On the ice at Invisalign Arena Saturday morning was a sea of number 37 jerseys. Somewhere among the kids skating could be the next Andrei Svechnikov, if you looked hard enough you might just see the man himself.
“I remember myself, I tried to skate with some professional guys, that was the best memories as a kid,” Svechnikov said. “I tried to make those memories for the kids.”
The Hurricanes forward back in North Carolina after a month and a half in his home country of Russia. Svechnikov is here training and getting ready for the season and made time to make a surprise appearance at the Canes First Goal program.
“When I was a kid we had a small town, but we had a few famous guys from my city and in the summer time we always had a camp,” Svechnikov said. “That was the best memories you can imagine.”
Svechnikov is a sponsor of First Goal, which is run in partnership with the NHL, the NHLPA and teams around the league. The initiative provides first-time participants (boys and girls) aged 5-10 with hockey equipment and the opportunity to enjoy instructional hockey sessions. The mission is to reduce the cost to get kids into hockey and grow the game.
“All the kids on the ice are wearing number 37 on the ice for a reason,” Shane Willis said. “They are looking at him as their hero to one day put on a Hurricanes jersey and be just like him.”
Willis is a former Hurricanes forward. He currently does analysis for the Canes broadcasts and is also the teams Director of Youth Hockey and Community Outreach. He runs the First Goal program and has seen its impact during its 8 year run.
“We know not all of them are going to continue on, it may not be for them,” Willis said. “We’ve seen a huge boost in our numbers both on the boys side and on the female side as well.”
Elisa Hohorst’s son is one of the 600 plus kids partipating this year.
“My son has learned more in five weeks than I could have imagined,” Hohorst said. “The coaches are so encouraging of the players and he’s just having a lot of fun.”
After the morning session ended, Svechnikov took time to take pictures with kids who skated. He’s busy coaching them up now, but soon he’ll be in training camp with a new and improved Hurricanes roster. Carolina signed forward Nikolaj Ehlers and traded for defenseman K’Andre Miller this summer.
“We got a lot better this offseason and you know obviously we have to get together build the chemistry,” Svechnikov said. “Excited to have them and see how it’s going to work for us.”