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(Co-authored by Marina Garcez)
Over the past month, hockey twitter had its attention caught by someone whose attitudes and personality seemed odd for the average hockey player. Well, Igor Larionov II is not your average hockey player. Fans might be familiar with the name; the young player is the son of one of the greatest legends of the sport, three-time Stanley Cup winner and multiple world champion Igor Larionov.
However, at 22, Igor Larionov II is taking the first steps of his professional career while also conquering a legion of supporters and fans on social media, embracing a community and echoing voices that we often don’t see represented in hockey.
NHeLas talked to him about his path in hockey, his social media presence and much more. You can also watch him answering Twitter questions on our channel and taking one of our personality quizzes here.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Part 2 | Part 3
Why don’t we start with your career? Tell us about your life in hockey, growing up and up until now.
I was born in 1998, in Detroit, Michigan. My father was a hockey player, so I was always around the hockey rink and meeting a lot of cool people that play hockey and are in the industry. From the ages of three or four, I was always running around with a little hockey stick at home. Most kids play with toy cars or Legos, and I always had a hockey stick and a ball or a little puck with me. So that’s basically how I got started playing. Growing up, I played youth hockey in Detroit for a bit and then my family moved to California when my dad retired, and I spent two years playing youth hockey in California. And then after that, it’s very difficult to find a lot of ice here and a lot of, you know, opportunity to practice, so we moved back to Michigan where there were 15 rinks within 10 miles of my house. That makes it a lot easier to just get on the ice and practice and work hard and all those good things.
I played youth hockey in Michigan for the next six years, after that I went to Major Junior, I played in the QMJHL the first season, which was a good experience but after that one year, I got an offer from Windsor, which was literally a 30-minute drive from my house in Michigan. So that was the perfect opportunity because not often do you get to live at home and then play hockey so I took that offer up, I had a great year, I played very well and then the following season I had the opportunity to go to Muskegon. Because Windsor, we were sort of rebuilding, but it was my last year in Muskegon. We were, like, going for the title, we had a very strong team. So I went over to Muskegon and had a great year, a lot of good memories. One of the last games of the season though, sadly, I broke my collarbone. So my season was done. We ended up losing in the conference finals of the playoffs, which, you know, was a bummer not being able to help the team or play but it was a good experience playing in Muskegon. I still talk to a lot of the guys, a lot of the players are some of my closest friends now.
Following that, I decided to go to Russia, I started with SKA in the KHL, I was in their camp, I was just told I had made the team, great news, they called me up for the olympic national team, which is basically the second national team. There’s the main national team in Russia, and then there’s the olympic team, which is sort of the young guys, they’re grooming you for future tournaments, future events. So I got called up to that and two days before I was supposed to head out to the olympic team and to sign my full contract for the season with SKA, I ended up tearing my glute on the last day of training camp. With that I pretty much missed the entire season. When I recovered, I was only able to play two games, and that was only so they could register me. I basically dressed but I didn’t go on the ice, and that was just so I would be able to be under contract at that time. Because they were hoping that in two months, I’d be ready to play. But obviously, two months later, the world was shut down because of COVID. And I ended up not playing at all that season pretty much.
So when that happened, I came back to Michigan where I was living at the time, I did a lot of training, a lot of rehab, and I had some opportunities to play in the AHL last season, but nothing was starting. So I started thinking to myself “I can’t take two full years off,” that just wouldn’t be good for my development. And I got a call from the Kunlun (Red Star) GM saying they were looking for players from North America that had Russian roots, which basically meant someone that has a Russian passport because they needed to dress a certain amount of Russians for every game. And I honestly said “Yeah, sounds good, when do you want me to come over?” And he said “how about in a couple of days?” So in a couple days, I was on a flight to Moscow, I went from Detroit to Chicago, Chicago to London, London to Moscow. And then three or four days later, I was playing my first game. I only signed a three game tryout deal because we didn’t have enough money to sign people to guaranteed contracts this year, because of the budget cuts due to COVID. After three games, I had two points and they ended up signing me for the rest of the year. I played two more games shortly after that, and then I got COVID. I ended up missing almost three weeks with that. It wasn’t too bad of an illness, it was pretty light for me. But when I got back, I had some problems with my heart and after trying to recover, they basically shut me down for the rest of the season.
