George Richards, FHN Publisher
On Nov. 19, 2018, the Florida Panthers sent Maxim Mamin to their AHL team in Springfield after the forward had played just four minutes in a loss to the New York Rangers.
A few days later, the team announced that it was loaning Mamin to CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
Mamin had spent the 2017-18 season moving between Springfield and the Panthers.
The lure of playing in the KHL as opposed to bouncing back and forth again proved too strong to ignore.
Mamin had a European assignment clause in his contract allowing him to move on if the Panthers tried sending him to the minors.
The Panthers knew this would be an option for Mamin, but they thought he would go to Springfield anyway.
Well, he did not.
The start of the 2018-19 season was tough on the Panthers and on Mamin as well. He had played in only seven of the team’s first 17 games and did not record a point.
Fast forward to this past July and Mamin was back with the Panthers.
After spending the past three seasons playing in the KHL — and scoring the game-winning goal in CSKA’s Gagarin Cup win over Avangard Omsk a few months after leaving the Panthers — he says he is ready to get his NHL career back on track.
Leaving for the KHL, he says, was nothing personal.
“When I left to go back to the K, all three years, I was thinking about how to get back here,” said Mamin, who scored 15 goals for CSKA last season.
“I knew I had to work to get back. It was three years, I played on a championship team, I got better. I worked at getting better. I have more confidence now, and the time playing there helped me play at the NHL level.”
A number of young players have left to get more playing time overseas and develop their game a little more with the hope of returning.
The Panthers have seen that on a couple of occasions from Evgenii Dadonov returning from the KHL in 2017 to Juho Lammikko coming back from Finland last year.
“I can’t really speak to his experience here the last time,” Florida GM Bill Zito said when the Panthers re-signed Mamin at the start of free agency.
“We had kept our eyes on him this years. Jari Kekalainen and Petri Skriko had sent back glowing reports and we kept in touch with his agent Danny Milstein. He was very excited to give it a try.
“We have been very blessed to have a lot of players with versatility who can play up-and-down the lineup and on either size. Max gives us size, skating, a little bit of scoring. We think he could be a guy who fits right in.”
Mamin, 26, is trying to crack what will be a very tight Panthers’ roster.
He is off to a pretty good start, scoring two goals in Florida’s first scrimmage of training camp.
You want the team’s attention, well, that will do it.
“He had one of those days that really helped himself. You noticed him,’’ coach Joel Quenneville said. “He’s got the NHL attributes that you’re looking for in a big winger. He can skate and move and shoot the puck. …
“He has the assets that you’re looking for to be that type of guy. This is a good opportunity for him to show he can play here and grab a spot. It’s not going to be easy for anybody. We talked about being six lines deep, but there are always some surprises, not that he’s surprising us, but there will be some developments as we go.”
Mamin knows the Panthers are in a much different spot than when he left. He, too, is in a different place.
Again, this is a very tough team to make.
So far in camp, Mamin has been playing on a line with Aleksi Heponiemi and Zac Dalpe, two players who are expected to start their seasons with AHL Charlotte.
“There are a lot of different faces,” Mamin said. “There are only a couple players left from when I was here. But everyone has been nice to me and everyone here wants to win. This is a great team, going in the right direction. We’re getting better and better. I am really excited to get started.”