When an NHL player does an interview, many might take for granted that the player isn’t a native English speaker because they are often so well-versed in a language that is not their first.
But like their hockey pursuits, most of them have worked very hard to get to the point of being comfortable in front of a camera or speaking to reporters.
Being away from the comfort of home and family and friends can be tough on anyone. For European hockey players, making the decision to come to North America to pursue their dream of playing in the NHL is a major step. Many players pursuing that dream realize having a solid grasp of the English language is vital to getting by both on and off the ice.
In the NHL, for consistency, English is what is spoken in locker rooms, meetings and mostly on the ice. Learning English is a must.
Different countries stress English learning at different levels. Many Swedes, for example, speak near perfect and often unaccented English due to heavy focus on the language in Swedish schools beginning at a young age. Players from some other countries might only know a few words or phrases of English from their schooling.
Predators goaltender Kevin Lankinen is kind of a hybrid.
“Born in Finland, I actually went to a Swedish-speaking school because I speak Swedish with my mom,” he says. “In Finland, we start learning English in third or fourth grade. That’s kind of how it all started.”
Nashville forward Egor Afanasyev made the decision to come to North America from Russia in his mid-teens, which is atypical for Russian players.
“I was learning a little bit of English in school in Russia… I thought I was learning,” he says. “Actually, when I came over, I figured out that I didn’t know anything. I knew, ‘Hello and how are you?’ and ‘my name is Egor.’’”
When playing in Detroit as part of the Little Caesars program in Detroit, Afanasyev says the first few months in an English-speaking school were difficult for him, but he picked it up slowly but steadily.
Afanasyev also prioritized learning terms that no one can take for granted.
“Ordering food, you need to survive,” he says with a laugh.
Afanasyev also noted former longtime NHLer Brian Rolston was a coach of his with Little Caesars and credits him with helping him learn English and “hockey English,” which can be a separate language all to itself.
One aspect of hockey English that non-native English speakers need to learn is the rampant use of profanity in the locker room and on the bench, and how that is acceptable there but not something to incorporate into their interviews.
Denis Gurianov was a first-round pick of the Dallas Stars in 2015. When he came to North America in 2016, he didn’t have a solid grasp of English but worked diligently to change that.
“When I came to Dallas, I started to do lessons online with a teacher in Dallas,” Gurianov. “When I played in the AHL, I had lessons with a teacher three or four times a week.”
Gurianov noted there were not any other Russians on the Stars or with their AHL affiliate when he got there, so that helped him learn English more quickly due to not having anyone else there with whom he could speak Russian.
In Nashville, Gurianov has fellow Russians Afanasyev and Yakov Trenin on the Predators.
“It’s nice if somebody talks your language,” he says. “It’s nice to have Russians on the team.”
The Predators have always worked with their young players, especially in the team’s annual development camp for newly drafted players, to get them comfortable answering questions in English. Doing interviews, even in one’s first language, can be intimidating, so doing it in a second or third language is an even bigger challenge.
“Even in Russia, at first, when I was growing up and interviews started, it was really hard to speak to the camera or to the guy holding the mic,” Afanasyev says.
The players are proud of how far they have come in their interviews though, even in just a few short years.
“Still, I look back at some of my old interviews and laugh a little bit,” Lankinen, who has been playing in North America since 2019, says.