Thankfully, I was able to go back to the States and get some proper medical treatment. They basically told me “take two months off, don’t do anything at all, don’t strain your heart,” and I had to wear a couple heart monitors for a couple of weeks just for them to monitor all of that. Once those two months went over, they said “it’s gonna hit you like a switch. All of a sudden you’ll get your energy back and start feeling good again, you’ll be able to train,” and it would literally happen how they said it would happen. For two months, I was, you know, very fatigued, very tired, couldn’t really do anything without my heart rate going up. And then as soon as those two months are over, boom, I felt great. Now, I’ve been training for almost a month and a half. And I honestly feel as good as I’ve ever felt. I’m just just getting ready for next season at this point.
In your opinion, what are the main differences between playing hockey in North America versus playing in Russia?
There’s quite a bit of difference between these two countries, both culturally and in terms of the style of play. I would say that in North America, it’s more of a structured system where you know your job and everyone’s got their own role. But in Russia, it was more of a free for all, where guys would sort of decide what they’re doing. And that’s not always the best, I think the best is when you can mix the best of those two systems where people have the freedom to create, but there’s also a structure and a system in place where if you make a mistake, you know that your teammate will be there to cover you up, because they’re following the same idea as you are. It was very interesting to play (in Russia). They pretty much had fans everywhere you played, which is very weird for this time in the world. It was a different experience, the cities, they’re not like typical pro hockey cities that you’d play in North America. Here, it’s usually the top cities in America, you stay at nice hotels. There, there are a couple of nice cities but then once you get to some of the lower rank teams, the cities aren’t really too nice, they only have one restaurant, that would be a Burger King or something, and the hotel, it was the place of nightmares (laughs) there’s, like, blood on the walls and mold in the shower, that kind of thing.
It was very unique but at the end of day, it was a lot of fun, because I feel like my teammates… We were a lot of North American guys and it’s almost that thing where it’s so different for a lot of us where most of the time we’re just laughing at what’s going on. Our team plane was very, very weird. Every single flight there’d be a moment where you just felt the plane slowly going down, and at first it would get kind of quiet on the plane. And then everyone started looking around, take off their headphones, and then one of my teammates would always start yelling “well, boys, this is how we go.” And the entire team would start laughing. Moments like that, which looking back, it was terrifying how we would just feel the plane dropping then always get back to normal. But just weird little things like that, where we would always just be making fun of the bad things. And that made it more fun. And that made it a cooler experience for all of us.
How did the KHL protocols compare to the NHL ones at that moment?
I believe in the NHL, they’re getting tested every single day. What we had was we were getting tested every three days. Another big thing is in the NHL, if there’s a few people that are sick, they pretty much shut down the entire team and nobody plays until everyone’s recovered, everyone’s back. But for us, it was totally different. It was if you’re sick, you just go home, the entire team continues. So we had a moment before I even got to the team where I think we had, like, 17 guys sick at once. And then when I got there, when I got sick, we had six guys sick at once. So it was a bit of a mess in terms of that because they didn’t really know how to handle it too well compared to how they do it here. Our equipment manager got sick, and instead of him staying home, he came to the rink to sharpen our skates. And then five of us got sick. So it was kind of weird in terms of that. But, you know, it’s a different culture, they do things differently there. So I can’t really blame them for how the country is run, because that’s just how they do things. But I definitely think they could have, you know, taken a more cautious approach. Because at the end of the day, we had, I think, 95% of the league got sick. And I know a lot of players that had similar problems to me where they couldn’t finish the season because they had something wrong. Some guys were even in the hospital with the respirators. So it was a scary situation for a lot of us but going in, they pretty much told us that you will 100% get sick at a certain point. So we all knew the risks going into it.
