ALEXANDER BARABANOV OPENS UP ABOUT HIS BRIEF STINT WITH THE MAPLE LEAFS
Alexander Barabanov’s stay in the NHL came to an end this summer as he opted to return to the KHL by signing a two-year deal with AK Bars Kazan.
He spent the majority of his four-year stint in the NHL with the San Jose Sharks, but his journey began with the Maple Leafs during the 2021 COVID-shortened campaign. Barabanov originally signed a one-year deal right at the height of the pandemic and ended up playing in 13 games with the Leafs where he registered an assist in that span.
Barabanov’s brief stint with the Blue-and-White ended a little over a year after he signed that deal when he was shipped off to the Sharks in exchange for Antti Suomela. While he was never an offensive dynamo, Barabanov was able to be much more productive in San Jose with 105 points in 193 career games played.
Perhaps that could have happened in Toronto had things gone differently. He opened up to RG.org’s Sergey Demidov, where Barabanov explained why he felt things with the Leafs did not pan out as planned.
“It’s tough to break into the Toronto roster,” Barabanov said via RG’s translation. “During negotiations, they can tell you that you’re going to play one position, and then, like in my case, it turns out not to be the case. I played five minutes in the first game, and in the second, four minutes. After that, I called [agent] Dan [Milstein] and asked what I was doing wrong. But the team had a great scout, Jim [Roque], who communicated with me helpfully and told me that I needed to play at least 20 games to understand what kind of league this was. But then they traded me to San Jose, where I played 18 minutes a game. And I realized that you can easily play that much time.”
He isn’t wrong in his assessment about his playing time, as there were only four games where he got more than 10 minutes of ice time. Barabanov’s ATOI (average time on ice) of 8:37 was the third lowest among Leafs players in 2021, ahead of only Scott Sabourin and Kenny Agostino, both of whom appeared in a single game with the team that year.
“I’ve been offered to play in the fourth line, but I want to avoid repeating the same mistake,” he said. “I went through this in Toronto, and I understand what it is. So there was no point in it. It’s better to play in the KHL.”
Barabanov is fresh off a tough season with the Sharks where he struggled with injuries, COVID-19, and frequent healthy scratches that resulted in him finishing with only 13 points (four goals and nine assists) in 46 games played. While the idea of a return to Toronto was contemplated given he was on the trade block, the reunion never materialized and it resulted in him finishing out the year in San Jose while not getting an extension offer.
Although he feels that he has closed the door on his NHL career despite feeling his playstyle is a good fit for the league, Barabanov has no regrets about spending four years of his playing days in North America.
“It was a cool experience,” Barabanov said. “Of course, there was a feeling of incompleteness because I really wanted to play in the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. But overall, I enjoyed it. They let me play a lot, especially in San Jose.”
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2024-08-29T16:56:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd