theft, extensive deceit and the breakup of an enduring partnership between the majors’ biggest star and his right-hand man. Investigations are underway by the IRS and Major League Baseball, and Ohtani publicly laid out a version of events Monday that placed the responsibility entirely on Mizuhara.

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Here are the basics as Ohtani and the Dodgers prepare for their home opener against St. Louis on Thursday:

Why was Ippei Mizuhara fired by the Dodgers?

Ohtani claims his close friend repeatedly took money from his accounts to fund his illegal sports gambling habit. Ohtani also says he was completely unaware of the “massive theft,” as his lawyers termed it, until Mizuhara confessed to him and the Dodgers last week in South Korea, where the team opened its regular season against the San Diego Padres.

Mizuhara has given more than one version of his path to this trouble, which was catalyzed by the IRS’ investigation of Mathew Bowyer, an alleged illegal bookmaker. Mizuhara has consistently said he has a gambling addiction, and he abused his close friendship with the Dodgers superstar to feed it.

Did Shohei Ohtani ever bet on sports?

That’s the biggest question to be answered in Major League Baseball’s investigation, and the two-time AL MVP emphatically says he has never gambled on sports or asked anybody to bet on sports for him.

Further, Ohtani said Monday he has never knowingly paid a bookie to cover somebody else’s bets. Mizuhara also said Ohtani does not bet, and Bowyer’s attorney said the same.

Mizuhara told ESPN on March 19 that Ohtani paid his gambling debts at the interpreter’s request, saying the bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. If that were true, Ohtani could face trouble even if he didn’t make the bets himself — but ESPN said Mizuhara dramatically changed his story the following day, claiming Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.

MLB rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball. They also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.

What’s next for Ohtani?

Ohtani has played in every Dodgers game since the story broke, and he is expected to be their designated hitter in most regular-season games this season while baseball’s investigation continues.

Ohtani says his legal team has alerted authorities to the theft by Mizuhara, although his team has repeatedly declined to say which authorities have been told, according to ESPN.

Ohtani’s new interpreter is Will Ireton, a longtime Dodgers employee and fluent Japanese speaker who has filled several jobs with the team in everything from game preparation and analytics to recruiting free-agent pitches. But Ireton won’t be Ohtani’s constant companion, and manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday he’s optimistic that Ohtani will become closer to his teammates without the “buffer” provided for years by Mizuhara.

What don’t we know?

MLB’s investigation of Ohtani’s role in the events could last weeks or months, and it’s unlikely to be publicized until it’s complete. No one outside of Ohtani’s inner circle knows what it will find or how serious any repercussions could be, and nobody outside the circle is making informed speculation about the process.

One major question looms: How did Mizuhara have enough access to Ohtani’s bank accounts to get the alleged millions without Ohtani knowing? Is the slugger overly trusting, or is he wildly negligent in managing his vast fortune, which includes years of lavish endorsement deals in addition to his baseball salaries? Why didn’t the team around him, including his agent, do more to prevent the possibility of the theft he claims?

Finally, where is Mizuhara? Anybody who knows isn’t saying. He was fired in South Korea and apparently didn’t travel home with the Dodgers. Japanese media have visited his home in Southern California to look for him. Although he was born in Japan, Mizuhara’s life is in the U.S. — but his life will never be the same.

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NHL analyst gets absolutely roasted for ‘insanely rich’ take on Zach Hyman

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They say everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when you’re a member of the media and you share a truly awful take, you’re going to get called out for it.

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That’s what happened when NHL analyst/podcast host Andrew Berkshire decided to post a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) mainly attributing Zach Hyman’s success to the fact that he grew up “insanely rich.”

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The post came on the heels of the Oilers winger reaching the 50-goal milestone for the season and was rightly ripped apart by several notable colleagues, former players and fans in general.

In the video, which has been viewed more than 5.4 million times as of Wednesday morning, begins by stating that he has been in the sports media industry professionally since 2012 and that the industry “has to do a better job of telling truthful stories,” before discounting Hyman’s accomplishment.

“The story that’s being sold right now … is that, you know, if you work hard, if you stick to it, you can get there too, 31-year-old guy finally hits the 50-goal mark, harder worker, all that,” Berkshire said.

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“Yeah, great, except you’re missing the part of the story where Zach Hyman grew up insanely rich.”

Berkshire, who works as an analyst and host with the Steve Dangle Podcast Network, then details how Hyman’s parents bought a league to “guarantee him playing time,” and that he did “exclusive training that only a rich person … could afford.”

“This is a person that has had every single possible advantage to get where they are today,” Berkshire continued, before also bringing up the fact that Hyman has been fortunate enough to play on teams and lines with Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid most of his career.

While Berkshire does state that Hyman is a hard worker and brings grit when he plays, he also discounts it almost immediately.

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“Working hard, everybody works hard. You think every NHLer didn’t get there by working hard?” he asks. “Let’s not build this stupid narrative of ‘work hard, you’ll succeed.’ It’s just not true.

“There are people who’ve worked as hard as Zach Hyman their entire lives and never got a sniff of the American Hockey League, let alone the NHL because they didn’t have the advantages he had.”

Former Leafs defenceman turned NHL analyst Carlo Colaiacovo thought the whole take was ridiculous, posting the following: “Let me tell you something Andrew. You can’t buy your way to the NHL. You definitely can’t buy your way to having the career Hyman has had which includes scoring 50. Pretty ridiculous thing to say.”

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Retired NHLer Bobby Ryan was one of the first to weigh in, calling the opinion “purely false.”

“As someone who has maybe lived on both ends of the ‘financial edge’ I can say this is just purely false. Who cares, he accomplished a feat not many do and to downplay the way it’s reported is just wrong. You show up, do the work, good things happen,” Ryan posted on X.

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Jonathan Goodman, who claims he was Hyman’s personal trainer and tasked with getting the budding pro ready for the combine, had a glowing review of his former pupil’s work ethic.

“Yes, he had advantages. His family was wealthy and father obsessed with his success,” he said. “But the dude worked hard. Harder than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

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But, perhaps another former NHLer, Jason Strudwick said it best, replying to the video by asking: “Did Hyman not sign an autograph for you one time?”

 

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