Russian San Jose forward Daniil Gushchin knows exactly when to shoot: in two NHL pre-season games, he scored 5 points, scoring 4 goals. Three of them are in one meeting. It will be difficult not to include such a hockey player in the main team for the season. Despite the fact that little is known about Gushchin in Russia.

Exhibition matches are a way to get into the game rhythm for the iron core players and show themselves to newcomers who dream of getting into the NHL. 20-year-old Daniil Gushchin seems to have made a strong bid to get into the San Jose team. The forward simply vomits and flies: in the match with Anaheim, he scored the puck and made a pass, and in the game against Vegas, Gushchin scored a hat-trick. Given the crisis in which the “sharks” are, it is impossible to unhook such an inspired hockey player from the base!

But who is Daniil Gushchin anyway? The hockey player comes from Yekaterinburg, where his father played bandy. When it came time to give little Daniil to sports, he chose regular hockey. From childhood, the boy fell in love with playing sports and dreamed of becoming a striker, because he really liked to throw pucks. When he was 12 years old, the family moved to Moscow: Daniil continued to play hockey, first at Dynamo, and then at CSKA. But in the youth leagues of Russia, he played a total of less than 50 matches: at the age of 16, an agent contacted Gushchin and suggested that he leave to play overseas.

In the 2020 draft, the striker, who managed to win the silver of the 2019 World Championship with the Russian junior team, was selected under the overall 76th number of San Jose. From not the highest position, it may seem that the “sharks” did not rely on the Russian. But in fact, for his sake, the team held an exchange of picks during the draft. General manager Doug Wilson explained that Gushchin was one of the 3-4 players that San Jose was ready to rush into battle for if they were not sorted to a certain number.

Experts note the highest speed and psychology of a true sniper and even gave Gushchin a possible place in the first round of the draft. However, at that time, Daniel was still let down by his dimensions – his height was only 173 centimeters. In the NHL, such players are wary. The forward himself was not upset by the rather high number: “Datsyuk was chosen in the seventh round, and what kind of hockey did he show in the NHL,” the Russian said then. “No one will forget him—a wizard.”

In San Jose, they were not afraid to bet on the Russian. The following summer, he was signed for three years.

Photo: © KHL / Yury Kuzmin

Guschin managed to earn his first contract in the NHL with a shock game in the USHL for Muskegon. This is far from the strongest team in the league, so Gushchin did not make much effort to stand out from his partners and be the absolute leader in goals, as well as in terms of plus or minus. In the 2020/21 season, he proved his love of breaking open the opponent’s goal, finishing second in the list of the best scorers with 32 goals in 64 games. One of the most beautiful pucks of the season was his lacrosse goal from behind the net against the U.S. Junior Team.

The USHL, in which Gushchin has played since 2018, he quickly outgrew. In the 2020/21 season at the age of 18, he was supposed to make his OHL debut for Niagara, but the transition did not take place due to the coronavirus. In the Ice Dogs, Gushchin ended up the following year, although before the start of the season he almost made a sensation and did not make it to the San Jose base. The forward was already very good during the training camp, having implemented a foppish bullet in one of the bilateral matches: approaching the goal, he threw the puck between his legs in an attempt to deceive the goalkeeper, but managed to return it to the hook and drive it into the goal. These are the tricks that hockey players remember!

Photo: © KHL / Yury Kuzmin

The shootout turned out to be masterful, but as a result, the debut in the NHL was postponed for at least another year, which Gushchin spent not in vain: in the OHL he scored 71 points in 51 matches and managed to try his hand at the San Jose farm club in the AHL, reaching ice in just three encounters.

Last summer, he returned to the Sharks to try his hand at the first team. Gushchin, apparently, did not reconcile with last year’s dropout, so he decided to be remembered this time as it should: and uncovered his cannon in two exhibition matches in a row, inflicting the most shots on the opponent’s goal. Assistant coach Scott Gordon said that Gushchin looks comfortable on the ice, which is not typical for beginners. Such confidence and playful audacity are loved in the NHL: given the fact that San Jose is not in the best shape now and has obvious problems in attack, coupled with an overflowing payroll, it would be a good idea to revive the squad with a motivated newcomer with a small contract. Gushchin can at least qualify for participation in the European tour of the “sharks”, which starts in 2 days.

Speaking of his main shortcoming in the draft: two years later, Gushchin’s height in all profiles is already 178 centimeters – you can’t call him tall, but some NHL club definitely regrets that he didn’t get ahead of San Jose then.