For Egor Barabanov, adapting has become second nature.<\/p>\n
The newest Flames prospect has spent much of his hockey career learning how to settle into unfamiliar places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leaving Russia as a teenager to chase his hockey dream in North America, changing teams through junior hockey, and now preparing for NCAA\u00a0hockey at the University of Massachusetts have all demanded the same thing: the ability to embrace change.<\/p>\n
That comfort has been on display throughout his first Flames Development Camp.<\/p>\n
“It’s my first development camp, so I’m having a lot of fun,” Barabanov said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old arrived in Calgary fresh off a strong season with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit, recording 91 points in 68 games. The offensive production has only reinforced the confidence he already carried into the summer.<\/p>\n
“I think I had confidence before the year, but yeah, I had a good year, so I had confidence coming into development camp,” he explained at the last day of camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before he became one of the OHL’s most productive forwards, Barabanov was learning how to navigate life far from home.<\/p>\n
Barabanov left home to pursue hockey, making the move to North America at 16 to continue chasing the highest levels of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While many prospects experience their first taste of independence at development camp, living away from home has become familiar territory.<\/p>\n
“I’ve lived at different spots playing junior the last three years and youth hockey before that,” Barabanov said. “It’s come easy for me to acclimate to new spots.”<\/p>\n
But that doesn’t mean home feels any farther away.<\/p>\n
“I obviously miss my parents, I miss my family, and I call them almost every day,” he shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“But I feel fine living on my own. I’m used to it now.”<\/p>\n
Those daily conversations rarely revolve around hockey.<\/p>\n
“We just talk about how my day goes, how their day goes, just regular things.”<\/p>\n
Now, another chapter awaits.<\/p>\n
This fall, Barabanov will head to UMass, where he’ll reunite with fellow Flames prospects Max Curran and Tobias Trejbal after getting an early opportunity to build those relationships in Calgary.<\/p>\n
“It’s nice that I’m going to be with them after this as well,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s nice to meet them before I actually come in there. I’m excited for the year with them.”<\/p>\n
His goals are straightforward looking ahead into the season with the Minutemen.<\/p>\n
“My biggest goal is just to develop myself as a player and get better.<\/p>\n
“I need to get bigger off the ice, get stronger in the gym, and then translate it onto the ice.”<\/p>\n
But perhaps Barabanov’s biggest impact at development camp has come away from the scoresheet, when people aren\u2019t looking.<\/p>\n
For prospects arriving in North America for the first time, development extends far beyond skating and shooting. New systems, new teammates and, often, a new language all become part of the learning curve.<\/p>\n
Barabanov understands those challenges because he lived them himself.<\/p>\n
Now, he’s helping another prospect navigate them.<\/p>\n
Czechia-born forward Simon Katolicky, who is attending his own first development camp, admits understanding English has been one of the biggest adjustments.<\/p>\n
“My biggest problem when I came here was understanding English,” Katolicky explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When the coaches were speaking, there were some words I didn’t really understand, so I needed to ask one more time.”<\/p>\n
Barabanov has become an important resource.<\/p>\n
“In this camp I’m talking with Egor Barabanov,” Katolicky said. “He’s from Russia. He played here for like seven years, so he speaks English fluently and he translates for me also.”<\/p>\n
The two were also roommates during camp, with Katolicky saying they’ve developed chemistry both on and off the ice.<\/p>\n
“Probably him,” Katolicky said when asked who he’s connected with most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked about his translation skills,\u00a0Barabanov was modest.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to translate,” he said, chuckling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I try to translate a couple of things when I can, but we still speak different languages.”<\/p>\n
Having once stood in the same position himself, he knows how much the smallest gestures can matter.<\/p>\n
“We come from different cultures, but we still talk about things we do at home in the summer and stuff like that. It’s fun.”<\/p>\n
Asked if his own experience has helped him understand what Katolicky is going through, the answer came quickly.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, for sure, I try to help him with what I can help him with.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Egor Barabanov, adapting has become second nature. The newest Flames prospect has spent much of his hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-795276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}