I feel like in North America you’d get sued on the spot just for saying that.
You would. It’s funny, when they first talked to me, they said, “have you had COVID yet?” And I said “No,” and I was thinking that was a good thing. And they were like, “damn, it’s better if you already had it, because that means you won’t get it.” And I’m like, “Oh…” (laughs) They said “within the first two weeks, you’ll probably get it.” I was able to last closer to a month and a half before I got it, which I don’t know how, I was very, very lucky. But pretty much everyone who came over got it unless people already had it in the summer.
Going into the future, what are your plans and expectations for the next season? And what’s your offseason routine like, what do you usually do?
My expectations for next season are I want to stay in North America and I have some opportunities here to go to some camps or just straight out sign an AHL deal. I know a lot of guys that are playing the KHL that came over and are in the NHL now that had similar points to me and less games. So for me, I look at that and I say “if they got less points than me, and they’re playing in the NHL, I mean, I could do the same thing.” And I truly believe if I never had my history of injury issues that I would be there right now. But, you know, you can’t control those things. Obviously, it’s tough at times, but I’m grateful for how everything transpired in my life so far. But yeah, I have some opportunities. And I really think that once I get the chance to showcase myself, everything will be fine.
My routine, basically what I do is I train in the gym. Usually right now it’s three times a week. And then, when it gets closer to the season, sort of like June-ish, I’ll start going four times a week, July, four times a week, August, four times a week. And then, end of July, I’ll start getting on the ice twice a week and just continue to do that, because I don’t really like to skate too much in the offseason. I feel like I burn out a little bit when I skate too much. And I prefer to just work on building my muscular physique, building my endurance, all those different things, because I feel like when you have that all set up, and you get on the ice, it honestly takes me three weeks before the season starts, I’ll start ramping it up and skating four or five times a week and that’s all it takes for me to be ready, physically, but also at the same time, I’m fresh enough where I wouldn’t be getting tired during training camp for all those things.
What’s the story behind you wearing #69? And how did it become kind of a personal brand? Do you think you’ll be able to wear it in the future, depending on where your career takes you?
This year, in Kunlun, we didn’t have too much money in my team in the KHL, so they had a certain amount of jerseys preset, and when they were talking about signing me, they offered me, I think, five different numbers. Three of those jerseys were too big, so I couldn’t wear them, they were almost, like, goalie size. And then the two that were my size were number 69 and I think number 52 or 53, some very boring number which, you know, I don’t really like to do boring things. So at that point, I pretty much realized that 69 was the best option plus, I had an opportunity to impress a couple people, which is always fun. (laughs) I like to do creative things, and I feel like not many people wear the number 69 because it’s looked badly upon in society. But I don’t really see anything wrong with the message that it sends.
Because at the end of the day, there’s really nothing wrong with what it is, it’s a thing that pretty much most humans do. And there’s nothing taboo about it in my mind. You know, a lot of people when they talk about sex or something, they think it’s very taboo, but in reality, I mean, that is literally, it’s in the Bible, you know, if we’re going back that far (laughs). So I see nothing wrong that and I think it’s a good message, not only to be yourself and to have fun, because a lot of people view their sport as a job and not as a game and I think you could do it as both because at the end of the day, if it’s a lot of fun, I feel like you play better and if you enjoy yourself, you play better. So it basically chose me. I didn’t really have much of an option, but when I found out that was my only option I was really excited because I’ve been wanting to do something outrageous like that for a while and it only would have happened if that was my only option. I don’t think I would have had the guts to pick 69 out of a hundred different numbers or something.
Do you have any superstitions related to your game? Anything that you like to do before every match?
