It was a hard day for the Vancouver Canucks back in 2017 when the hulking Nikita Tryamkin turned down a two-year contract extension and bolted back to Russia to join the Yekaterinburg Automobilist of the KHL. According to CBC News, the six-foot-seven defender had other plans.
Tryamkin was high on Benning’s list to ink an extension, but the blueliner wasn’t happy with his overall ice time on the west coast and he sure wasn’t willing to be sent down to Utica for conditioning. He had this to say in an interview that was translated by Google.