At the San Jose Sharks training camp ahead of the NHL season, one guy really stands out – at least in terms of height. 18-year-old Moldovan defenseman Alexander Karmanov, picked by the California team in the seventh round of this year\u2019s draft, would tower over most basketball players at 216 centimetres, and his new teammates are in awe. “I\u2019m pretty tall myself, but next to him I feel quite short,” said experienced forward Alexander Wennberg.<\/p>\n
Wennberg<\/a>, who has spent two seasons with San Jose<\/a> and is one of the most experienced players on the team, is about 185 centimetres tall, which is slightly above average for a hockey player. But Karmanov<\/a> would easily look down on Zdeno Chara<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Slovak legend, along with Matthew Rempe<\/a> from the NY Rangers and Viktor Svedberg<\/a>, who played for Chicago a decade ago, all stand at 206 centimetres. No one in NHL history has been taller. However, the Chisinau native has another 10 centimetres on them.<\/p>\n “He has an incredible reach; it\u2019s impressive. It\u2019s really tough to get around him. I\u2019ve only seen him in a few practices so far, but I\u2019m curious to see what else he can do,”\u00a0Wennberg told The Athletic during training camp.<\/p>\n “He\u2019s so much bigger than everyone else,” added star forward Macklin Celebrini<\/a>.<\/p>\n Karmanov was drawing attention even before the draft, which doesn\u2019t happen often for players not projected to go high. He\u2019s already played two full seasons overseas, finishing the last one in junior OHL with North Bay, where, as a defenseman, he recorded two assists and 29 penalty minutes in twenty games.<\/p>\n That number of penalty minutes means Karmanov also drops the gloves. With his height, that\u2019s almost inevitable. But a lot of enforcers, who usually skate around the ice fearlessly, will probably try to avoid him.<\/p>\n Not afraid to drop the gloves<\/p>\n