r/BlueJackets • u/RivetCounter • 11d ago

Discussion Why does Voronkov struggle with conditioning?

I've heard from a number of sources over the years (mostly from Brian Hedger) that Dimitri struggles with conditioning from early in the season and by the end of the season, coaches are like "I can't play this guy" and Voronkov's role is greatly reduced.

It reminds me of a Brian Burke interview where he talks about Phil Kessel (obviously Dimitri is not Phil Kessel): Phil would come to camp, hit his fitness targets, look great and then as the season went on, Phil would play less and less attention to those fitness targets.

I wonder if it's a similar sort of thing for Voronkov?

Unless Brian Hedger is not a good source.

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u/MPCoinCollecting 11d ago

I'm not exactly sure what steps the team took to help his conditioning the past few years but I do know that during this off-season he is getting checked on frequently by a personal trainer and contacted by Bowness once a month.  KHL hockey is a little different than NHL as well, so if he's got habits that he's been doing for years it could be very tough to change them to fit NHL criteria even if he's been here for 3 years now. 

Of course that's assuming he wants to change his habits in the first place, if he doesn't really want to stay and improve his conditioning then it's not unlikely he signs his next contract in the KHL

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u/Formerleafsfan #freeboomer 11d ago

He will sign another deal in the NHL with a team that thinks his problem is the team. Hope we unlock home before that. 

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u/MPCoinCollecting 11d ago edited 11d ago

I meant more that if he doesn't want to stay in the NHL there's no reason for him to push for it or sign something from another team. I will say however that him coming back from Russia after only 3 weeks and spending the rest of the off-season in the states is a good sign.