No, not really. I guess I tie my left skate first, which would be the only superstition that you could probably consider even a superstition, but everything else I’m very, very chill, go with the flow. Before games, I don’t like to get too worked up on it. I like to have fun and enjoy, joke around. And when I do that, I feel like I play better because there’s absolutely no nerves for me and I go out just relaxed and confident, ready to play. But when I overthink, overstress, that’s when I get into trouble. I prefer to play based on my instincts and not what’s going on up here because I feel like a lot of people, they overthink and they start to doubt themselves. Whereas when you’re just playing based on your instincts, you play a lot better. So I get to the rink, I joke around, I play some soccer, I play some basketball, some American football, you know, just for fun. And then I do my warm up, which isn’t really a routine at all, like do the exact same warm up, step by step. I have a certain amount of exercises, but I do them in different, a different order. And that’s about it. I get on the ice, I do the same stick handling stuff. But that’s less of a superstition, I’m just used to doing the same exercises because I know they warm up my body correctly. So that’s basically how I prepare, there’s nothing too special, it’s more of just trying to enjoy every moment of it.
No special food, no special clothes?
I’m on a very strict diet, I don’t really eat too much. So usually before games, I’ll have a salad, and then I’ll have a grilled cheese sandwich with sweet potato. For clothes, I like to just have fun with that, I don’t really pay too much attention, I wear pretty much whatever I see and if I think it looks cool, I wear it. If there’s a dress code, I’m sort of flowing just beneath the dress code, where I’m sort of following but at the end of the day I’m doing it a little bit my way. And that’s how I like to do it.
There’s no self expression alive with the dress code. And that’s why I try to still follow it a little bit so I don’t get in trouble, but at the end of day I do it a little bit differently.
What career would you like to have pursued had you not been a hockey player? And do you ever think about life after hockey and what you would like to do then?
Yeah, I think about that quite a lot. Because I always tell people, when I introduce myself, I don’t say I’m a hockey player. First, I say, like, I’m a human being, and then, down the line, I’ll tell them I’m a hockey player, because I don’t want for them to think that that’s exactly who I am. I have a lot of interests, a lot of passions outside of that. So I’d love to do something behind the camera. I’ve always been a fan of film, I’ve always been a fan of television. But when I first moved out to LA, a couple of months ago, I was getting a haircut at this salon in Beverly Hills. And it was very fancy, a lot of big shots, I was sitting actually next to Kesha, the singer, which was super, super cool. But this woman comes up to me and she asked me for my information, we start talking and it turns out she was the vice president of a modeling agency in Los Angeles. So I was talking to her, she asked for my Instagram, she followed me, we connected and she wanted me to do some stuff for them and talk to them, maybe potentially sign. And I was a bit scared of that because I don’t want that to interfere with hockey, because a lot of times, when you do anything creative, and then you come back to hockey people sort of look at you differently. And I basically sent her a DM “let’s move forward,” then I unsent it because I just wasn’t feeling comfortable doing that. Obviously, that’s something I’d like to pursue, if a vice president of an agency out of nowhere comes up to me, I feel like that’s a good sign. But I honestly would love to go back to that once I’ve sort of established myself or have a contract, some sort of safety. I’d definitely love to do one of those three things, something entertaining, something in that industry, because I don’t really like when you can’t express yourself and I feel like in those industries it’s the exact perfect opportunity where you can literally be yourself and you don’t get judged for that, you get applauded for that, and that’s something that I really enjoy.
So you’d never have a desk job at an office, or something like that.
I’m not really too good at sitting at a desk all day long, or sitting in an office. I mean, maybe, if I really was passionate about something, I could try to do that, but I just don’t see that in my future. I am too outgoing. I would literally, just one day, I’d wake up and say “why am I doing this?” And then, you know, book a one-way ticket to Australia, and drive a van across the country, just film stuff, take pictures of stuff. I feel like that’s more of my vibe, and working at an office, which I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, you know, obviously a lot of people have professions, and then a lot of people make good money, a lot of people enjoy it. But for me, that’s just something that I don’t think I’d ever be able to do.
