![]() He made quick friends with the family’s two children, Casey (who was a year older than him) and Raine (who was a year younger). He likes me to say that his was the best of all the Russians we’ve had (since),” Rayleen says. “He was chatty right off the bat which, coming from another country, was interesting to me. On his first car ride to the Eberl home, he was already cracking jokes with Rayleen. In the days that followed, Popugaev fit in - away from home for the first time - with uncharacteristic ease for an import player, endearing himself to his teammates and his billets, John and Rayleen Eberl. The first thing he told us was that he just loved to play and loved to score goals.” “He was a big personality,” O’Leary says, laughing. That was true of his size, at 6-foot-6 and already more than 200 pounds. On his first day in Moose Jaw in the fall of 2015, the first thing O’Leary and his staff noticed was just how big the 16-year-old’s presence was. “We knew when we picked him that he may never come over, but that if he did we’d be happy because he was such a big talent,” says Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary, who was then the team’s assistant coach. In the spring of 2015, the Moose Jaw Warriors drafted Popugaev in the first round of the CHL Import Draft. ![]() He was destined for big things and in the fall of 2014, at the age of 15, scored three goals in six games for Russia on the way to gold at the under-17 world championships, where he was his team’s youngest player. He was a star prospect developed by Russian giant CSKA in Moscow, the son of Andrei Popugaev, a longtime professional hockey player in Russia who represented the country at the world juniors and the Spengler Cup. “I think it all starts from when I got traded from Moose Jaw to Prince George,” he says.įrom age 5 to 17, hockey was Popugaev’s world and future. To understand it all, and him, he says you have to go back nearly five years. “Popi … what a kid,” wrote one of them in an email.Įveryone’s got a story about Popi, a “larger than life” kid who has long been followed by a cloud of mystery and curiosity.Ī day after his announcement, while he started over and others continued talking about him, Popugaev, on a phone call from Russia with The Athletic, tried to map out why he’d made the change, how his career in hockey unraveled, and what comes next. A post shared by Nikita Popugaev minutes, news of his decision began to spread, first to Twitter as Devils fans picked up on it, and then to blogs and news outlets.Īcross the hockey world, as those who’ve worked with him, coached him, or even housed him at various levels caught wind of his decision through messages from colleagues or scrolls through social media, they responded with mixtures of chuckles, head shakes and shared memories of an unforgettable person.
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