TAMPA — Ask around the Lightning dressing room about rookie defenseman Mikhail Sergachev and a few buzzwords continue to pop up about the 19-year-old Russian.
Bold. Poised. Skilled. Confident. Mature.
Those attributes are easily spotted on the ice, where Sergachev has blossomed into a top-four defenseman on the league’s top team. The five winning goals and 23 points are more than anyone expected when Sergachev was acquired in the June Jonathan Drouin blockbuster trade with the Canadiens, who visit Amalie Arena on Thursday.
But what’s just as striking is how Sergachev, three years removed from a life-changing move to North America, has also found a comfort zone off the ice.