Do you know of any players who are with the Predators?
K. Glazachev: I like how Yachmenev and Arkhipov play. I like Petrov too – he is not a big guy, but works really hard and is a team player. I saw Arkhipov playing for Russia at the World Championships in Finland and he played hard every game.
Can you compare yourself with another NHL player, who you are familiar with?
K. Glazachev: I think Pavel Datsyuk plays in a similar manner, despite the fact that he is a center and I am on the wing.
How do you like Nashville?
K. Glazachev: It is my first time in Nashville, and I liked it very much.
How many interviews have you had?
K. Glazachev: While in Nashville, I had about seven. I arrived here three days ago.
Did you talk to Nashville?
K. Glazachev: No. [Predators scout confirms that he spoke to Glazachev in Toronto – EB]
Are you surprised to be picked by the club, where the draft ceremony is taking place?
K. Glazachev: I am very surprised, but also very pleased. That is why I wasn’t sad to have been picked 34th overall.
Where did you expect to be picked?
K. Glazachev: My agent promised me that I should have been picked by the 22nd pick. However, it didn’t happen. Then I sat there for eight more selections of the first round. I was a bit nervous and then went out to get some food.
How long are you going to stay here in Nashville?
K. Glazachev: I don’t know. Right now, I was told, that I would need to attend a week-long training camp. I don’t really have anything with me [equipment wise – EB] and I was told that I would need to be back in Yaroslavl on the 24th, as the preseason starts on the 23rd, and we would already miss a day as it is.
If you will be asked to attend Nashville’s training camp this well, would you attend?
K. Glazachev: Probably not, since the regular season would have already started in the fall, and I am aiming to earn a spot in Lokomotiv’s main lineup.
So you are planning to spend just one more season with Lokomotiv?
K. Glazachev: Not just one more season, I would say, at least two more seasons. I believe to come here, you need to come and assume one of the leading roles, and not warm the bench or play with the farm team.
Nashville Scout, Alexei Dementiev’s comments:
How much did you have to do with Nashville drafting Glazachev?
A. Dementiev: It is tough to say. The job of a scout is to work in a team. We are all working. Of course, I was the one to highlight certain European hockey players. Konstantin was one of the players who I pushed up in our rankings.
So you then arrived in North America and described him to the management, who haven’t seen him?
A. Dementiev: No, they have seen him, during the regular season in Russia, and then again at the U18 world junior championships in Yaroslavl. At the championships there were six of us – scouts from the Predators. In addition to watching the player, we get the information from friends, coaches, and others, which gives us a better, overall picture of the player and where to rank him in the draft. What, for example, the player will be like, not today, but in two or three, five years, when he is supposed to be playing in the NHL.
Can you please describe how the process happened: the 34th pick is announced, what happened at your table?
A. Dementiev: We already knew that we were going to pick him.
What if you had the 34th pick?
A. Dementiev: It would still be him, as he was at the top of our list from the available players. If he was selected one or two spots before our selection, we would have moved on to the next player on our list.
Why didn’t you interview him, if he was so high on your list?
A. Dementiev: We did interview him in Toronto, and I also had plenty of information about him prior to the draft.
- Eugene Belashchenko (RussianpProspe