Montreal Canadiens: Nikita Scherbak and the Overseas Castoffs

It’s not very often I find myself doing a follow-up piece on a player I’ve already discussed. It’s even less often, I find myself taking about a former Montreal Canadiens player whom I’ve already discussed.

In some of my past work, I’ve looked at cases like Erik Karlsson’s albatross of a contract, which has left him and a continually crumbling San Jose Sharks organization at odds with one another. At $11.5 million AAV for the next six years, Karlsson is the highest paid defenseman in the NHL, yet has been continually held back by reduced foot speed, which much of his game was built around. However, in cases like that, it makes sense as to why Karlsson finds himself under the microscope time and time again, much of it due to his buyout-repellant like cap hit.

Yet, as if often the case with my work, I find myself reverting back to the more obscure side of NHL free agency, more specifically the remnants of it that drift around in the leadup to training camp, either seeing a rare PTO or signing elsewhere. Nikita Scherbak is one such player, and it’s a player he’s routinely been for the past few seasons. Last off-season, I wrote a piece detailing Scherbak’s uncertain future as he drifted amongst the castoffs waiting for that oft-elusive phone call. While unsigned at the time, Scherbak ultimately found himself with a one-year, AHL deal with the Dallas Stars affiliate, the Texas Stars.

In spite of producing solid 5-10-15 totals over 28 games, Scherbak was overshadowed by a depth-filled Stars roster who ultimately couldn’t find their consistency behind some less than stellar goaltending. Even with a somewhat solid return to form under his belt, however, Scherbak once again found himself with no takers heading into 2021-22, expect one. Slovakian team HC Banska Bystrica.  Beginning play in 1993-94, the Slovakian Extraliga is most notable for being the final stop for a number of NHL castoffs, most notably, former 1999 fourth overall pick Pavel Brendl.

Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly where most Montreal Canadiens fans envisioned Scherbak being, when Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin called his name with the 26th overall pick, of the 2014 NHL Draft. A Moscow native, Scherbak had established himself as a reliable and talented offensive option in his two seasons in the WHL, with the Saskatoon Blades and Everett Silvertips. Producing back-to-back seasons with 78+ points, Scherbak was seen as a talented playmaker with soft hands, a wicked release, and deft passing abilities.

With Montreal having come off an immensely successful 2013-14 season that saw them fall two games shy of the Stanley Cup Final, Scherbak was seen as a risk, but one whom the Canadiens could take considering their promising future, and Scherbak’s high upside. However, just as quickly as Scherbak was thrust into the NHL limelight, so too would he inevitably disappear. As the Canadiens juggled an unexpected downslide as franchise option Carey Price dealt with injury troubles, Scherbak similarly struggled to adapt to the professional game.

After signing in the Slovakian Extraliga for the 2021-22 season, former Montreal Canadiens first-rounder Nikita Scherbak’s NHL days seem to be over.

After posting average totals of 26 and 41 points in 2015-16 and 2016-17 (earning a cup of coffee with Montreal in the process) the 6’01 winger caught on fire in 2017-18 as the Rocket ran a potent offense to some promising results, with Scherbak playing alongside AHL-all stars in Peter Holland, Daniel Carr, Adam Cracknell, Matt Taormina and Chris Terry. While early returns were great, with Scherbak posting red-hot 7-23-30 totals over his first 26 games, the stint would be short-lived as the Canadiens went through a horrendous start to the season.

In desperate need of some spark, Montreal opted to give Scherbak a legitimate shot, and he showed some flashes of promise, with 4-2-6 totals over 26 games. However, as fate would have it, this would be the closest Scherbak would come to a full-time role in the NHL. By 2018-19, the Canadiens host of new additions like Tomas Tatar and Max Domi, left no room for Scherbak, and he was sent to the waiver wire, ultimately being claimed by the Los Angeles Kings. After failing to produce much of anything in LA, in spite of increased ice time, Scherbak was sent to the Ontario Reign, and that’s the last NHL fans have seen of this once promising prospect.

Along with a disastrous stint in the KHL in 2019-20, Scherbak finds himself amongst the lower levels of overseas hockey, in a league filled with home-grown talent and little else. Considering the life he once led in Montreal, and the promise he seemed capable of fulfilling, Scherbak’s pro days appear to be over beyond a career fittingly in the remnants of overseas hockey. While it was once seen as a talented league in the same vein as the SM-Liiga, the Extraliga is now more similar to leagues in Austria and the Czech Republic, where many ECHLers and or career AHLers take their services, with solid pay and a fresh environment.

For Scherbak, this is just the thing he’s been needing since leaving Montreal, but unfortunately, the former junior star has carried quite a bit more promise and hype than any Andrew Yogan, David Vallorani or David Pacan that make up the North American side of these overseas leagues. Could Scherbak find his form once more and post league-MVP esque numbers amongst some lower competition? Definitely, but just as happened in both the 2004-05 and 2012-13 lockouts, leagues like these should come easy for more proven NHL players, so that point is in essence, moot.

Will Scherbak ever see NHL ice again? No, no, and once again, no. While I’m all for second chances and like to have at least some faith in a players NHL future, Scherbak’s chance is long gone, and I think it’s more likely that Alex Galchenyuk will win the Art Ross this upcoming season, than Scherbak ever sees NHL ice again.

With the 2021-22 season set to get underway in less than a month, the Montreal Canadiens will look to build on a promising 2021 Stanley Cup Finals run and build for the future alongside some of their top prospects. Yet, just as the Cole Caufield’s and Nick Suzuki’s of the hockey world continue to show promise for their NHL futures, the Nikita Scherbak’s of the past find themselves continually stuck, drifting amongst the remnants of this ever-winding, professional hockey landscape.